17. Halliday and translation theory: enhancing the options, broadening the range and keeping the ground
Continuing Discourse on Language - A Functional Perspective, Volumes 1 and 2 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
Erich Steiner [+ ]
Saarland University
Erich Steiner, born 1954 in Heidelberg/ Germany, studied English and German Philology in Freiburg, Saarbrücken, Cardiff, Reading and London (GB), and has held posts in Saarbrücken, Luxembourg and Darmstadt. He has served as Head of Department, Pro-Dean and Dean at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken, and has received calls from several other universities. Since 1990, he has been Chair of English Linguistics and Translation Studies, later on English Translation Studies, Dept. of Language Science and Technology, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken. His major research interests include Functional Linguistics, Translation Theory and Comparative Linguistics, as well as Empirical Linguistics more generally. He has been Visiting Professor at Rice University, Houston/ Texas, at the University of Southern California/ Los Angeles, Dublin City University, Macquarie University Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Oslo, as well as Hong Kong Polytechnic University and City University of Hong Kong over the past 30 years.
Description
In this chapter, an attempt will be made to explore the mutual influence which systemic functional linguistics as a theory of language and the phenomenon of translation as a relationship between texts and as an activity, have had on each other. We shall argue that this influence so far has been largely one-way, as an influence which the theory has had on work in translation theory and didactics. Apart from trying to outline this influence in some more detail, we shall indicate potential ways in which the phenomenon of translation in its turn could have the role of a guiding application and thus of a source of insight, for further developments in the theory itself.