A Study Of Explicitation In The Chinese Translation Of Children's Picture Books-From Systematic Functional Grammar And Visual Grammar

As a special form of children‘s literature,the picture book is wealthy in lively expressions and informative pictures.In the 1950 s,modern children‘s picture books began to appear in Britain,and soon spread to other countries.Since the 1970 s,some of the books began to be translated into C hinese in mainland C hina.They offer distinctive perspectives and serve the purpose of education.Now,they still dominate the Chinese picture book market,accounting for 90% of the market.Based on the theoretical framework originating from the integration of Halliday‘s Systematic Functional Grammar and Kress and Leeuwen‘s Visual Grammar,this research aims at analyzing the differentiation,reasons and functions of explicitation in the translation of introduced children‘s picture books through a comparative study.The research materials come from 25 English children‘s picture books and their translations.The research shows that of all the 296 explicitations,82.43% of them are to explain linguistic meaning,while 17.57% are to explain visual meaning.In explaining linguistic meaning,ideational meaning is realized by adding information and explaining the process,participants,circumstances or by changing voice and polarity.Interpersonal meaning is expressed through adding modal verbs,modal particle,adverb of degree or adverb of frequency.Textual meaning is made explicit through changing thematic system,adding conjunctions and explaining references.In explaining visual meaning,representational meaning is expressed through adding and explaining the processes,participants,circumstances that originally come from the information in the pictures.Interactional meaning is expressed through making clear the color differentiation.In addition,compositional meaning is enhanced by information value and framing devices.The research shows that the main reasons for explicitation in the translation of children‘s picture books are the linguistic differences between the two languages,the distinctive nature of children‘s picture books,and translation style.Through the explicitation of ideational meaning,the stories become readily understandable to children.The explicitation of interpersonal meaning can help the children express different sorts of emotions.The explicitation of textual aspect can help children foster their logical thinking.The e xplicitation of the picture-related information can help nurture children‘s ability to understand the participants,settings,color and composition.Thanks to the help of explicitation,children‘s parents and teachers can vividly retell the story in full.Yet,as explicitation may change the relationship between words and pictures,the translator should be cautious in this respect.