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A Study on the Application of Theme-Rheme Theory in the Chinese-English Translation of Tang Poetry

Author: SunZhiGuo
Tutor: ZhangDeLu
School: Ocean University of China
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: Theme-Rheme theory Tang poetry translation Patterns of Thematic Progression application
CLC: H315.9
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 199
Quote: 2
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Abstract

Our study is set in the background of the popularity of Chinese culture and language.No doubt,Tang poetry has always been ranked as the gem of the Chinese classical literature,however the translation practice about Tang poetry and the evaluation standard is vague and fuzzy up to now,even though translators and scholars have been trying to improve and revise the present practice.Actually for literary genre,poetry is different indeed.But Tang poetry is by far different from the poems in English.In the pursuit of a better English version of Tang poetry,we definitely believe that we could not break out only through the translation theories.Here we must verdict one point,that is,any significance of theory study is based upon the necessity in practice.And bilaterally practice would benefit the theory study.Great efforts and achievements have been reached already from both home and abroad.With fame and reputation brought along,great translators have concluded their findings and even a conceit standard for the Tang poetry translation practice,for example Xu Yuanzhong,Yu Guangzhong,Sun Dayu,Weng Xianliang,etc.And from our perspective,their efforts are in affirmative but not perfect indeed,for there exists the need of linguistics approaches.Theme-Rheme theory has been frequently applied to discourse analysis and translation practice analysis.TR theory was firstly put forward and then developed by Mathesius from the Prague School and has been further developed by systemic functional linguists.Halliday further distinguishes three kinds of Theme,simple Themes,multiple Themes and clausal Themes.In terms of thematic progression, Danes(1974),Huang Guowen(1988),Zhang Delu(2005) talked about the Patterns of Thematic Progression.And our hypothesis is that with the aid of TR theory we could realize better translations about Tang poetry.TR theory provides the translators with new devices and new perspectives in practice.In other words,we intend to equip the Arts with Science,because Systemic Functional Linguistics could instruct any linguistic practice activities,including Tang poetry translation.However we do not step into the debate about whether the translation of Tang poetry is Arts or Science.Some findings with sound proofs and tangible methods are helpful in the Tang poetry translation practice,which could be concluded as the complementation of the Themes in ellipsis from ST to TT with another requirement avoiding unnecessary repetition;Clausal Themes’ low appearance in the translation,if not the beauty of sense would be harmed;Multiple Themes are adopted to enhance the cohesion for the Target Readers’ sake which could benefit Newmark’s ideas;in the pursuit of rhyme and the needs of expressing emotions,Marked Themes are dedicative,and bearing this in mind the translator could be more flexible;the application of PTP positions the highest rank of the frame,a more faithful and loyal comprehension could be reached, in Tang poetry translation,and SLP,CTP and DP possess their own characteristics in unfolding the theme of the poem;PTP does also need change in the translation practice,but a basic criterion is to avoid frequent change of PTP.Despite the limitations of this study,these findings can benefit out translation practice and also translation theory study.Furthermore we even try to revise some versions based on the findings of our study.For a more objective test,a questionnaire does need in the future study.And we hope through our study,English target readers would and could also have an enhanced comprehension about Tang poetry through the linguistic approaches.

A Study on the Application of Theme-Rheme Theory in the Chinese-English Translation of Tang Poetry

Abstract

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