A Study Of Constructing Translator Meta-Discourse Awareness From The Perspective Of Inter-Subjectivity

This dissertation is a study of the construction of translator's metadiscourse awareness in text translation from the perspective of intersubjectivity.The study first of all presents a long-existing dispute about the concept of metadiscourse and the vagueness of its Chinese term. By reviewing the theoretical basis and development trend of metadiscourse, the study has pointed out that Relevance Theory, Pragmatics and Speech Act are the concern of this dissertation as they are also the fundamental supporting of text translation. The study has also investigated the philosophical nature of metadiscourse through a diachronical way by extensively evidencing the historical development of subjectivity research in western philosophy. In this respect, it has introduced a rather profound concordance that man's subjectivity is formed through language and it is language which helped to caster the formation of subjectivity and which in turn helped to characterize man's subjectivity. Language promoted the development of man's subjectivity and subjectivity in turn pushed the booming of intersubjectivity.The study also justifies that intersubjectivity is the fundamental feature of metadiscourse. Metadiscourse has the nature of hierarchy. On the stratum level, metadiscourse can be categorized into primary discourse and metadiscourse. Primary discourse concerns topical information, and helps to convey the primary theme information of a discourse. On this level, as it concerns discourse proposition, it helps form man's subjectivity. Yet, the author's attitude of discourse subject, discourse proposition and interpersonal relationship has to be constructed through metadiscourse. It is discourse subject who manipulates and supervises the procedure information of the formation and development of discourse activity. It emphasizes the procedure meaning of a discourse, thus intersubjectivity is formed on this level.The study has highlighted discourse rhetorical interaction, offering a full account of the rhetorical, pragmatic and context functions of metadiscourse. It has pinpointed that intertextuality is a unique characteristic of metadiscourse which made the conversation and interaction between the author, translator and reader possible. The study also stresses that the translator subjectivity through the construction of his metadiscourse awareness is performed under the framework of text linguistics. Metadiscourse is a kind of text strategy of the author. Through those extroverted language mechanics-metadiscourse, readers can clearly signpost text structure and propositional intention of the author. The author's attitude and readers'expectation to the text can be exemplified through those mechanics. In the case of text translation, metadiscourse markers can offer the translator extroverted evidences to reappear the original text strategies, to construct a more relevant, coherent and more unified text.By employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the dissertation presents a contrastive analysis of the orientation function of metadiscourse in constructing the translator's metadiscourse awareness from the perspective of intersubjectivity. It synthesizes statistical and descriptive analysis in the empirical research of The Origin of Species and The Art of War, both in its original version and the translated version. Through the comparative examination of metadiscourse allocations in the two corpuses, the study has showed that metadiscourse markers can help reader/translator identify discourse proposition information and the author's discourse intention. They can also manipulate the relationship between the writer/translator and readers. With the help of these extroverted evident language mechanics, translators may convey the original texts maximally and can successfully achieve harmonious interaction between the writer, readers and themselves.The study finally draws a conclusion that translation is a kind of interaction and conversation between subjects involved. The success of translation depends on the unified participation of all the parties. Only through the mediation and the full participation of all the parties involved in translation activities, can a more objective, shared understanding and recognition between those parties be achieved from the perspective of text translation. Furthermore, the existence of metadiscourse in text translation can serve as a walking signpost for translator in achieving the organization, coherence and unity of a text. Metadiscourse awareness is an important aspect of translators'competence in organization, diction, as well as coherence. It is also a kind of important mechanics to ensure the translator to construct a unified text in style, unification and coherence in the process of text translation. Metadiscourse lays the foundation of text awareness for translator and enables his text awareness objectified and concretized. In text translation, translator's metadiscourse awareness can be established through the identification of intersubjectivity within all the parties involved. Metadiscourse awareness helps the translator achieve a more harmonious interaction between subjects involved and helps infuse new life into the translated version.