The Application Of Appraisal Theory To The Evaluation-oriented Translation Studies

As a comparatively new discipline, Translation Studies needs to draw on the findings of other related disciplines to form and improve its own theoretic construction. In the 1990s, text analysis came to prominence in translation studies. As one of the principal models to text analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has already been applied to translation studies with inspiring and profitable findings being gained. In SFL, Halliday emphasizes the functional aspects of language and divides it into three meta-functions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Evaluation, as an important part of interpersonal meaning, has not been studied in a systematic and comprehensive way for most of attention has been directed to the study of Mood and Modality systems. The deficiency of evaluation study in text analysis has also been shown in the translation studies.Appraisal theory, mainly proposed and developed by J. R. Martin and P. R. R. White in the late 1990s, is an extension of the study of interpersonal meaning under the framework of SFL. Appraisal theory is especially concerned with evaluation and it aims to establish a set of systems to cover all evaluative usages in texts. Up until now. Appraisal theory has been applied into text analyses of many different genres and types, such as mass media texts, pedagogical texts, academic text and so on. However, there are few researches which endeavor to bring Appraisal theory into translation studies. As a central part of meaning in any text, evaluation is an indispensable part in text analysis. Therefore the present thesis makes an attempt to introduce Appraisal theory into translation studies in terms of the translation of evaluation. Theoretical demonstration and a case study are conducted with a hope to verify the importance and feasibility as well as to reveal the implications of applying Appraisal theory into translation studies.Based on the introduction to the framework of Appraisal theory and the analysis of Chinese and English languages, theoretical demonstration has been carried out on the possibility of expanding Appraisal theory to the cross-lingual and cross-cultural analysis and construction of evaluation in Chinese-English translation. The present thesis further conducts a case study to prove and strengthen the theoretical proposition with Lu Xun's short story Ah Q Zheng Zhuan and its three translated versions as the sources of data. Through the case study, it is found that evaluative resources pervade in both source text (ST) and target texts (TT) and they are realized through various linguistic forms at different levels, with the lexical realizations taking a dominant proportion. The study also indicates that different translations of evaluative resources may result in different rendering of evaluative meanings and they may exert different influences on the communicative function and rhetorical effect in TTs. Several reasons have also been sourced which may account for the adjustment and different translations of evaluative meanings in TTs.The present thesis demonstrates the feasibility and validity of applying Appraisal theory into translation studies with respect to the translation of evaluation. Appraisal theory has been proved as a systematic and effective tool for the cross-lingual and cross-cultural analysis and construction of evaluation in Chinese-English translation. Moreover, the application of Appraisal theory into translation studies is of great significance not only to the theoretical development of translation studies and translation practice, but also to the development of Appraisal theory.