A Comparative Analysis Of Two English Versions Of Gan Xiao Liu Ji From The Perspective Of Register Theory

Gan Xiao Liu Ji is a collection of reminiscent essays written by Yang Jiang,a famous Chinese essayist,playwright,and translator,against the background of the Cultural Revolution,which mainly describes what Yang Jiang and her husband Qian Zhongshu have experienced when they went to the cadre school for labor reform.The book provides people with a true and effective reference for understanding the history of the Cultural Revolution and the living conditions and spiritual worlds of intellectuals and cadres during this historical stage.Both its artistic expression and its loyalty to the history of the Cultural Revolution have great research value.Once published,Gan Xiao Liu Ji has been translated into Japanese,English and French versions,which have attracted extensive attention in the literary world.Among them,there are three English versions.Based on the translators' different nationalities,language and cultural backgrounds,the English versions translated by Howard Goldblatt and Djang Chu are chosen for the comparative study.Both of the two translators have rich experience in translation.The former is a translator who specializes in Chinese culture and language and has been devoted to translating Chinese literature into English for many years.The latter is a Chinese interpreter who has been engaged in the translation of the United Nations documents over the years.The two translators' interpretation of the style of the source text can be quite different.And the two English versions reflect how the history of the Cultural Revolution,described in the Gan Xiao Liu Ji,spreads to the West in the translators' writings.This research is conducted under the guidance of register theory.Register theory comes from the Systemic Functional Linguistics.Register refers to the linguistic variation determined by the three situational variables: field,tenor and mode.The three elements of situational context are respectively embodied by the experiential function,the interpersonal function and the textual function of the semantic layer of language.Correspondingly,these three functions are reflected in systems and structures such astransitivity,mood,modality,theme and cohesion at the level of lexical grammar.In the framework of register theory,this thesis makes a comparative analysis of the translation of Howard Goldblatt and Djang Chu of the Gan Xiao Liu Ji.The purpose of this study is not to find out the pros and cons of the two English versions,but to explore the characteristics of the two versions from the perspective of register and which version achieves register equivalence with the source text to a greater extent.Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the experiential function,the interpersonal function and the textual function of the source text and the two translated texts,it is found that Howard Goldblatt' s translation more conforms to the source text in terms of the three situational variables of the register——field,tenor and mode.And Djang Chu's translation also accords with the original register to some extent,but in contrast,Howard Goldblatt' s translation is slightly superior.