褚杨杨/华北理工大学

Review on Register Theory and Its Application in Translation

褚杨杨/华北理工大学

This paper aim s to review the register theory and to find out how this theory guide the translation progress.

register theory; translation; literature review

1. Context and Register Theory

The term “Context” borrows from the Latin word Contextus, which originally means “joining together”. The great Polish-born anthropologist B. Malinowski (1923) first proposed the notion of “context of situation” in his contribution to Ogden and Richard’s book “The Meaning of Meaning”.

J.R. Firth, regarded as the founder of modern British Linguistics was greatly influenced by Malinowski in his academic career. Firth moved further into the exploration of meaning. He gave detailed illustration on context in 1950, and put up the theory and method in studying utterance in linguistic environment.

Firth, then, was concerned to embed the utterance in the ‘social context’ and to generalize across meanings in specified social contexts. It is believed that Malinowski and Firth made great contributions to the discovery and development of context theory. But it still remains to be studied since the definition is not complete. Later, further studies on the context have been done by many famous scholars.

Descending directly from Firth’s perspective of context theory, Halliday (1978:33) took a functional approach to view language as an instrument of social interaction. He pointed out that “all languages are languages in use, in a context of situation, and all of it relates to the situation”, which underscores the significance of context in any interpretation and analysis of a text. Therefore, a text is an instance of social meaning in a particular context of situation, and the situation embodied or enshrined in the text is not piecemeal, but in a way which reflects the systematic relation between the semantic structure and the social environment. Influenced by Bernstain, Halliday proposed that context of situation should be represented in still more abstract terms than what Firth had suggested. Context of situation does not refer to a particular situation with tangible spatio-temporal dimensions. Instead, it should be seen as a recurrent “situation type,” which is essentially a“semiotic structure,” a configuration of “meanings deriving from the semiotic system that constitutes the culture” (ibid. : 109). It is called register.

Halliday classified the register to three headings: field, mode and tenor to describe how the situation determines the meanings that are expressed. Three concepts are explained: field, mode and tenor. Field is the total event, in which the text is functioning together with the purposive activity of the speaker or writer. The mode is the function of the text in the event,. The tenor refers to the type of role interaction. Field, mode and tenor collectively define the context of situation of a text. (Halliday and Hasan, 2001:22) Hatim and Mason discussed the necessity and importance of register analysis in translation, and pointed out that "identifying register membership of a text is an essential part of discourse processing, it involves the reader in a reconstruction of context through an analysis of what has taken place (field)，who has participated(tenor), and what medium has been selected for relaying the message(mode).” (Hatim and Mason, 2001:55).

2.Application of Register Theory in Translation

In 1965, J.C Catford tried to construct a translation theory mode based on Hallidy’s systemic-functional linguistics. Later, some scholars introduced context and text analysis into translation study, which focused on communicative functions of context and language. Gregory was the first person who emphasized that it was important to establish register equivalence in translation, as he pointed out “the establishment of register equivalence can be seen as the major factors in the process of translation, the problems of establishing such equivalence, a crucial test of the limits of translatability.” (Gregory, 1980: 466) Julian House (1976) set up an assessment system in order to assess the quality of translation. In this assessment system, he built up eight variables in the dimensions of language user and language in order to evaluate translation quality. Later, House (1997) changed the eight dimensions into three different levels: namely, text, register and genre, and pointed out that register and its three variables took an important part in translation quality assessment model. Baker (1992) discussed the relation of context and translation from the angle of the three elements of situational context---field, tenor and mode, under the functional linguistics theory. In the book, In Other Words: A Course Book on Translation, Mona Baker (2000) pointed out the equivalence of register and made these remarks “A translator must ensure that his/her product does not meet with a similar reaction. She/he must ensure that the translation matches the register expectations of its prospective receivers.”

Since 1990s, other scholars began to focus their attention on the study of register analysis in translation. Many papers and theses devoted their attention to the translation study from the aspect of register analysis. Bian Zhengdong (2004) discussed the instructive role of register on translation from the aspects of field, mode and tenor. He also pointed out that translator should ensure the representation of register features of source text in the target text, so that register equivalence could be realized. Due to the limitation of length, many other articles and theses will be left out.

3.Conclusion

To sum up, since the occurrence of register theory, it plays an important role in the translation progress. Until now, many studies about register theory have been done, a new aspect still needs to be discovered.

Reference：

[1] Baker, M. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London&New York: Routledge, 1992.

[2] Catford, J. C. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.

[3] Firth, J. R. Papers in Linguistics[C].Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957.

[4] Gregory, M. J. ‘Perspectives on translation from Firthian transltion’, Meta, 1980, 25(4).455-66

[5] House, J. A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tubingen Gunter Narr Verlag, 1976.

[6] House, J. Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revised. Tubingen Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997.

[7] Halliday, M.A.K. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold, 1978.

[8] Halliday & Hasan. Cohesion in English [M].Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001.

[9] Hatim, B. & Mason, I. Discourse and the Translator. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001.

[10] Malinowski, B. The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages, Supplement to Ogden.