A Study of English Translation within the Framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics
Year: 2019

In recent years, with the rapid development of social economy, China's foreign exchange has become increasingly frequent, and the demand for English translators has gradually increased, from the original reading and translation ability to comprehensive application ability. The application of systemic functional linguistics can improve the quality of English translation, and has high application value and popularization value. Based on this, this paper elaborates the relevant theories of English translation and systemic functional linguistics within the framework of systemic functional linguistics. In addition, this paper makes a thorough study of English translation from three aspects: textual meta function, conceptual meta function and interpersonal meta function. 1. Research Background 1.1 Literature review As the most widely used language in the world, English has gradually penetrated into all aspects of people's life and production. English translation, as a medium of cross linguistic information transmission, plays an important role in production and life, and has attracted more and more attention from relevant scholars. Based on the contextual theory, Wang Tong and Chen Lixia made a comparative analysis of the previous translations of A Dream of Red Mansions, and explored the different roles of functional contextual views in different English versions (Wang and Chen, 2014) Based on systemic functional linguistics and discourse analysis theory, Peng Hong makes a comparative analysis of the coherence mechanism and coherence mode in text translation, which brings some inspiration and guidance to translation practice (Peng, 2014) From the perspective of systemic functional linguistics, Meng Chao and other scholars have made a thorough study of legal translation from three aspects: register theory of legal text translation and systemic functional linguistics, Theme Rheme theory of legal text translation and systemic functional linguistics, translation of legal vocabulary and hierarchical view of systemic functional linguistics (Meng et al, 2015) Zou Yanyan embarked on the three purely functional functions of systemic functional linguistics, and made a purely functional analysis of some of the contents of the English versions of the Analects of Confucius translated by predecessors, which provided criteria and objective basis for the evaluation and evaluation of the English versions (Zou, 2015) From the perspective of interpersonal meaning and based on functional linguistics, Gong Fei evaluates and analyses the psychological description, behavior and dialogue of the characters in the translation of Red Sorghum (Gong, 2015) Based on the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Xiao Ting expounds the research status and basic knowledge of Tea Classic, analyses the relevant theories of translation and Systemic Functional Linguistics and the relationship between them, and makes a thorough study of the translation of Tea Classic (Xiao, 2016) Wei Ye mainly studies the translation questions in CET 4, and further puts forward the methods and strategies to improve the teaching level of English translation in Colleges and universities on the basis of systemic functional linguistics (Wei, 2018) Zhang Mi mainly discusses the current situation and deficiencies between translation and systemic linguistics, and reflects on relevant issues (Zhang, 2019) 2019 International Linguistics, Education and Literature Conference (ILELC 2019) Copyright (c) (2019) Francis Academic Press, UK DOI: 10.25236/ilelc.2019.035 166 1.2 Research purposes With the development of globalization, English has become an important foreign language in many countries, which brings great opportunities for English translation. However, due to cultural differences, there are still many problems in English translation, and there is not enough attention paid to the differences between artistry and language in English translation. In the existing studies, there are still some deficiencies in the study of the external factors, such as ideology and culture, which lead to the differences in translation. Based on the framework of systemic functional linguistics, this paper elaborates the relationship between English translation and systemic functional linguistics. Furthermore, starting from the three metafunctions of systemic functional linguistics, this paper further studies English translation in order to provide new ideas for the development of English translation. 2. Overview of Related Theories Systemic functional linguistics theory was founded by Halliday, a British linguist, on the basis of anthropological functional theory. According to anthropological functional theory, language has two main characteristics: instrumentality and functionality. Therefore, context is very important in language learning. Halliday founded Systemic Functional Linguistics on this basis. In this theory, emphasis is placed on the relationship between semantics and context, on the practical application of language, and on the combination of practice and theory. Specifically, context can be divided into mode, tenor and field. Language function can be divided into textual metafunction, conceptual metafunction and interpersonal metafunction. In order to realize the language function, we need the coordination of the three metafunctions. Moreover, we need to understand the essence of language more deeply and thoroughly. Textual metafunction is essentially a function of the speaker as an organizer. This function integrates interpersonal meta function and conceptual meta function into a discourse to form a unified whole and act on context together. Conceptual metafunction refers to the information or deixis function of language. It is the universal function of language to express the logical relationship and experience in the subjective and objective world. This function mainly expresses people's psychological experience and social experience, as well as the logical relationship between affairs in discourse. The interpersonal metafunction mainly shows the speaker's motivation, attitude, status, identity, and the speaker's functions of establishing social relations, participating in social activities and judging affairs. These three metafunctions are the organizational principles for the formation of linguistic structure and belong to the internal functions of language. Moreover, these three metafunctions are mainly embodied in different language structures. The embodiment of textual metafunction mainly depends on cohesion, information structure and thematic structure of sentences. The manifestation of conceptual metafunction mainly depends on the voice system, ergative analysis and transitivity system. The manifestation of interpersonal metafunction mainly depends on normalization, modality and discourse mood. In a translation, the choice of grammatical structure and vocabulary is restricted by the metafunction of language, register and genre. Therefore, the choice of vocabulary in the target text requires full consideration of the functional consistency between the source text and the target text. This paper analyses the intonation and rhythm of the translated text, the logical relationship between short sentences and short sentences, the information structure in the text and the theme structure of the sentence, the modal expression and mood structure in the short sentences, the cohesive mode of grammar and vocabulary in the sentence, and the transitivity of the short sentences in order to analyze the thinking mode and expression expressed in the translated text. Habits, whether they match the target language. The analytical model of textual meta theory in systemic functional linguistics provides a new translation model for text translation. From the external environment of the language, to the direct situation expressed in the text, to the overall language structure of the text, it creates the level of language translation from the outside to the inside, from the macro to the micro.