The book applies systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to the comparison of four English translations of the Platform Sutra (1930, 1977, 1998 and 2011) in the field of translation studies. The Platform Sutra is an ancient Chan Buddhist text that records the public sermons and conversations of the Chan master Huineng (638-713).
The focus of the book is on the image of Huineng recreated in each translation. The book integrates quantitative and qualitative analyses, adopting corpus linguistic tools such as SysFan, SysConc, and Wmatrix, with its methodology applicable in future studies. The analyses of the four translations are conducted from the perspectives of verbs of saying, personal pronouns, Mood and Modality, multimodality and evaluation, and textual complexity, which are within the ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions of SFL respectively. Both the recreating of images and the lexicogrammatical choices are further interpreted by taking the context of translation (Field, Tenor, Mode) into consideration.
The book provides an appropriate way to combine systemic functional linguistics with translation studies, highlighting the relationship between language, culture and translation. It also raises the question concerning the status of translated texts as the basis of scholarly research in the English world.
The Author
Hailing Yu is an assistant professor in the School of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hunan University, China.
hb ISBN 9781781797969
£75 / $100
Pub date: July 2019
Extent: 200pp
17 figures
Format: 234 x 156mm (9.21 x 6.14 inches)
Readership: scholars
Subjects:
Linguistics; Translation Studies
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Same Chan Master, Different Images: The Story of Huineng and Its Translations
3. Verbs of Saying and Images of Huineng
4. Personal Pronouns and Images of Huineng
5. Mood, Modality and Images of Huineng
6. Images of Huineng on Book Covers and in Verbal Texts
7. Paratextual Attitude and the Image of Huineng
8. Text Complexity and Images of Huineng
9. Conclusion
Appendix 1: English Translations of the Platform Sutra
