Theme Analysis for Translation

朱運通

Theme Analysis for Translation

朱運通

In this essay, I am going to discuss the various aspects of Theme Analysis for translation between English and Chinese, based on the framework of the Systemic Functional Linguistics． I will try to show the significance of the Theme Analysis theory to translation studies, by covering three major sub-areas named the choice of theme markedness, the shift between topic-theme and subject theme, and the implification of thematic progression pattern on translation．

Theme-Rheme Theory Translation Application

一、Introduction: the Theme-Rheme System

Halliday and Matthiessen summarised that theme is given information ‘which locates and orients the clause within its context’; while Rheme, the rest of the clause, typically contains unfamiliar or new information to which Theme is developed. That is to say, a sentence usually consists of a Theme followed by a Rheme. The information flow from Theme to Rheme is of critical importance in achieving communicative effectiveness. Since the Theme-Rheme system is defined based on study of English, the means by which Theme-Rheme is expressed may vary across languages. Even though, the Theme-Rheme analysis focuses mainly on the general communication of texts and therefore not language-specific.

The Theme-Rheme structure may be briefly illustrated as in the following figure.

Based on the above definition of Theme, it has essentially two functions：

（1）as a point of orientation by referring back to the given information having been mentioned

（2）as a point of departure from which the new information, Rheme, takes off Basically, the theme-rheme distinction is textual, with its value lying in the controlling of information flow. Theme and Rheme are semantic notions used to account for textual acceptability, which is particularly important in the translation process. In addition, the Theme-Rheme distinction is of critical significance in developing a text and maintaining textual continuity.

In short, the Theme-Rheme system talks about the ordering of the clause, which could help in the understanding of text organization and therefore highly applicable to translation.

二、Application of Theme Analysis to Translation

（一）The choice of Theme markedness

According to Eggins (2004： 318), unmarked simply means‘most typical/usual’, while marked means ‘atypical, unusual’. Theme markedness is observed to convey implied meanings by putting emphasis on different parts of a clause, which purposes on the internal cohesion of the text (Eggins, 2004： 321). In the Chinese translation from and into English, for instance, the translator often needs to make a choice of theme markedness, because the theme in English is mostly unmarked while in Chinese it is more often marked.

For example,

Rothko attended Yale University, New Haven, on a scholarship from 1921 to 1923.

My translation is

1921到1923年期間，他獲得獎學金在耶魯大學紐黑文校區學習。(Back translation： 1921 to 1923 period, he got a scholarship at Yale University New Haven studied).

In this example, the ST unmarked theme ‘Rothko’ was shifted to the TT marked theme ‘1921 to 1923 period’. This is because Chinese bibliographies tends to emphasize on time and thus sentences usually begins with time, while in English the order of time in a sentence may be more flexible.

（二）The shift between Topic Theme and Subject Theme

As a matter of fact, the subject in English is mostly the same as the theme, so linguists usually refer English as a subject-prominent language. By contrary, Chinese is observed as typically topic-prominent. But what is the relationship between topic and theme? The topic dominantly occurs in the initial place part of a clause just like the theme does, but unlike Theme‘Topic does not just control reference within clause boundaries; it controls reference outside clause boundaries as well’. Subject and topic are different entities： the subject is “the noun phrase that has a ‘doing’ or ‘being’ relationship with the verb” while the topic is “what the sentence is about”.

This distinction may be applied to the translation process. Usually, in Chinese-English translation, the topic-theme structure can be shifted to the subject-theme structure to maintain a sense of language cohesiveness, or vice versa.

For example,

家住海雅百貨背后的朱小姐穿上健身服，打算前往對面的和平健身中心健身。當她走到斑馬線中央時，恰好碰上紅燈，于是停下腳步。” (Direct translation：（Ms Zhu）Living behind the Haiya Department Store, Ms Zhu put on gym clothes, (She）plan go to the opposite Heping Fitness Center exercise. When she go to the zebra line crossing central, （Ms Zhu） happened to cross the red light, so （she）stopped. ).

The above source text is typically of the topic-theme structure, so the pronouns are omitted where applicable, because Chinese is topic-prominent. When it was translated into English, the TT added the pronouns back where necessary,because English is a subject-prominent language.

（三）Thematic Progression and Translation

The above two parts mainly talks the choice of Theme in the translation process. There is one more issue in thematic structure worth discussing. Unlike at the sentence level where the information flows from Theme to Rheme is of critical importance, at the text level the development of successive Theme and Rheme combinations is of significant priority for text analysis. The Theme and Rheme combination, that is the Thematic Progression (TP), is believed to contribute to the cohesion and coherence of a text. As far as the translation is concerned, the original TP pattern should be retained as much as possible in the TT to avoid the problem of incoherent information flow.

For example,

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in

privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in judgment and

disposition of business. (Theme is underlined, same in the following).

A famous Chinese translation is：

讀書足以怡情，足以博彩，足以長才。其怡情也,最見于獨處幽居之時； 其博彩也，最見于高談闊論之中；其長才也,最見于處世利事之際。

(Back translation： Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability. The delight, mostly seen in sloth; the ornament, mostly seen in discourse; the ability, mostly seen in life skills.）

The source text is of a multiple-Rheme pattern. The first sentence is developed studies as the Theme and three new information points (for delight, for ornament, and for ability) as the Rhemes. In the second sentence, the three information points become familiar and thus served as three corresponding Themes orienting three parallel Theme-Rheme clauses.

In this example, the target text has reproduced the TP pattern of the source text, and maintained the original information structure.

Each language, however, has its own features which should be followed for the purpose of effective communication. Therefore, the effective translators should make necessary adjustment in order to re-express the source information with the specific structure of the target language. That is to say, if the translator finds it difficult to reproduce the original TP pattern, s/he may need to adapt appropriately to the target language to maintain the overall communicative effect.

For example,

大自然的鬼斧神工, 造就了長江三峽絕妙的奇景。氣勢雄偉的瞿塘峽, 逶迤曲折的巫峽, 礁石縱橫的西陵峽, 無不風姿卓約, 光彩照人。

(Direct translation： Natural mysterious force create Three Gorges wonderful spectacle. Imposing Qutang Gorge, winding Wu George, reef-meandering reef Xiling Gorge brilliant shiny.)

My revised translation：

The Yangtze River boasts of the fascinating Three Gorges created by almighty Mother Nature. The Three Gorges consists of grandiose Qutang Gorge, meandering Wu Gorge, and heavily-shoaled Xiling Gorge. All of them are saturated in splendid beauty.

The source text does not have clear TP pattern. So if the translation follows the ST, the TT would be loose in textual structure while the information structure would be in disorder and hard to understand. Therefore, the translation has restructured the TP pattern based on English written style.

三、Conclusion

In this paper, within the framework of systemic-functional linguistics, I have discussed three major aspects of Theme Analysis and its application to translation. Translational practices have clearly shown that the choice of Theme markedness, the shift between subject-theme and topic-theme, and the choice of TP pattern all play significant role on the communicative effectiveness of the target text. It is, therefore, reasonable to say that Theme Analysis is of critical importance in effective translation.

[1]Baker, M． (2000)． In Other Words： A Coursebook on Translation． Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing．

[2]Eggins, S． (2004)． An Introduction to Systematic Functional Linguistics． Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd．

（作者單位：濱州學院）