Material Process In The English Translation Of Deng Xiaoping's "South Tour Talks"

This paper selects the representative texts of Chinese political culture—the Chinese version of "South Tour Talk" delivered by Deng Xiaoping and its English version in Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping (Volume III) published by Foreign Languages Press—as the research objects. Based on Material Process Theory from transitivity system in Functional Grammar, the paper collected the data source from the clauses with transitions between material process and other types of process in "South Tour Talks". After getting statistics and applying analysis, the author calculates the transition percentages between material clauses and other types of process clauses during translation. The reasons formed transitions have also been explored. What's more, after analyzing, the concept of positive transition and negative transition from material clauses to other types of process clauses have been introduced. Positive transition, which favors the information transfer of source language, makes the target language closer to the source language in meaning. However, negative transition, which obstructs the transfer of accurate information, makes the target language be relatively far from the source language in meaning. Based on the types of clauses statistics of positive transition and negative transition, the paper aims to analyze and evaluates the translation quality and translation effect of "South Tour Talks".The significance of this study is, under the transitivity system of Functional Grammar, to identify the translation consistency of material clauses between the original text and the translated text of "South Tour Talks". At the same time, with the assistance of data analysis and discourse analysis, the paper aims to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the transitions between material clauses and other types of process clauses, finding the external and internal causes result in transitions. The author combines the theory in Functional Grammar with translation research, studies "South Tour Talks" in a relatively new method, hoping to bring useful insights for the further translation of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, and helping the domestic and international readers to understand the connotation and significance of "South Tour Talks", the speech with strong Chinese political culture characteristics.The findings of the research are as follows: 1. The percentage of material clauses in the CV of "South Tour Talks" is 58.71%. Among them,18.45% material clauses were translated into other types of process clauses in the EV of "South Tour Talks".2. The percentage of material clauses in the EV of "South Tour Talks" is 55.33%. Among them,13.46% other types of process clauses in the CV of "South Tour Talks" were translated into material clauses in the EV of "South Tour Talks".3. The reasons of process transitions between material clauses and other types of process clauses are:the translator's understanding and preference, the different expression ways between Chinese and English, Halliday's classification standards on the various process verbs, etc.4. The process transitions in "South Tour Talks" include positive transition and negative transition. The number of the former is far larger than the one of the latter, which from the perspective of Functional Grammar proves that the accurate and scientific translation of "South Tour Talks".