A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of David Copperfield

Register theory is one of the most important theories of Halliday's systematic-functional grammar. Owing to its various functions, register has been used in many fields, like text analysis, foreign language teaching and translation.Countless researches have been made on the relationship between register and translation. These researches point out that register analysis is an important and effective approach to faithfully reproducing the original text. In this thesis, the author will make a tentative study on features and functions of Halliday's theory of register to verify that register is also an effective and objective method of measuring whether a translation is faithful. This study will be further proved by a case study on Dong Qiusi's and Zhang Guruo's Chinese versions of David Copperfield.This thesis contains six parts:Chapter one works as an introduction to the theory applied and the two Chinese versions of David Copperfield studied in this thesis.Chapter two expounds the development of register and the application of register in translation. Various studies on register and translation are quoted and studied to verify that register is an effective and objective approach in translation. Dong Qiusi's and Zhang Guruo's translations of David Copperfield have been studied from various aspects. Yet these two versions haven't been studied from the perspective of register, which makes the topic of this thesis worth studying.Chapter three expounds Halliday's theory of register as well as differences of register markers between English language and Chinese language.Chapter four studies functions of register and the application of register in translation. It pointes out that register analysis can help the translator identify the original style and culture as well as reproduce them with the target language. In the same token, register analysis can also be used as an approach to measuring whether a translation is faithful to the original.Chapter five makes a comparative study of Dong Qiusi's and Zhang Guruo's translations of David Copperfield from the perspective of Halliday's register theory.The last part is a summary of the whole thesis. It concludes that Halliday's register theory is an effective approach to comparing Dong Qiusi's and Zhang Guruo's translations and identifying their differences. It also points out that this study proves the applicability of Halliday's register theory to the study of translation.