Pre-systemic Foundations for Translation Studies: Readings Informing Systemic Functional Linguistics

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has been concerned with translation studies since its very inception.Such an interest in translation can be traced back to concepts and theories in the pre-SFL and embryonic SFL stages, such as scale and category theory, Firthian linguistics, and even Malinowski’s empirical field work in the Trobriand Islands.Pre-systemic Foundations for Translation Studies thus uncovers papers that represent the early engagement between linguistics and translation studies even prior to the development of SFL. As linguists and educators, Bo Wang, Yuanyi Ma, and Christian M.I.M.Matthiessen divide the discussion into four parts, covering studies by key figures such as Bronislaw Malinowski, J.R.Firth, M.A.K. Halliday, J.C. Catford, Jean Ure, and Jeffrey Ellis. Part I includes works by Bronislaw Malinowski and J.R.Firth, who have laid the foundations for Halliday’s SFL.Part II documents Halliday’s publications, focusing on his machine translation project started in the