Functional Equivalence At The Text Level And Translation Of Narrative Discourse

In this thesis, the author attempts to study the translation of novels from the angle of text linguistics combined with the literary theories, with reference to the three Chinese versions of the English novel David Corpperfield, the most famous novel by Dickens.In the first Chapter, text linguistics—a newly-rising discipline is introduced, as well as its influence on the translation studies---the functional equivalence in the textual level. Besides, Hatim's view of discourse translation is brought into a critic survey,with the hypothesis that the translation of discourse is to be viewed in the terms of context, text-type, the text structure and texture.The second part is devoted to the intrinsic traits of the fictional discourse, which determines a specific approach to probe with."Deviance", as one of the most outstanding features of fictional language, lies in the authorial stylistic choices in the level of the narrative discourse, meriting a strenuous preservation in the translating process. From the perspective of text linguistics, another trait is the"texts within text", that is, the fictional discourse, as a macro-text, is a mosaic of micro-texts of different types. Interaction between the two levels is paramount concern of a translator with a textual functional perspective. At last, a brief reflection on the status quo of the fiction's translation and the causes to the"deceptive equivalence"is dealt with.In Chapter three, the author aims at an appliance of the Hatim's frame of text translation into the fictional discourse. A relatively thorough expostulation is made of the three-dimensional context in the fictional discourse, with reference to David's translated versions, in which, the interpretation transfer of the aesthetical effects of the"deviance"is to be explored.The Chapter four mainly touches on the text structure and texture, through the analysis of the translated versions. The text structure, namely the layout of the text, involving the control of the narrative time, arrangement of the plots, is to be probed into with the solid groundwork of the narrative theories. Moreover, cohesion and coherence--- two decisive standards of the texture are criteria to distinguish the text from the nontext. Owing to the different conventions of the two language system, the cohesive devices could be different, and the"illogicality"in the cohesion and coherence, with a purpose to some aesthetical effects, which is tricky for the translator's decision, is also subject to a close scrutiny.