Abstract: There are different linguistic approaches to the study of translation issues.This paper takes a functional-pragmatic perspective with the aim of exploring the identification of speaker meaning in relation to translation studies. The focus of the paper is on the functional analysis of the episode of “zi jian nan zi” in the Confucian Lun Yu(the Analects).The conclusion is that with regard to the translation of classic worksitis often difficultorim possible to identify the speaker meaning,and therefore the focus of evaluating translated text should be on whether it expresses the meaning in the product of intralingual translation.