Modelling translation as re-instantiation

摘要

Drawing on the insights from systemic functional linguistics regarding the complementary relationship between language as system and language as text, this article attempts to model translation as a process of re-instantiation. It is argued that, since a text can be read in different ways depending on the social subjectivity of readers, any source text can actually be represented as a meaning potential and the different translated versions as re-instantiations of that meaning potential. Using Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice and its various translated versions as data, this paper explores how the source text has been differently re-instantiated in the target texts, focusing in particular on the different degrees of commitment - the amount of meaning potential activated in the process of instantiation. It is found that, in general, the target texts are differently committed both ideationally and interpersonally, and between the target texts themselves there are significant differences in the amount of meaning potential activated. It is concluded that modelling translation as re-instantiation helps us to better understand the nature of translation, as well as the micro-strategies involved in the translation process.