Study of Characteristics in Three Translations of Lun Yu (The Analects) from the Tenor Perspective

The paper attempts to investigate the correlation between the three variables of tenor and the characteristics in three different translations of Lun Yu (The Analects) . By discussing three aspects of tenor, namely, role relationship, power and social distance in relation to the characteristics in translations, the paper illustrates why they are correlated and indicates that a systemic functional analysis of texts helps readers to better understand the texts. The findings of this study will give implications to translation studies.