On The Translation Of The Characters' Conversation In Novels

This paper tries to make a tentative study on the translation of the characters'conversation in novels, as it is very essential for the target language readers to understand the novel. There is no denying the fact that translation is basically the switch between two languages, so it is necessary to take the advantage of the science of language, that is, linguistic studies. This paper starts from the interpersonal function of Functional Grammar headed by M.A.K. Halliday. The interpersonal function reflects the interactive relationship of the speaker and the listener in certain contexts and also reflects the speakers'social status, identity, personality, education, attitudes, etc. Mood, modality, key, and evaluation are the main realizations of interpersonal function. The use of language depends on the context. Contextual factors are divided into field, tenor, and mode, in which tenor is closely related to the subject of this paper. Based on this frame, the paper makes a tentative study and comes up with a principle of it, namely, the translated conversation should be faithful to the interpersonal meaning that is reflected in the original. Three sub-principles are presented: (1) What the speaker says should coincide with his/her social status and identity; (2) What the speaker says should coincide with his/her personality; (3) What the speaker says should conform to the particular situation and time. The characters'conversation can not be departed from the cultural context. Cultural differences may lead to the loss of interpersonal meaning, which will be discussed in the fifth chapter. This paper holds that the translator should keep the interpersonal meaning as fully as possible, and not mislead the readers to understand the target culture. How to deal with the cultural factors depends on the particular context. The last chapter comes up with a conclusion of the study, that is, in translating the characters'conversation in novels, the interpersonal function can largely instruct the translators to concern the switch of languages from mood, modality, key, evaluation and some other aspects. That will greatly avoid the loss of the interpersonal meaning in translation.