Halliday's Transitivity And Translation

This thesis is a tentative study of Halliday 's transitivity in English and in Chinese with reference to English-Chinese translation. Halliday holds that all cultures reflect some universal meta-functions in the languages and proposes three such meta-functions: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. The thesis attempts to touch upon four issues: a. the importance of semantics b. the relation between semantics and syntax c. different representations of the transitivity in English and in Chinese and d. the principles and methods of translation relevant to the transitivity. Besides the introduction and the conclusion, the thesis consists of five chapters.The introduction first focuses on the nature of translation and language, then goes on to explain the scope and purpose of the thesis.Chapter One starts with transitivity. Traditional grammar holds that transitivity is related only with the word, especially the verb, and that the test of a transitive verb is whether it can match an object. Realizing the inherent difficulties in his opinion, the thesis agrees with Halliday that the function of transitivity is "to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of what goes on around them and inside them". It is a semantic system and the realization form of the ideational function.Chapter Two is about the relation between semantics and syntax, which is not a one-to-one correspondence relation. If syntax is taken as form and semantics as meaning, it is the meaning that determines the form and it is the form that constitutes the meaning.Chapter Three elaborates on the representations of the process with three participants in English: SVOO, SVO, SVOPO, with an analysis of each representation. The verbs that can enter into SVOO are restrained by both phonological and semantic restraints. We classify the verbs into five subtypes according to meaning. The basic patterns ofexperience are encoded in the basic patterns of the language. SVOO is the typical form to depict the reality, or, in Halliday's term, the congruent expression. As for SVO, although it seems that it has only two participant roles at the syntactic level, it is involved in three participant roles at the semantic level. The verb in this representation here is always transformed from a noun, called a denominal verb. We also analyze the condition and effect of such a usage. SVOPO, in most cases, can be exchanged with SVOO. But just like there are no two genuine synonymies, the two representations differ in their own emphasis. SVO and SVOPO are the metaphorical forms, compared with the congruent form.Chapter Four expounds the three representations of the process with three participants in Chinese. It appears that the representations in Chinese are almost the same as those in English. But on a closer look, we find many differences between the two, especially when translation is involved. In this chapter, we first have an overview on the studies of SVOO construction and then make a thorough comparison with SVOO in English. After that, we expound the five sentence patterns involved in the lexical item "ç»™", a preposition as well as a verb. Finally, we try to argue that word order in Chinese plays an important role in distinguishing the participant role, that is, Beneficiary as Client or as Recipient.Chapter Five explores the principles and methods of translation on the prerequisite that the two crucial steps in translation are comprehension and expression. We put forward the translation principle of translating meaning. Meaning, here, doesn't refer to traditional notions of sentence meaning, but rather a more specific meaning in the proposition and the sentence (or clause).The last part is the conclusion, which restates that when translating we break down the clause into its semantic representation and the experience described by it, then use that as the basis for the building of the alternative clause in another language, instead oftranslating a clause in language A into a clause in language B directly.