| The Tokyo Trial Recollections and Perspectives from China,compiled by the Tokyo Trial Research Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University,is a collection of research papers by Chinese scholars on the historical and legal affairs of the Tokyo Trial.In the collection,Cheng Zhaoqi,Song Zhiyong and other scholars have examined the trial from several historical events,including the Nanjing Massacre and the punishment of war criminals.And they also review the trial process from the perspective of legal significance.In order to study the collection’s translation characteristics and discourse features,the thesis is based on metadiscourse analysis and pragmatic equivalence translation to analyze the various metadiscourse markers and infer the reasons why metadiscourse translation achieves pragmatic equivalence or pragmatic failure.The thesis aims to explore what are the translation characteristics of various metadiscourse in the collection,as well as the translation methods for achieving pragmatic equivalence and the reasons for pragmatic failure.On the whole,the thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter one briefly introduces the research background,questions and so on.Focusing on research questions,Chapter two reviews relevant research achievements at home and abroad.Chapter three investigates the theoretical framework adopted.And based on previous research and theoretical achievements,Chapter four studies to what degree the translation of metadiscourse has achieved equivalence from the perspective of pragmatic communication.In conclusion,Chapter five summarizes the thesis’ s findings,limitations,and suggestions for future research.The thesis finds that the three metadiscourse markers,evidentials,transitions and boosters,are most frequently used in the texts;while the other metadiscourse markers have relatively low frequency: self mentions,attitude markers,frame markers,hedges,code glosses,endophoric markers and engagement markers.The pragmatic translation of each kind of metadiscourse has achieved different results in terms of pragmatic equivalence.The dominant reason for metadiscourse translation achieving pragmatic equivalence is that the translator has a deep understanding of the collection’s cultural background and the target readers’ cognitive habits.He adjusts the expression of metadiscourse according to the writing habits of the target language,so that the author and the target readers can communicate through metadiscourse in texts and to interact with each other through constructing discourse together.However,the pragmatic failure is usually caused by the translator’s intention.For example,the translator has adopted omission in order to avoid the political factors influence related to the Tokyo trial.And he adjusts some metadiscourse’s translation for the sake of objectively conveying historical facts and reducing the subjectivity of the text.In addition,the language characteristics of academic English is also one factor contributing to the pragmatic failure.Due to requirements of the rigorous wording in academic texts,the translator often weakens the emotional intensity and absolute affirmation sense of metadiscourse in the collection. |
