AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Translating with Systemic Functional Linguistics

by Per Budtz-Jørgensen




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Translation; Systemic Functional Linguistics; Translation Studies; Functional Grammar
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2079288
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/23892


Abstract

This thesis concerns translation from English into Danish. Specifically, it concerns the practice of translation and the linguistic and textual competences of the translator. It has particular relevance to the academic disciplines of English linguistics and Translation Studies. Within Translation Studies, the thesis generally takes a linguistic approach and may be located within what Manfredi calls the 'contextual turn' (Manfredi 2008: 47) or what Munday calls the discourse and register analysis approach (Munday 2001). I observe three problems in the translation process. First, translators, including myself, have a tendency to rely too much on intuition. Second, translators, including myself, have a tendency to make use of linguistic and textual analysis in a random way, often treating each clause in isolation. Third, in situations where several adequate translation solutions present themselves, it can be difficult for translators to establish a basis for choosing one solution over the other. In the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to the development of translators' linguistic and textual competences, I see a possible solution to all three problems. Systemic Functional Linguistics seems particularly relevant to translation because it is not 'concerned with a static or prescriptive kind of language study, but rather describes language in actual use and centres around texts and their contexts' (Manfredi 2008: 49). At the heart of Systemic Functional Linguistics is the idea that language is structured to make three different kinds of meaning at the same time, experiential, interpersonal and textual. This thesis investigates to what extent the ability to map out systematically these three kinds of meaning in original texts, with the purpose of recreating them in translations, can enable the translator to make more informed translation decisions. The method I employ is (1) to perform linguistic and textual analyses based on SFL on three English texts and (2) to discuss to what extent such analyses are helpful to the translator. In my analytical approach, I draw on the work of German translation scholar Juliane House. In her model of translation quality assessment, she argues that the fundamental criterion of translation quality is equivalence on the level of textual function, that is to say, that the overall purpose(s) of the translated text must to a certain extent be the same as the overall purpose(s) of the original text. House applies elements of Systemic Functional Linguistics to analyse original texts with the purpose of establishing their textual function. She focuses especially on the levels of register and genre. Arguing that for translation production purposes, a more thorough and 'close' analysis on the level of text/language is desirable, I focus especially on the level of lexicogrammar, building on M. A. K. Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar. The results of my investigation demonstrate five key functions of the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to translation production,… Advisors/Committee Members: Mortensen, Janus (advisor).