A Study Of The Interpersonal Function In Zhao Shuli’s Novel And Its English Translation

The current thesis takes the original novel Xiao Erhei Jie Hun by Zhao Shuli andits English translation The Marriage of Young Blacky as research object within thetheoretical framework of interpersonal function in Halliday’s Systemic FunctionalLinguistics and Mati’ns appraisal theory. Through the comparative study, it lays theemphasis on the similarities and differences in the distribution of interpersonalelements involving vocatives，mood, modality and evaluation in the source text andthe target text, in order to explore how the social position, personality of maincharacters and the theme of the novel are realized by interpersonal function. Apartfrom that，the thesis roughly compares another original novel Li You Cai Ban Huawirtten by Zhao Shuli with its translation by the same translator from the interpersonalperspective, aiming to discover more shared characteirstics and further summarize acouple of general rules embodied in Zhao Shuli’s novels.The thesis aims to apply the Systcmic Functional Linguistics to the area oftranslation, attempting to conduct the comparative study in the Chinese text andEnglish text. And hopefully, the research of translation can benefit from theemployment of interpersonal meaning. In the meantime, it is intended to enirch thestudy of the novel Xiao Erhei Jie Hun and its translation，as well as the study of ZhaoShuli’s literature works.The thesis makes a comparative study of the original novel and its Englishversion by adopting the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. According tothe common pattern of "Problem Novel" of author Zhao Shuli, that is, revealing theproblem first and solving the problem then, the novel can be divided into two parts. Inthe first part, it reveals the issuethe free love of the young couple Xiao Erhei andXiao Qin suffers rfom the objection of their own parents and obstacles from localdespots; the second part mainly handles the conflictunder the shelter of the coreimage with power Qu Zhang, Xiao Erhei and Xiao Qin get marired legally, theirparents receive the reform and local despots are sentenced to the punishment. Then, itselects the typical samples by the sampling method to analyze in details profoundly.By means of the comparative analysis, it can be discovered that there aresimilairties and differences in the Chinese text and English text in terms ofinterpersonal elements’ distribution. Specifically, results and major findings can be elaborated below. First, it is not uncommon that both the original novel and itsEnglish translation make full use of vocatives, mood system, modality system withinthe rfamework of SFL theory and appraisal system. Second, in terms of differences,they can be interpreted as three dimensions of language: omission，addition and shitf.The reasons of differences probably lay in the vairous factors, such as distinct featuresof Chinese and English language, the diverse cultures from a speciifc cultural groupand the subjectivity of the translator. Third, the general rules of Zhao Shuli’s novelscan be boiled down to three aspects: aesthetic feature, rhetorical feature andmetaphorical feature. Last, via the authentic data, it proves the applicability andpracticability of Systemic Functional Linguistics in the research of Chinese discourse,which is favorable to offer a fresh new perspective and enlightenments forappreciating and analyzing the literature works.