Using SFL in an appliable stylistics: Exploring verbal artistry and its implications for poetic translation
Issue: Vol 10 No. 1 (2014)
Journal: Linguistics and the Human Sciences
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
Abstract:
As an applied discipline, modern stylistics has made significant attempts to contribute to literary interpretation, literary criticism and literature pedagogy. However, its potential contribution to literary translation, and in particular, poetic translation, remains underexplored. In this paper, I demonstrate through the case study of a Tang Dynasty poem and one of its translations how Hasan’s (1985) SFL-based framework for the analysis of verbal art constitutes the basis of a potentially powerful and appliable stylistics that lays bare issues related to the (re-)construction of verbal artistry in translation. Hence, I argue that Hasan’s model can make a valuable contribution to the field of literary translation, and call for greater extension of her work to this domain.
Author: Benedict Lin
References :
Baker, M. (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London and New York: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203327579
Bassnett, S. (1998) Transplanting the seed: Poetry and translation. In S. Bassnett and A. Lefevere (1998) Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, Ch. 4. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Boase-Beier, J. (2004a) Translation and style: A brief introduction. Language and Literature 13 (1): 9–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947004039483
Boase-Beier, J. (2004b) Knowing and not knowing: Style, intention and the translation of a Holocaust poem, Language and Literature 13 (1): 25–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947004039485
Boase-Beier, J. (2006) Stylistic Approaches to Translation. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.
Boase-Beier, J. (2011) Stylistics and translation. In K. Malmkjaer and J. Windle (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies, 71–82. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Catford, J.C. (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1971) Linguistic function and literary style: An inquiry into the language of William Golding’s The Inheritors. In S. Chapman (ed.) Literary Style: A Symposium 330–365. London: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd edn) London: Arnold.
Hasan, R. (1985) Linguistics, Language and Verbal Art. Victoria: Deakin University Press.
Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1990) Discourse and the Translator. London and New York: Longman.
Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1997) The Translator as Communicator. London and New York: Routledge.
Huang, G. (2006) Linguistic Explorations in Translation Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press
Ji, Y. and Shen, D. (2004) Transitivity and mental transformation: Sheila Watson’s The Double Hook. Language and Literature 13 (4): 335–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947004046284
Kennedy, C. (1982) Systemic grammar and its use in literary analysis. In R. Carter (ed.) Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics, 82–99. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Lefevere, A. (1998) Translation practice(s) and the circulation of cultural capital: Some Aeneids in English. In S. Bassnett and A. Lefevere (eds) Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, Ch. 3. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Li, E.S.H. (2007) A Systemic Functional Grammar of Chinese. London: Continuum.
Lin, B. (2006) Exploring the literary text through grammar and the (re-)integration of literature and language teaching. In A. Paran (ed.) Literature in Language Teaching, 101–116. Alexandra, VA: TESOL.
Lin, B. (2007) Old houses, linguistics and literature in schools: What stylistics can offer. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 3 (2): 191–219
Lin, B. (2013) Stylistics in translation. In P. Stockwell and S. Whiteley (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Stylistics, 573–589. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2009) Ideas and new directions. In M. A. K. Halliday, and J. Webster (eds) Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics, 12–58. London and New York: Continuum.
Munday, J. (2008) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications (2nd edn). London and New York: Routledge.
Steiner, E. (2005) Halliday and translation theory: Enhancing the options, broadening the range, and keeping the ground. In J. Webster, R. Hasan and C. Matthiessen (eds) Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective, 481–500. London: Equinox.
Varsano, P. M. (1999) Looking for the recluse and not finding him in: The rhetoric of silence in early Chinese poetry. Asia Major 12 (2): 39–70.
Wales, K. (2001) A Dictionary of Stylistics. London/New York: Longman.
Webster, J. and Lukin, A. (2005) SFL and the study of literature. In J. Webster, R. Hasan and C. Matthiessen (eds) Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective, 413–456. London: Equinox.
Zhang, M. (2009) On translating the poetic images from Chinese into English. Asian Social Science 5 (6): 40–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v5n6p40