A Contrastive Study Of Transitivity Processes In The English And Chinese Versions Of My Antonia

This thesis has compared the transitivity processes in the English and Chinese versions of My Antonia, and four samples of the source text and its Chinese translation text are selected. The transitivity analysis of those four sample texts are made to explore the similarities and differences of transitivity processes between English and Chinese. More specifically, this thesis tries to deal with the three research questions:(1)What kinds of processes do the selected parts of My Antonia contain in the English text and its Chinese translation text? (2)What are the differences and similarities in the distribution of each process between the English version and the Chinese version? (3)What factors could account for those differences and similarities? The whole thesis is based on the transitivity processes in Halliday’s systematic-functional grammar, and quantitative analysis combined with qualitative analysis is employed. Quantitative analysis is mainly used to show the distribution of each process in the sample texts, qualitative analysis is employed not only to present the process transfer between English and Chinese, the effectiveness of transitivity process in revealing the characteristics of Antonia, but also to explore the similarities and differences of English and Chinese transitivity processes.From the comparative and contrastive analysis of transitivity processes between English and Chinese, six discoveries are obtained. Similarities:(1)The distribution of the six processes of the Chinese version is broadly in line with that of the English version; (2)Both English and Chinese adopt passive voice in transitivity processes when the agent of the process is unspecific or unknown. Differences:(1)An English relational process differs from a Chinese relational process because of the component of relational process linking verb; (2)Passive voice is more used by English and active voice is more employed by Chinese, Chinese clauses usually turn those passive voice in English material process into active voice by adding "把", "让" in front of the material process verb; (3) The process conversion from English relational process to Chinese material process is caused by the conversion from static words to dynamic words; (4)When coping with the English relational process marked by the link-predicate structure "get+adjective", Chinese tends to add or decrease the process type. The structure "get+adjective" always generates process transfer resulting from the translation omission of "get" as other verbs added in Chinese. Meanwhile, the unspecific meaning of the "adjective" among the structure "get+ adjective" is another reason causing process transfer.The similarities and differences of transitivity between English and Chinese mainly attribute to the theme, genre of the novel as well as different usages of conjunctions in the English and Chinese texts. Theme and genre have impact on the distribution of transitivity process. The role that the conjunctions have played in the construction of clauses is the major factor causing process transfer between English and Chinese.