“Aspect” refers to the state(s) of an event observed by a speaker from a certain or a series of temporal viewpoints. According to the number of temporal viewpoints a speaker chooses or the event state(s) observed in a clause, aspects fall naturally into two types in both English and Chinese, viz. simple aspect and complex aspect. Simple aspect refers to the state of an event observed from one temporal viewpoint, and is realized by one form, while complex aspect refers to the states of an event observed from a series of temporal viewpoints, and is realized by a series of forms. As one of the essential components in time system, aspect exists in both languages at the level of meaning, while its realization forms are language specific. Based on the above re-definition and re-classification of aspect within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper continues to compare the realizations of simple aspects in English with those in Chinese. The research results show that in either English or Chinese, there are grammatical, quasi-grammatical and lexical simple aspects. However, in both languages, aspects of different grammaticalization degree present similarities and divergences on their components and numbers in a clause.

Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road during his overseas visits in 2013. Thereafter he illustrated the essence and significance of The Belt and Road in many international speeches. Focusing on this kind of discourse practice, this study aims to do a thorough and detailed analysis of these five international speeches from a discourse perspective. It is found in this research that “cooperation” is the main theme in President Xi Jinping’s discourse, and President Xi has employed subject terms such as “co-creating”, “hand in hand”, “community” and “working with” to express the essence of “the Belt and Road” in the world stage. The discourse strategies manifested in President Xi’s speeches mainly include “listing data and figures”, “story-telling”, “using quotations” and “telling personal experience”, which have greatly enhanced the communication effect and fit well with China’s status and positions in the world. Meanwhile, the discourse practice of these international speeches on the topic of The Belt and Road is significant and beneficial for President Xi’s positive international image and China’s image promotion. The discourse practice of Chinese President Xi Jinping on the topic of the Belt and Road is also a successful case of China’s international construction of discourse power.

This article investigates quantificational topics and foci combined with information structure and representational theory. And particularly under phase theory we make a further inquiry into peripheral information structure, events and functional phase edges. The research herein shows that Chinese topics together with the topics and foci in Indo-European languages can be incorporated into the left edges of CP phases representing information-structure properties, and additionally that information structure presents cross-linguistic universality. Information structure produces semantic effects on sentences with QNPs modified by determiners. It testifies the L-marked set of structural levels. Functional phase model can license [+topic] and [+foc] edge features triggering peripheral derivations. IS can be marked by word order and prosodic prominence. And event structure can interact with functional layers. Topicalization and informational focalization as grammatical operations follow inclusiveness condition, and are also driven by pragmatic convergent conditions. Functional phases CP and vP domains show similarities in the periphery of clauses whereby hanging topics get full interpretation. Topicalization involves recursive phasal decompositions. The paper aims to explore the interactive interface relations of syntax-CS-IS-discourse invoked for the interpretations of topics and foci.

The theoretical basis of translation studies is reinforced by theories from literature, cultural studies and sociology, which have partly established and formed the foundation of translation studies. The focus of translation studies changes from the contrast and analysis between source language texts and target language texts from the research of grammar, syntax, and discourse to the study of influential factors such as society, culture and history on a macro level. Using Bourdieu’s social theory, this thesis discusses the manipulation process of the cultural capital elements in WU Guangjian’s translation career. The cultural capital is the translator’s starting point in this field and it is closely interacted with and related to the translator’s translating motive, social trajectory, and translation choice and translation strategy. The manipulation of cultural capital is the process when the translator or/and the patronage employ(s) the materials to be translated and their translation strategies aim to reproduce culture in the target language and pursue the acceptance and profit of translation texts. This article draws upon Bourdieu’ social theory to analyze the influences of the three forms of cultural capital on WU Guangjian’s translation. Furthermore, interactive relationships between translation behavior and cultural capital are elucidated.

Picture book, originated and developed in Europe and America, was introduced to China Mainland in the 1990s, and its surging introduction. In the recent 10 years solicited much attention from the academia of translation studies. However, when it comes to the translation of children’s picture books, most researches confine their analyses and discussion within the perspective of interlingual translation which merely focuses on the transfer of meaning across two different linguistic signs and takes no consideration of the feature of picture book. Picture book is essentially a kind of text with the combination of pictorial signs and verbal signs as the way of expression and narration. And in most cases, it is picture that plays a significant role in facilitating the text narration and interpretation of picture books. Hence, the current research view seems inadequate and needs to incorporate new perspectives such as intersemiotic translation which places the equal importance onto the pictorial and verbal signs. This paper based on Jacobson’s translation trichotomy attempts to explore the issues of the translation ontology of children’s picture books and discuss the fidelity and cultural issues in their translation process especially from the perspective of intersemiotic translation, which in author’s opinion should be reintroduced into translation studies as a means for achieving a better understanding of translator’s decision-making, and if possible, as a new angle necessarily adopted for the future translation studies.

