Abstract
The government work report covers China's political, economic, social and other aspects and development directions, which undoubtedly provides an effective way for the world to understand China's policies and national conditions. Therefore, the translation of government work reports is particularly important.
This thesis takes the 2018 government work report as the research object and explores its English translation with the help of functional equivalence theory. This thesis first reviews the research status of the English translation of government work reports, especially the research results of functional equivalence theory in the English translation of government work reports, and analyzes the characteristics of government work reports and translation principles. With the theory of functional equivalence, the translation process, reasons and considerations are analyzed from three aspects: lexical, syntactic and discoursal level. The lexical level includes three parts: translation of tone of words, translation of excessive intensifiers, and high-frequency word translation. The syntactic level includes translation of tense, zero subject and long sentences. The thesis mainly explores the English translation from the aspect of coherence, with a view to contribute to the English translation of government work report and other political texts.
Key Words: Functional Equivalence Theory, English translation of GWR, translation strategy
摘要
每年的政府工作报告涉及经济、政治、科教、文化社会民生及科技发展等方面，在向世界传递中国声音和让其他国家了解中国发挥着不可言喻的作用。因而，政府工作报告的翻译尤为重要，其中的翻译艺术值得我们探索研究。
本文以2018年政府工作报告为研究对象，借助功能对等理论探索其英译文本。本文首先回顾了政府工作报告英译研究现状，尤其是功能对等理论在政府工作报告英译中的研究成果，分析了政府工作报告的特点和翻译原则。借助功能对等理论，从词汇、句法、语篇三方面实例分析还原背后的翻译过程、原因及思量。词汇层面包含语气翻译、强调成分的翻译、高频词翻译三部分，句法层面包含时态、形式、零主语及长句四部分，语篇方面主要从连贯性方面探索其英译，以期为政宣资料翻译提供启发。
摘要：功能对等理论；政府工作报告英译；翻译策略
Content
Abstract I
摘要 II
Content III
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Literature Review 2
2.1 Review of research on GWR Translation 2
2.2 Review of the Application of Functional Equivalence in GWR Translation 4
Chapter 3 The Functionalist Approach 5
3.1 Nida and His Functional Equivalence Theory 5
3.2 The Text Typology in the Functionalist Approach 10
Chapter 4 The Characteristic of GWR and Translation Principles 13
4.1 Overview of GWR and its English Translation 13
4.2 Linguistic Characteristics of GWR 13
4.3 Culture Difference Between Chinese and English 15
Chapter 5 Translation at Three Level of 2018Government Work Report 17
5.1 Translation at Lexical Level 18
5.1.1 Translation of Tone of Words 18
5.1.2 Translation of Excessive Intensifiers 19
5.1.3 Translation of the High-Frequence Words in Different Culture 20
5.2 Translation at Syntactic Level 21
5.2.1 Translation of Tense 21
5.2.2 Translation of Modality 22
5.2.3 Translation of Zero-Subject Sentences 22
5.2.4 Translation Strategies of Long Sentences 23
5.3 Translation at Textual Level 24
5.3.1 Translation of Cohesion 24
5.3.2 Translation of Coherence 25
Chapter 6 Conclusion 25
References 27
Chapter 1 Introduction
As the overall national strength continues to increase, China is playing an increasingly important role in international affairs. China is eager to issue the "Chinese voice" to the world. Foreigners are also willing to cooperate with China to understand China's policies and policies. The government work report covers China's political, economic, social and other aspects and development directions, which undoubtedly provides an effective way for the world to understand China's policies and national conditions. With the substantial development of China, words and phrases with Chinese characteristic in the GWR are mushrooming, covering many aspects of China which play a critical role in airing China’s voice to foreign audience. Therefore, the translation of government work reports is important, especially the translation of words and phrases with Chinese characteristic . However, for the translator, it is difficult and challenging. Due to its distinctive political nature, the translation is required to accurately reflect the content of the report. To a certain extent, it represents national interests. Furthermore, there is a large number of vocabulary with Chinese characteristics in the report, and it is difficult to find the equivalence/ in English. Therefore, it is not easy to do a good job in the art of government work report. It plays an important role in conveying Chinese voice to the world and letting other countries understand China because the annual government work report covers economics, politics, science and education, cultural society, people's livelihood and scientific and technological development. Therefore, the translation of government work reports is particularly important, and the translation art is worth exploring.
