Yan Wang’s research while affiliated with The University of Hong Kong and other places

Based on the systemic functional framework, this paper attempts to compare verbal projection in two comparable translated texts of a detective story entitled A Scandal in Bohemia , one from the early 20th century (henceforth TT 1) and the other from the early 21st century (henceforth TT 2). Approximately one hundred years apart, these two translations are strikingly different in their language use, with classical Chinese being used in TT 1 and plain (colloquial) Chinese being used in TT 2. By analysing and comparing the lexicogrammatical features of the verbal clauses in the two translated texts, this paper summarises the choices made by the translators in these two different historical moments: when translating the source text, TT 1 translators show more flexibility by incorporating more addition and omission into their translation than TT 2 translators.

Chapter 1 serves as the introduction chapter of the whole book. In this chapter, research background and motivation will be introduced in Sects. 1.1 and 1.2, followed by research objectives and research assumptions of this study in Sect. 1.3. Then a pilot text of A Scandal in Bohemia will be examined from the systemic functional perspective in Sect. 1.4, in which analysis and comparisons will be conducted between two Chinese translations.

As the concluding chapter of the book, this chapter will firstly summarize major findings based on the analysis in previous chapters, which will be presented in Sect. 7.1. Research significance will then be elaborated in Sect. 7.2, followed by limitations of this study in Sect. 7.3. Possibilities of further studies will also be posted in the same section.

This chapter will first identify in Sect. 4.1 all the verbs of saying occurring in the source text of nine short stories and compare translations of these verbs of saying in two Chinese translations and then categorize the verbs on the basis of their usage in the present corpus. And in the following Sect. 4.2, projecting clauses will be analyzed in terms of textual Theme, interpersonal Theme, and topical Theme, and comparisons will be conducted in two translations. A summary will be provided in Sect. 4.3. Table 4.1 provides an overview that locates the analysis in this chapter in relation to the overall analysis.

In this chapter, research methodology and theoretical framework are presented in the first two sections: Sects. 3.1 and 3.2, with a view to achieving five research objectives mentioned in chapter one: (1) to analyze and compare verbs of saying and thematic choices in verbal clauses in ST and TT1/TT2; (2) to observe logico-semantic types and rhetorical relations in ST and TT1/TT2; (3) to identify different translators’ choices in TT1 and TT2; (4) to investigate and interpret translators’ choices in TT1 and TT2 from a contextual perspective; and (5) to explore the interface between SFL and literary translation on the theoretical framework developed for the present study. Afterwards, data used in this study are introduced in Sect. 3.3, including source text and two Chinese translations of nine detective stories. And finally, research questions are posed, and research design of this study is demonstrated in Sect. 3.4 to present data selection, data compilation, and analytical procedures of the established corpus.

This chapter will first conduct a contextual analysis of source texts of nine short stories in Sect. 6.1, with the introduction of the concepts of context and contextual parameters. In Sect. 6.2, two Chinese translations will be analyzed and compared from three contextual parameters of field, tenor, and mode. On the basis of the investigation of contextual analysis of ST and comparisons between two Chinese translations, this chapter attempts to provide interpretations for the findings in the previous Chaps. 4 and 5, which will be presented in Sect. 6.3.

In this chapter, the concept of clause complex and the system of clause complexing will be firstly introduced in Sect. 5.1. Section 5.2 will analyze verbal projection in clause complexing (at clause complex level), that is the logico-semantic relations between the projecting clause and the projected clause, with a view to identifying similarities and differences in the two Chinese translations. In Sect. 5.3, two Chinese translations of verbal clause complexes will be further examined in terms of rhetorical relations, which will bring out the complexity of verbal clause complexes and the scope of projection. And the findings will be summarized in Sect. 5.4. Table 5.1 provides an overview that locates the analysis presented in this chapter in relation to the overall analysis.