In Chinese American literature, particularly in the works of female Chinese American writers, “food” has repeatedly appeared as important images, containing profound gender political connotations. With the help of gender politics theories, this article has explored relationships between gender politics and those heroines’ various eating preferences and food choices in female Chinese American literary works of different phases: for lack of gender and racial awareness, some heroines are satisfied with the traditionally stereotyped image to become model ethnic groups; in a split of cultural identification, some heroines are bold enough to present fierce protest and criticism against traditional gender relationships; surpassing the narrow sense of gender and ethnic awareness, some heroines are more concerned with pursuing sexual pleasure. To deconstruct gender and racial oppressions, female Chinese American writers have actually adopted literary creation as a political strategy to demonstrate their long-term struggle and resistance through food narration. Therefore the meaning of this article lies in the fact that it reveals how female Chinese American writers, based on their unique life experiences, integrate political appeals into large numbers of food images. By means of food narration, female Chinese American writers have expressed their voices by portraying a series of heroines who develop their dominant position from subordinate position, thus finally succeeded in constructing female consciousness of subjectivity.

“Literariness”, “poetic function” and “dominant” are three related and inseperable core categories in Roman Jakobson’s structural linguistic poetics, but “Dominant” is the first door to “Literariness” and “poetic function”. In two articles, “Dominant” and “Linguistics and Poetics”, he not only gives a clear definition of the “dominant”, and explains the structural features of the poetic work, also analyzes the inner rule of the evolution of literature (poetry) and art detailedly, reveals the moving characteristics of "literariness", and further proposes that the poetic function is verbal art’s dominant function, which determine the concrete manifestation of “literariness”. “Dominant” determines the characteristics of literature genre and structure of the work. The continuous transformation between the dominant function and the subordinate function causes the regular and constant evolution of literary system, and the formation of literariness. The “poetic function”, which takes up the dominant and determinate function in verbal art, acts as a subsidiary, accessory constituent in non-verbal art. "Dominant" poetics not only realize the “the historicization of the form” and “the formalization of history”, also realize the correction of the early Russian formalist poetics’ mechanization ills by structural linguistic poetics and the development of the Prague School’s poetics. In the context of contemporary culture, we need to understand and absorb the inherent spirit of “Dominant” poetics, bring the interpretation effect and theoretical value into full play in the changeable context of national reality, historical culture and literary conception, and explore the uncertain “literariness” sequentially between the interaction of “form” and “history”.

Tinkers, the maiden novel of Paul, tells about the three generations’ home construction of the Crosbys in the West Cove of the New England during the period of colonization and the capitalization. However, to some degree, the common life of the three generations really reflects the tremendous changes in spatial and temporal aspects of the West Cove. This paper attempts to interpret the major images of the spaces in the novel by analyzing the typical spatial activities of the Crosbys and the changes of living space of the native Indians who accompany the three generations by using spatial theory. The author of this article finds that the spiritual home of George’s grandfather vanishes, the poetic home of George’s father Edward aborts, George’ material home is meaningless, while the native Indians take shelters in the forest and soon then are confined in the reservation places. So to some extent, all of them are homeless. The author, Paul Harding, reveals that the expansion and invasion of the European colonialism and the capitalism not only destroy the geographical features of the West Cove but also hurt the local residents’ spiritual homes by making up the Crosbys’ trauma of home construction and the Indians’ sufferings from losing homeland. Meanwhile, he demonstrates his unique comprehension on the individual’s living space as well as his concern about the fortune of the earth, the only home of all the human beings.

Starting from an archetypal analysis of Leonard, the protagonist of Barnes’ Interference, this paper finds that Leonard is a passionate practicer of Nietzsche’s doctrine of  the will to power. Nietzsche’s doctrine of thewill to power is the core around which the spiritual part of the protagonist is fabricated. While he is constructing the image of the protagonist, Barnes betrays his sympathy and understanding, as well as his despising and irony. With deep understanding, full sympathy and even a touch of admiration, the novelist vividly presents Leonard’s views on loneliness, morality, religion and feminism, which are based on Nietzsche’s doctrine of the will to power. Meanwhile, Barnes takes a mocking attitude towards Leonard’s weirdness and eccentricity. Stimulated by Dionysian spirit which is based on Nietzsche’s doctrine of the will to power, art reaches its summit in the pursuit of beauty. Beauty of artis what Barnes highly extols, but the application of artistic doctrine in real life incurs a lot of embarrassment and even results in the tragedy of the Nietzschean hero. Extolling the beauty of art has been Barnes’ favorite theme, but the intermingling of art and life is the object which Barnes satirizes and criticizes. Paradoxically admiring and mocking the Nietzschean hero, Barnes renders the story with a postmodern style, which embraces contrasts and paradoxes.

The issue of cross-linguistic influence during second language acquisition has long been an important topic in second language acquisition research. During the last two decades, however, there has been increased interest in a relatively under-explored field: third language acquisition.From the point of view of cross-linguistic influence, the question arises as to how the languages interact with one another during the language learning process. The learning environment of foreign languages in China is changing alongside the pace of globalization. For foreign language learners in China, learning two or more foreign languages has gained more practical ground; yet, there is little research on the relationship between the processes of learning two foreign languages, and whether learning one foreign language would exert any influences on the other. This study adopts the lens of multilingualism to examine the relationship between college German and English test scores of college students who speak Chinese as their native language. Test scores of Prüfung für das Germanistik-Grundstudium (PGG) and College English Test-Level 4 (CET-4) of college sophomores majoring in German at a foreign language institute were analyzed. The results show a significant correlation between the English and German test scores. German learners’ CET-4 scores vary depending on their PGG scores. It is clear that English and German proficiency impacts each other. Moreover,prior learning experiences of foreign languages and the proficiency of such foreign language influences later learning processes and outcomes.