Binding Factors On The Translation Of Quoting Verbs In Hallidayan Mode

Modern linguistics has contributed a lot to the development of translation theory. As a significant contribution to language studies, M.A.K. Halliday has developed a theoretical approach known as "Systemic-Functional Linguistics", incorporating a comprehensive model of grammar which has been established as a new grammatical system, thus providing a different perspective on modern grammar. However, Halliday's "Systemic-Functional Linguistics" has gone farther than that and has been being applied to Chinese-English translation, as well, a new trend obvious to all those who has been striving to enrich theories in the domain of translation nowadays.As for the models centering on translation and translating, some traditional ones are linguistic-oriented, which draw more attention to the linguistic level of translation; some normal ones focus on the psychological elements of the act of translation; some stress on the evaluation of translation by testing different responses of source language (SL) and target language (TL) readers; and still some others give more attention to the relationship between the original texts and the products in the receiving language.Halliday's grammar is semantic (concerned with meaning) and functional (concerned with how the language is used). For Halliday, language is a "system of meanings". That is to say, when people use language, their language acts are the expression of meaning. From this point of view the grammar becomes a study of how meanings are built up through the use of words and other linguistic forms. For Halliday, the only approach to the construction of grammar that is likely to be successful will be one that recognizes meaning and use as central features of language and tackles the grammar from this point of view.According to Halliday, there is a wide rage of different logico-semantic relations any of which may hold between a primary and a secondary member of general types, while projection (in which the secondary clause is projected through the primary clause) is one of the fundamental relationships to be based on. The simplest form of projection is "direct" (quoted) speech:the projecting clause is a verbal process, one of saying, and the projected clause represents that which is said. However, verbs which can be used in quoting clauses are quite flexible due to their various semantic functions in speech. Thus, in the process of translation, especially in Chinese-English translation, the choice of an appropriate quoting verb contributes a lot to an effective and efficient translation in, for instance, fictional narrative, where quoting verbs are frequently employed in speech between characters. In this thesis, the author intends to apply Halliday's Projection System to fictional narrative translation in Chinese literary works, in the hope of discovering some of the factors which govern the choice of quoting verbs in speech.In his book An Introduction to Functional Grammar, M.A.K Halliday proposes looking at the clause from the view of its experiential function, its guise as a way of representing patterns of experience. There are six kinds of processes:material process, mental process, relational process, verbal process, existential process, and behavioral process. Among them, verb process is directly relevant to this thesis. Verb process, to put it simply, is a process of saying, with say as the general member of this class. However, apart for say, verb process can also be achieved by many other verbs, among which are verbs specific to statements (tell, remark, report, etc.); verbs specific to questions (ask, demand, inquire, query, etc); verbs combining "say" with some circumstantial element (explain/say in explanation, protest/say in reservation, etc.); verbs having connotations of various kinds (complain/say irritably, stammer/say with embarrassment, etc.). Thus, a lot of factors should be taken into account in the translation of "say", which usually appears in the form of Chinese characters like"说"(古文中为"曰"),especially in fictional narrative. In this thesis, the author tries to direct our attention to M.A.K Halliday's Processes Theory, which might serve as a theoretical foundation for the current thesis.Speech act theory was developed by the Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin whose lectures in 1955 were published posthumously as How to Do Things with Words (1962). The theory analyzes the role of utterance in relation to the behavior of speaker and hearer in interpersonal communication. It constitutes a central sub-domain of pragmatics and has a strong impact on a wide range of disciplines. Austin (1962) declares that speakers do no simply produces sentences that are true or false, but rather perform speech actions such as requests, warnings, assertions, etc. In discussing the speech act, Austin distinguishes three main facets, namely, three ways in which it can be described as a "doing" (1962: 91---120):locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. According to Austin (1962), "speech act" is a communicative activity, defined with reference to the intentions of the speaker while speaking (the illocutionary force of his utterances) and the effects he achieves on his listener (the perlocutionary effect of his utterances). The verbs which are used to indicate the speech act intended by the speaker are called performative verbs. The theory of speech acts has been taken up and greatly developed by J. Searle. In his works Speech Acts (1969), and Austin on Locutionary and Illocutionary Acts (1968), J. Searl has proposed several categories of speech act, i.e. assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations. Being a central sub-domain of pragmatics, speech act theory is an important theoretical foundation in the pragmatic approach to translation.Therefore, for a thorough comprehension of messages in both languages and a satisfying translation, it is particularly necessary and helpful for a translator to have some idea of the relationship between illocutionary force and translation and to apply speech act theory to translation, especially in translation of narratives in literary works.In this thesis, the author follows the research findings of the theorists in the domain of pragmatics, and proposes a new model to decode the guiding principles behind which the translator, in his process of dealing with the translation of fictional narrative, makes an appropriate choice among different quoting verbs.