On The English Translation Of Jin Yong’s Martial Arts Fiction From The Perspective Of Functional Context Theory

Although different schools shed different lights on the definition of context, theimportance of it has been widely acknowledged by translation scholars andresearchers. The Systemic Functional Linguistics School perceives context as therelationship between meaning potential and language form rather than theenvironment in which language is used. With the inheritance and development byMalinowski, Firth and M. A. Halliday, the Systemic Functional Linguistics Schoolhas formed a multi-strata and multi-functional concept of context. From theperspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics, context consists of three strata, whichare the context of culture, the context of situation and the context of co-text; while theregister variables in the context of situation correspond to the three meta-functions oflanguage, namely, the field of discourse corresponds to the ideational meaning, thetenor of discourse corresponds to the interpersonal meaning and the mode ofdiscourse corresponds to the textual meaning. Since its emergence, FunctionalContext Theory has been widely used in the analysis and research of novels, poems,English teaching and so on, which demonstrates the wide applicability of the theory.Martial arts fiction, as an important element of Chinese literature, distills anabundant amount of unique Chinese cultural elements such as poem, religion, teaceremony, Kongfu skills and so on. When talking about martial arts fiction, JinYong’s achievements are the most eminent and prestigious. Since the publication ofhis martial arts fictions, they have enjoyed great popularity and praise both at homeand abroad, and the phenomenon of “sinology” has been established. Nevertheless,the translation and promotion of Jin Yong’s martial arts fiction are not adequate interms of theory and practice. Consequently, the research on the English translation ofJin Yong’s martial arts fiction can not only deepen the internal research of “sinology”but also help with the promotion and spread of Chinese culture in the global domain.With the translated version of Jin Yong’s Xueshan Feihu by Hong Kong scholarOlivia Mok as the text and under the framework of Functional Context Theory, thisthesis divides martial arts fiction into “Wu”,“Xia” and “Xiaoshuo” and analyzes anddiscusses the English translated version of Xueshan Feihu from the three strata offunctional context, namely, the context of culture, the context of situation and thecontext of co-text with the six steps of discourse analysis: observation, interpretation, description, analysis, explanation and evaluationIt is found out that:Firstly, martial arts fiction, together with other novels, is the reflection of thesplendid Chinese culture. However, the major difference between the two is thatformer is not only a fiction, but more importantly, it is with unique Chinese “Wu” and“Xia” elements. As a consequence, the research and analysis of martial arts fictionshould be divided into three piers:“Wu”,“Xia” and “Xiaoshuo”.“Wu” is the uniquefeature of martial arts fiction,“Xia” is the core of martial arts fiction and “Xiaoshuo”is the reflection form of martial arts fiction. Only by taking all the three elements intoconsideration can the research of martial arts fiction and its translation be thoroughand completed.Secondly, the Systemic Functional Linguistic School holds that the translationunit should be discourse. Thus, under the framework of Functional Context Theory,the English translation of Jin Yong’s martial arts fiction should be conducted from thesix steps in discourse analysis and the three levels of Functional Context Theory,namely, the context of culture, the context of situation and the context of co-text. Thetranslator should exert great efforts to achieve equivalence in the three aspects andperceives the text as a whole, active one rather than a fragmental, static one.Thirdly, under the framework of Functional Context Theory, the model andprinciples for the English translation of Jin Yong’s martial arts fiction can beconstructed from the macro and micro perspective as well as the prescriptive anddescriptive perspective. In terms of macro and micro perspective, the context ofculture defines the genre in the English translated version in the macro manner andthe genre of the translation should be equivalent to that of the original; the context ofsituation defines the translation of “dirty words” in the “Wu” element and thetranslation of “xiayi” in the “Xia” element in the micro manner and the translatorshould translate in correspondence to the concrete context, especially the variable oftenor; the context of co-text defines the coherence in the translation in the micromanner via added translation of chapter names and different cohesive ties. In terms ofthe prescriptive and descriptive perspective, the context of culture defines the genre inthe translation and the context of co-text defines the coherence in the discourse, whichare prescriptive because the translation should follow certain fixed rules; while thecontext of situation defines the translation of “dirty words” in the “Wu” element andthe translation of “xiayi” in the “Xia” element, which are descriptive because thetranslation should be based on the understanding of the relationship between or among different figures.