A Contrastive Study Of Attitudinal Resources Between English And Chinese Subtitles Of The BBC Documentary Of Wild China

The aim of the thesis is to explore,from a systemic functional linguistic perspective,how attitudinal resources of the subtitles of BBC documentary Wild China(source text,also ST for short)are reconstructed in its Chinese translation(target text,also TT for short),with specific attention to the similarities and differences between Wild China subtitle and its Chinese version.In this research,possible reasons for the differences in the process of translating and translator's techniques are analyzed.In doing so,this study is expected to bring about implications for the application of Appraisal Theory into translation studies.The theoretical basis of this study is James Martin's Appraisal Theory,especially Attitude system(subsystem of Appraisal Theory)which consists of Affect,Judgment and Appreciation.Firstly,all attitudinal resources in the material are identified and grouped into different attitudinal patterns.Secondly,based on the statistics,a detailed comparison of all appraisal resources is made between source text and target text.More specifically,an exploration of how appraisal resources in ST are distributed is made from a general aspect to a specific aspect.The TT is dealt with in the same way,on the basis of which the similarities and differences are explored with the latter being the main focus.The results indicate that among all the attitudinal resources in ST,resources for Appreciation account for the most part while resources for Affect and Judgment rank behind.In terms of Polarity,positive attitudes are more than negative ones.And the distribution of attitudinal resources in TT is generally similar to those in ST.By comparative analysis,it can be concluded that the translator is,to a much larger extent,faithful to the English version.However,differences between ST and TT cannot be neglected.In terms of the frequency of occurrence,the attitudinal resources in TT are less than those in ST,especially in the type of negative.Besides,other differences can be found in TT based on qualitative methods such as omission,amplification and conversion.Thereasons behind the differences are various,among which three aspects are involved mainly:cultural background,the languages and the translator.This research explores the similarities and differences of the attitudinal resources between the English documentary Wild China and its Chinese subtitle from the perspective of Appraisal Theory,which can shed some light on translation studies from the systemic functional point of view,and further verifies the appliability,feasibility and interpretive power of the Appraisal Theory,and provides implications for translators.