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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

Join "me" for the alignment : investigating the appraisal construed and reconstrued in media texts and their translations

English Abstract

This study is intended to investigate the construction of alignment between the writer/translator and the putative reader respectively in media texts and their translations via conducting a comparative analysis of the appraisal construed and reconstrued in the source text (henceforth ST) and the target text (henceforth TT). It argues that “all ways” lead to the alignment (“all ways” refers to different appraisal linguistic devices in the ST and TT). During the research process, statistical analysis and comparisons are conducted to investigate the correlations between the appraisal construed in three types of media texts, i.e. informative, expressive and operative texts and reconstrued in the TT and to study the appraisal distribution in the ST and the TT. In order to visualize the relevant variables in investigating the appraisal construed and reconstrued in the ST and the TT and offer a traceable outline for examining the factors that may influence the appraisal construed and reconstrued and the alignment construction in the translating process, a theoretical framework is proposed to carry out the analysis. This framework is based on the Hallidayan model of discourse analysis, and integrates pertinent theories from Appraisal Theory and Translation Quality Assessment Model. By following a bottom-up procedure, the linguistic resources that are employed to construe and reconstrue the appraisal in the ST and the TT are firstly analyzed. Related variables concerned with the context of situation, genre, and sociocultural environment, which may exert influences on the appraisal construed and reconstrued and the alignment construction, are then discussed as well. The analysis of the appraisal construed and reconstrued in the three text types indicates that the putative reader of the ST and the TT is successfully aligned to the viii attitudinal positionings of the writer/translator via various appraisal linguistic devices. The statistical analysis reveals that the dimension of APPRECIATION is employed the most and exists in both the 30 STs and TTs. And the degree of divergence in terms of the linguistic resources employed for constring and reconstruing the appraisal in the ST and the TT is not great. Factors that may influence the appraisal construed and reconstrued in the ST and the TT and the alignment construction are field, tenor, mode, generic factors, cultural background knowledge, linguistic conventions, etc., which may help to explain why “all ways” lead to the alignment. As the ultimate purpose of reconstruing the appraisal is the construction of the alignment between the translator and the putative TT reader, “all ways” lead to the alignment.

Issue date

2011.

Author

Qian, Hong

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

Department of English

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject

Translating and interpreting

Discourse analysis

Contrastive linguistics

Supervisor

張美芳

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TOC & Abstract

Full-text (Intranet only)

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991008536159706306