A Comparative Analysis Of The Interpersonal Meaning Of The Mood Of Emma And Its Chinese Versions

Interpersonal meaning, or interpersonal function, is one of the three metafunctionsproposed by Halliday in his Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). The interpersonal meaningmeans that people use language to associate with other people, establish and maintaininterpersonal relationship and affect other’s behaviour. Meanwhile they also use language toexpress their view towards the world. According to Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar,the mood system is one of the important parts of the interpersonal meaning. Mood systemdefines the roles of the participants in the interaction of language.Emma，Jane Austen’s great works, is considered as the most mature novel among her sixmasterpieces, and gains abundant attention home and abroad. By reviewing the literature,there is little analysis of the dialogue language，as well as the comparative analysis ofdifferent Chinese versions on the interpersonal meaning of the mood from FunctionalGrammar，especially from the mood system. This study employs the theories of interpersonalmeaning of Halliday’s SFG, mainly focusing on the mood system, through the analysis ofthe dialogues in the text from the number of the clause，the declarative clause, theinterrogative clause, the exclamative clause and the most frequently chosen subjects to revealthe personality of characters and their power relationship. Through the comparative analysisof the three selected Chinese versions on the interpersonal meaning of the mood, finding thatthe reappearance and the missing of the interpersonal meaning by different translatorsinfluence the readers appreciation of the literary works.This study finds out the interpersonal meaning of mood plays a very important role incharacterizing and foregrounding the temperament of characters in the novel. Besides thispaper tests the feasibility of Halliday’s Functional Grammar in the analysis of literarydiscourse, especially in the analysis of novels, strengthens the understanding of theinterpersonal function and also improves people’s appreciation of the main characters’personalities, statuses and their relationships in Emma，providing a new point of view to thestudy of Emma and Austen’s linguistic achievements in the representation of humanrelationship，which also means a lot for us in literary translation. But at the same time, thisstudy also has some defects and limitations，remains to be further researched.