A Study On The Translation Of Dialogue In Lao She’s Novel-On Interpersonal Meaning Of Dialogues In Mao Cheng Ji And Its Two English Versions

Known as a “Great Master of Language” and the first one entitled as “People’s Artist” in China, Lao She is a modern novelist and dramatist whose works are renowned all over the world. In Lao She’s works, dialogues of characters play a crucial role.However, scholars mostly emphasize on Lao She’s art of dialogue from a drama perspective, while paying little attention to dialogues in novels. As the only science fiction among Lao She’s novels, Mao Cheng Ji is abundant in the art of dialogue, with dialogues of direct speech between different cat people and “I” accounting for nearly a quarter of the text. In addition, Mao Cheng Ji is adapted into a spoken drama in2012 and has been on stage in many cities afterward. It thus shows the great significance of dialogues in Mao Cheng Ji and the evidence for researching on them.Dialogues are rich in interpersonal meaning. Interpersonal meaning is one of the three basic meanings language carries in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar,whose major realizations are mood and modality. Analyses concentrating on interpersonal meaning of dialogues in a novel will assist to embody characters’ social relations together with their diverse statuses, personalities and attitudes. Nevertheless,no absolute equivalence can be achieved in translation, on top of which, Chinese and English differ greatly in mood and modality. Therefore, with reference to interpersonal meaning in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar, this thesis aims to look into the art of dialogue embedded in Mao Cheng Ji as well as the translation faithfulness in the two English versions from the perspectives of mood and modality.Besides, quantitative method with the aid of Antconc together with qualitative analysis is applied. On the one hand, this thesis will focus on mood choices and modal verbs(core of modality) in dialogues between five kinds of cat people and “I” in Mao Cheng Ji, so as to present the interpersonal meaning constructed in the source text. On the other hand, data support will be a guide for tracking analyses of differences in mood choices and modal verbs, in order to investigate into the differences of two English versions in terms of representing interpersonal meaning of dialogues in the source text.The results show that:(1) Different mood choices and modal verbs in dialogues are of great significance to reveal characters’ social statuses, personalities and attitudes in LaoShe’s novels, especially in Mao Cheng Ji. In terms of mood, for example, imperative mood taking up a larger scale in politicians’ dialogues highlights their prior social status while in soldiers’ dialogues, no imperative mood is utilized. Instead, soldiers employ exclamatives to pour out their suffering and painful life, as the indication of their poor status. In terms of modality, for example, a larger proportion of median value modal verbs of inclination in invaders’ utterances embody their disdain for cat people without national character. Besides, old scholar’s skilful employment of high and low value modal verbs highlights their resilient and cunning characteristic.(2) Both William and James convert some mood choices and make adjustments for modal verbs by using translation strategies like explicitation, weakening and implicitation that have an influence on the representation of interpersonal meaning entailing in dialogues in the source text. Furthermore, William applies amplification and free translation based on his understanding and knowledge of Chinese culture while James pays more attention to the correspondence of syntactic forms in the source text, also leading to the difference between the two English versions in delivering the interpersonal meaning of dialogues in the source text.