Realisation, Instantiation And Individuation As Three Dimensions Of Translation

Systemic functional(SF henceforth) approach to translation in most studies has centred on the hierarchy of realisation, modeling it against the parameter of translation equivalence and translation shift(Matthiessen, 2001). In order to break through such limitation and investigate deeper into English translations of Daodejing, we in this thesis propose a three dimensional model of translation on the basis of Martin’s(2006, 2007, 2008 a, 2008 b, 2009, 2010) three complementary hierarchies, i.e., realisation, instantiation and individuation and Souza’s(2010, 2013) model of interlingual re-instantiation in systemic functional linguistics(SFL henceforth).SFL is a language theory with multiple hierarchical and complementary relations, where realisation, instantiation and individuation are theoretical resources for exploring language patterns(Martin & Wang, 2008). Realisation is a scale of abstraction, abstracting language systems into different strata, where lower stratum realises higher ones(or higher stratum is realised by or construes lower ones). Instantiation is a scale of generalisation, referring to relations between meaning potentials of language or any other semiotic systems and specific meaning when language is actually used. Individuation is the relationship between the reservoir of meanings in a culture and the repertoire a given individual can mobilise. Each hierarchy provides specific advantages for discourse analysis: realisation is more appropriate for exploring the systemic relations between texts, i.e., how similar or different they are in terms of the systemic options realised; instantiation is more suitable to be used for intertextual relations between texts, i.e., how one text is sourced from another; individuation fits better to examine ideological relations between texts, i.e., what interests individuals have and how they seek alignment with potential addressees(Martin, 2006: 295).Within translation studies(TS), different stages along with the development of western translation theory resonate with three hierarchies in SFL respectively. There is a shift of focus in TS from “how to translate”, i.e., issues related to translation behavior at the specific empirical level, to “what to translate”, i.e., linguistic turn and cultural turn, and to “who to translate”, i.e., translator’s turn, experiencing a change from a “text-oriented” to a “translator-oriented” approach. TS before 1950 s focused more on the hierarchy of instantiation, later it paid more attention to the hierarchy of realisation, and recent TS concentrates more on the hierarchy of individuation. This route of development resembles that of SFL.Translation is the negotiation of meaning between language users(i.e., writer, translator and reader) via specific language use(i.e., source text(ST henceforth) and target text(TT henceforth)) of two language systems(i.e., source language(SL henceforth) and target language(TL henceforth))(Souza, 2010, 2013). Therefore, a trinocular approach to TS with SFL can provide a more comprehensive discursive picture of translation phenomena. Among the three hierarchies, instantiation hierarchy is used to model the translation process(Yang, 2015) because diversified TTs share the same meaning potential with the ST, and thus the process of translation can be viewed as interlingual re-instantiation. Meanwhile, TS can be captured through comparisons between the SL and TL systems and through examinations of translation participants: the SL writer, the translator and the TL reader. The other two dimensions, realisation at the linguistic level and individuation at participants’ level are significant compositions of the three dimensional model.Along the instantiation hierarchy, individual “reading” should be considered based on Martin’s(2007, 2008 a, 2008 b, 2009) theory of instantiation, and the concept of “distantiation” should be adopted, moving upwards the cline to recover meaning potential. The concepts of “coupling” and “commitment” are also used to explore the interlingual intertextual relations(quoting, paraphrasing and retelling). For the purpose of identifying reading positions(either compliant, or resistant, or tactical), and finally pining down the corresponding TT types, the identification of semantic relations are necessary.The hierarchy of realisation is used to set criteria for justifying the quality of translation. Five sub-dimensions are considered in realisation, namely stratification, metafunction, rank, axis relations and delicacy(Matthiessen, 2001). Criteria of a better translation at each sub-dimension is proposed, for example, equivalence at a higher level stratum values highly than that at a lower level, and paradigmatic equivalence is valued higher than syntagmatic equivalence etc.The hierarchy of individuation considers translator’s personalised language systems, i.e., his/her repertoires. The meaning potential mobilised by the translator(i.e., his/her repertoires) is assumed to be traceable by means of choices made in the TT. Such choices are viewed as points of convergence between two systems that are found/forged by the translator according to his/her repertoires. The translator is both the SL reader and the TL writer. In the translation process, on the one hand, the translator must align with the SL writer to establish a community in the SL and on the other hand, he/she must also align with the TL reader to form a community in the TL. Such an affiliation process is core to the individuation hierarchy. The translator’s own individuality is also vital to TS, for his/her age, gender, religion, nationality and capacity(such as language proficiency) will most probably impact on the TT produced.For the purpose of exploring the applicability of the three dimensional translation model, we mainly features various English translations of the Chinese classics Daodejing. Specific methods: 96 English versions of Daodejing are selected to establish a small corpus, then corpus retrieval tools and analysis softwares such as TreeTagger 2.0, Ant Conc 3.2.4 and SPSS 16.0 are applied, and quantitative method is used to explore the characteristics of this translation corpus regarding three dimensions, i.e., instantiation, realisation and individuation.The results show: instantiationally, English versions produced within the three peaks of Daodejing translation generally resonate with the three different TT types, i.e., the first peak resonates with the resistant TT; the second peak resonates with the compliant TT; the third peak might resonates with the tactical TT. Realisationally, sub-dimensions are illustrated by specific examples in the corpus, including stratification, metafunction, rank, axis relations and delicacy, to examine the criteria of a better translation. The degree of equivalence for the translation of the core terminology “Dao” is examined, showing a gradual increasing with the progression of three peaks. Individuationally, compared with translations in the first and second peaks, those in the third peak show more individuality in aspects like the translator’s age, gender, religion, nationality and language proficiency. And apart from that, the individuality increases with the progression of the three translation peaks.This thesis consists of seven chapters: Chapter One is introduction, introducing research background, hypotheses and methods. Chapter Two is literature review, reviewing the literature related to SFL and TS, and Daodejing English translations. Chapter Three is theoretical foundation, establishing three dimensional model of translation on the basis of theories in SFL and TS. Chapter Four, Five and Six are core sections, illustrating the three dimensions—instantiation, realisation and individuation—respectively and applying them into the feature analysis of Daodejing English translation corpus. Chapter Seven is conclusion.