The relationship between the author and the translator from the perspective of power of tenor of discourse: a case study of the peritexts of the translations of Mengzi

ABSTRACT

Within the framework of Poynton’s power of tenor of discourse, this study explores the power relationship between the author and the translator and how the relationship is presented in the peritexts of the translations of Mengzi. The study firstly reinterprets Poynton’s power of tenor of discourse and proposes two new concepts, viz. “primary factor” and “secondary factor”. And based on this, the power relationship between the author and the translator is expounded. When the “primary factor” is status, the author and the translator are equal, but when the “primary factor” is expertise, the author and the translator are unequal, with the author dominant over the translator. The analysis of the peritexts of the translations of Mengzi shows that the equality can be presented in the subtitle and the structure of the translations while the inequality can be displayed in the interpretation of culturally loaded words, particularly Confucian core concepts, and Mengzi’s thoughts. It is also found that the equality is usually caused by translation purpose, strategy, publication requirements, etc. and the inequality is generally relevant to the translator’s limited knowledge of the original, his/her thoughts, beliefs, and life experiences, the social, cultural and historical backgrounds, inadequate references, etc.

KEYWORDS:

• Relationship between the author and the translator
• power of tenor of discourse
• peritexts
• primary factor
• translation of Mengzi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There have been a very few pioneers who study the translation subjectivity based on SFL. Among them, Munday (2008) is the most representative.

2. Tenor of discourse constitutes context of situation, along with field of discourse and mode of discourse (Gregory 1967; Gregory and Carroll 1978; Halliday 1978; Halliday and Hasan 1985).

3. Power is called “status” by Zhang (1991, 1998), Martin ([1992] 2004) and Gao (2001).

4. Contact refers to “a social distance or intimacy” and involves four factors: the frequency of interaction, the extent in time of the contact, the extent of the role-diversification and the orientation of the interaction. Affect means “attitude or emotion towards addressee (or towards the field of discourse)” and includes two factors: marked and unmarked (Poynton 1989, 76–78). Both of them can be employed to explore the relationship between the author and the translator. But due to the space limitation, this thesis is only based on power and follow-up studies will deal with contact and affect.

5. In SFL, “{”means “both…and choice” and “[” means “either…or choice”.

6. Martin ([1992] 2004), Zhang (1991, 1998) and Gao (2001) do not classify the factors. That is probably why they have no explanation for this problem.

7. Peritexts is defined by Genette (1997, 4–5) as “such elements as the title or the preface and sometimes elements inserted into the interstices of the text, such as chapter titles or certain notes”. Please see Genette (1997) for more details.

8. Mengzi is a renowned thinker, educator, and philosopher living in the Warring States Period of Ancient China. There are two other opinions concerning Mengzi’s author: one is to believe that it is written by Mengzi himself and the other is by his disciples. Please see Lv (1986) for more details.

9. Please see Dobson (1963, xi-xviii) for more details.

10. In view of limited space, the commentaries are not quoted here in this paper. For more details, please see Van Norden (2008, 1–2).

11. Most core concepts contain multiple meanings, each of which are subject to a specific context situation; hence, their meanings are not indicated here.

12. For more details, Please see http://www4.hku.hk/hongrads/index.php/archive/graduate detail/172.

13. According to Cheng (2002), Legge draws extensively from Sishu Jizhu (Reflections of the Four Books).

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Beijing Social Science Fund [16YYB014] and the China Women’s University Scientific Research Project [KY2018-0304].

Notes on contributors

Jiao Zhang

Jiao Zhang, PhD of literature, lecturer of Foreign Languages Department, China Women's University. Research interests: systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis

Wei He

Wei He, PhD of literature, professor of Beijing Foreign Studies University. Research interests: systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, ecolinguistics, discourse analysis