A Contrastive Study Of English Versions Of Mao Zedong's Poems From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

This thesis explores the distribution of attitudinal resources in Mao Zedong's poems and the reconstruction of the attitudinal resources in three English versions of the poems from the perspective of Appraisal Theory.Different feelings and thoughts between ST and TT caused by different distributions of attitudinal resources are analyzed.In order to flesh out the study,possible reasons for the differences between the three English versions are also probed.Under the framework of Appraisal Theory,the study conducts a quantitative analysis and a textual comparison between 30 of Mao Zedong's poems and their corresponding translation in the three English versions,namely “Authorized” version,Xu Yuanchong's version and Nancy T.Lin's version.Appraisal Theory is the further development of interpersonal meaning under Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL)framework.It is a relatively comprehensive and intricate system for language analysis.Appraisal Theory is composed of three subsystems,among which Attitude is the most complicated one.Affect,Judgement and Appreciation all together constitute the system of Attitude.If viewed from a different perspective,Attitude can also be divided into inscribed and invoked attitude.Moreover,Attitude is gradable in terms of force,which means that all attitudinal resources are adjustable in their intensity of force.The study makes a contrastive analysis between ST and TT in Attitude,explicitness and force from the perspective of interpersonal meaning.Mao Zedong's poems and the three English versions abound with attitudinal resources.The distribution of attitudinal resources in ST and TT is as follows.Both ST and TT own more inscribed attitude resources than invoked attitude resources.Among the three types of attitude resources,the number of Appreciation resources ranks first.In terms of the total number of attitudinal resources,the number in “Authorized” version is slightly larger than that in ST.Nancy T.Lin's version possesses the largest number of attitudinal resources.And in the second place is Xu Yuanchong's version.“Authorized” version is known for its conciseness,but some allusions and implicit expressions in ST are not properly represented.Annotation in “Authorized” version is deleted later somehow,which has increased the difficulty of understanding for target readers.Xu's version is more flexible in choosing translation strategies.The expression in Xu's version is not restricted to original form of expressions in ST.(Change of explicitness of attitude,change of attitude types etc.)The most prominent characteristic of Lin's version is that it has strong force of attitude,which conduces to readers' understanding.Some implications are drawn from the study.Theoretically,Appraisal Theory serves as a theoretical framework for translating the interpersonal meaning.With the help of Appraisal Theory,translators are more likely to achieve equivalence of interpersonal meaning.Meanwhile,Appraisal Theory can offer us an effective tool for assessing translation quality.Practically,translation strategies adopted by the three translators to achieve faithfulness of interpersonal meaning can bring some enlightenment for translation practice in the future.Engagement and Graduation system deserve to be probed into in further studies,which is of great significance for literary translation studies.