A Comparative Study On English-chinese Translation Of Hard News And Soft News From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

In this age of information,the significant role news plays in people’s daily life cannot be overlooked,especially bilingual news,which is of vital importance to get to know the international situation and public opinion.Besides,it is definitely crucial to find out the standpoints and value positions implied in bilingual news.Thus,this comparative study on English-Chinese translation of hard news and soft news based on appraisal theory is conducive to the integrated development of translation studies and the training of news translators with greater diversity and choice in the future.This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate four research questions:(1)What are the characteristics of evaluative resources in soft news and hard news?(2)What are the characteristics of evaluative resources between source text and target text of hard news?(3)What are the characteristics of evaluative resources between source text and target text of soft news?(4)Does translation have influence on the distribution of evaluative resources? If yes,what are the influences of translation on the distribution of evaluative resources?There are 8 pieces of hard news and soft news respectively selected from Financial Times Chinese.Com,where evaluative resources are manually labeled and calculated.The major findings of this study can be concluded as follows.First,as for Engagement,hard news prefers dialogue contraction to dialogue expansion,while soft news gives preference to dialogue expansion to open dialogue space;as for Attitude,the most frequently employed in hard news is Appreciation so that the attitudinal meaning of the author/ speaker can be expressed objectively by assessment of phenomenon;as for Graduation,interpersonal meaning is conveyed mainly by intensification of process or quality in Force resources for hard news and soft news.Second,the results prove translation has an effect on the distribution of evaluative resources.Different translation methods and techniques are employed by target text to convey the interpersonal meaning of source text maximally,which contributes to the differences of evaluative resources between source text and target text of hard news and soft news.In hard news,the adoption of addition makes the number and proportion of Engagement resources increased in target text,especially dialoguecontraction.The shift in lexis and semantics leads to differences of the proportion of Attitude.To be specific,source text gives preference to appreciation,while target text more frequently employs judgement.Third,in soft news,there are more contract resources in target text by adoption of addition,while literal translation contributes to the basic evenness of the distribution of Attitude resources in source text and target text.In addition,free translation and shift are adopted in order to cater to reading habits and modes of thinking of target readers,highlighting the scalability of evaluative meaning in target text for both hard news and soft news.Last but not least,some other factors,for instance,different and individual cultural backgrounds and interest groups,all contribute to the differences of evaluative resources between source text and target text.The present research reveals that target text of Financial Times Chinese.Com is basically faithful to source text in English-Chinese translation from the perspective of Appraisal Theory,which offers references and evaluation criteria for translation of news to some degree.Besides,the current research also provides a fresh perspective for comparative studies on bilingual news based on Appraisal Theory,and then contributes to the further development of news translation studies.