Approaches To E-C Translation Based On Ideational Grammatical Metaphor

Most of the present studies of E-C translation strategies and skills only focus on their application to translation practice. But for the question when these strategies and skills should be employed, there are very few satisfactory explanations. Halliday's grammatical metaphor theory within the framework of systemic-functional linguistics establishes the theoretical foundation for the application of some E-C translation strategies and skills due to the difficulties caused by the mismatch between semantic level and lexicogrammatical level in SL.Halliday classifies grammatical metaphor into ideational grammatical metaphor and interpersonal grammatical metaphor. In terms of translation, ideational grammatical metaphor has a correlation with semantic translation while interpersonal grammatical metaphor has a correlation with pragmatic translation. The thesis aims to approach"process-correspondent translation"and"process-noncorrespondent translation"from the perspective of ideational grammatical metaphor, trying to find the semantic foundation for the shifts happening at the lexicogrammatical level in the E-C translating process.First of all, the thesis reviews the western and Chinese studies in the field of grammatical metaphor and points out that the discussion will proceed mainly based on Halliday's viewpoints in addition to Thompson as well as several Chinese scholars'main ideas. In this part, the core concepts including lexical metaphor, grammatical metaphor, congruent, incongruent/metaphorical, ideational grammatical metaphor and interpersonal grammatical metaphor are given an elucidation.Then the thesis gives a survey of Halliday's ideational grammatical metaphor with a focus on Participant, Process and Circumstance in the transitivity system. The"metaphor of transitivity"due to"process transference/metaphorization"and the"condensation of transitivity"due to"process fossilization"are regarded as two major ways to realize ideational grammatical metaphor. After the establishment of the theoretical framework, the thesis goes into the empirical research in a quantitive and comparative way. According to the types of process transference/metaphorization, the fifteen cases are classified into several groups to accept transitivity analyses of both English and Chinese versions.The major findings of case studies are the most valuable part in this thesis. First, the"process-correspondent/process-noncorrespondent translation"is proposed as a new explanation of"literal/free translation". Second, the fifteen cases are classified according to different kinds of shift happening at the lexicogrammatical level, based on which the corresponding relationship between process metaphorization types and class shifts, structural shifts as well as rank shifts is found. Thus, the conversions happening at the lexicogrammatical level will find their semantic foundations and the application of specific translation skills will get a theoretical explanation. Then it can be concluded that the mismatch between semantic level and lexicogrammatical level as a result of ideational grammatical metaphor in SL will set barriers for a translator in the code-switching. In order to overcome such difficulties, a translator is expected to first demetaphorize the"incongruent/metaphorical"English wordings into"congruent"ones by demetaphorizing the metaphorized processes or activating the fossilized processes. When a metaphorized transitivity or a condensed transitivity returns to a more congruent look, class shifts, structural shifts and rank shifts will occur at the lexicogrammatical level. Therefore, it can be said that the adjustment of grammatical units is just a phenomenon, whereas the redistribution of transitivity functions is the essential mechanism for such a phenomenon. At last, the thesis attempts to explore a general rule or a thinking mode governing the whole E-C translating process in the hope that it can contribute to the translation theory and practice.