Abstract

As an outstanding novel about the growth of the titular hero, Jack London’s semi-autography Martin Eden can teach young people numerous lessons and valuable experience in many ways. Systemic Functional Linguistics is mainly advocated by Halliday, who believes that all cultures can reflect the general metafunctions through their language, which provides a new way to comprehend human language. Therefore, this thesis makes a comparative study of both Wu Lao’s and Sun Fali’s Chinese versions of Martin Eden from the perspective of ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function.
This study is a qualitative research. With regard to interpersonal function, both versions are able to convey the semantic meanings but Sun’s not only is consistent with the tone of the source text in mood, but also can express characters’ attitudes much better than Wu’s. In terms of ideational function, Wu’s prefers literal translation with forms similar to those of the source text while Sun’s favors free translation with forms different from those of the source text. However, both can convey ideational meanings. In light of textual function, Sun’s resembles Wu’s in lexical cohesion, but the former is more acceptable and cohesive and organized in terms of thematic structure as a result of the differences between English and Chinese in the textual organization.
It is hoped that the thesis can contribute to the further application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to translation studies as well as spread the English culture throughout China.
Keywords:  Martin Eden   metafunctions   Wu Lao’s version   Sun Fali’s version  comparative study
 
摘要

作为一部描述同名主人公成长的杰出小说，杰克•伦敦的自传体小说《马丁•伊登》可以在很多方面给予年轻人诸多启示及宝贵经验。系统功能语法主要由韩礼德提出，他认为所有的文化都能通过语言体现元功能，这一观点为我们认识人类语言提供了新方式。因此本文从概念功能、人际功能及语篇功能角度对吴劳和孙法理的《马丁•伊登》两个中译本进行了对比研究。
本研究属于定性研究。从人际功能角度看，两中译本都能传达原文语义，但孙法理译本不仅符合原文语气，而且比吴劳译本更能体现出人物态度。从概念功能角度看，吴译本偏重直译，因此其形式几乎与原文一致，而孙译本偏重意译，所以采用了不同于原文的形式，但两译本都能传达出原文的概念意义。从语篇功能角度看，在词汇衔接方面两译本效果等同，但在主位结构方面，由于中文与英文篇章组织结构不同，孙译本更易为读者接受，也更具连贯有序性。
作者希望本文可以促进系统功能语法更进一步应用于翻译研究，同时希望能够在促进英语文化在中国的传播方面起到一定作用。

关键词：《马丁•伊登》  元功能  吴劳译本  孙法理译本  对比研究