Nida's translation theory was formed in the 1960s and introduced to China in 1980s. "Functional Equivalence" is his central translation thinking. In 1964, Nida first proposed in "Exploration of Translation Science" the concept of "dynamic equivalence", suggesting a transition from static text information to the reader's dynamic information (Nida, 1964). The essence of "functional equivalence" is to compare the way of understanding and appreciation of source text readers to that of target text readers, requiring readers of translated texts to understand the way the original text of the reader can do.
This thesis takes the 2018 government work report as the research object and explores its English translation with the help of Functional Equivalence Theory. This thesis first reviews the research status of the English translation of government work reports, especially the research results of functional equivalence theory in the English translation of government work reports, and analyzes the characteristics of government work reports and translation principles. With the theory of functional equivalence, the translation process, reasons and considerations are analyzed from three aspects: lexical, syntactic and discoursal level. The lexical level includes three parts: translation of tone of words, translation of excessive intensifiers, and high-frequency word translation. The syntactic level includes translation of tense, zero subject and long sentences. The thesis mainly explores the English translation from the aspect of coherence and cohesion, with a view to contribute to the English translation of government work report and other political texts.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Review of Research on GWR Translation
Domestic study attaches much more attention to the English translation of sentences in GWR. When searching “政府工作报告英译”in CNKI, we can get 213 articles or more, most of which study from the perspective of domestication, foreignization and so forth.
First, the majority of researches on English translation of government work reports are conducted from diversified perspectives, including Manipulation Theory, Translation Ethics Theory, Skopos Theory, Conceptual Integration Theory, Relevance Theory, Ecological Translation Theory, Text Type Theory, etc. For instance, Li Huihui(2017) studied the 2015 Chinese government work report under the guidance of Manipulation Theory. The analysis proves the feasibility of application of manipulation theory in the English translation of government work reports, broadens the scope of application of translation manipulation theory and provides a new perspective for the translation of government work reports. Lv Feisha(2018) explored the translation of political texts with focus on those of Government Work Reports from the perspective of Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics. The study found that, as a political text, the translation of government work reports accurately reproduced the original text content. And the heterogeneous culture, such as the policy guidelines proposed by the leaders in the original text, reflects the content of the reproduction ethics. Secondly, by analyzing the translation of high-frequency vocabulary in the government work report, it is known that omission, adaptation and literal translation are employed to accurately convey the intention of the target of the translation, that is, the intention of the Chinese government. When there are metaphors, numerical abbreviations, and other sentences with Chinese characteristics in the original text, the translation mainly adopts methods such as free translation and amplification, which makes it easy for readers to understand and meet the information of foreign audiences. The demand, in turn, achieves the purpose of cross-cultural communication and embodies the effects of communication ethics. The original text and the translation can be seen that the Chinese-English translation process uses such methods as deleting redundant words and adding conjunctions. The translation is more in line with the habit of the target language and the cultural background and expectations of the reader, thus reflecting the norm-based Ethical requirements; finally, when the above four ethical patterns conflict, the translator chooses according to his professional quality. Zhen Yanhong(2018) believed that the vocabulary with Chinese characteristics in the 2018 "Government Work Report" can be summarized as Chinese vocabulary with Chinese characteristics, number vocabulary with Chinese characteristics, Chinese-specific four-character idiom vocabulary and Chinese-specific regional abbreviations. Translation methods are explored under the guidance of Skopos Theory, including literal translation and literal translation plus note. Besides, Liu Mengyu(2017) starts from the linguistic features of the "Government Work Report" and uses qualitative analysis methods to analyze cognitive process behind translation strategy from three levels of words, sentences and chapters under the guidance of Conceptual Integration Theory. Yang Jiali(2018) translated 2017 Wuling District Government Work Report with the help of Relevance Theory. The author finds that the corresponding logical subject is appropriately added when the sentence has no subject, so that the translator further highlights the communicative intention of the original author, and the target reader pays the least effort to achieve the best connection between the translation and the target reader. For the numerical abbreviations commonly used in government reports, this article uses the method of interpretation of the meaning that the original author wants to express, so that the reader can better understand and strengthen the translation. For the translation of Chinese cultural-loaded vocabulary and sentences with redundant vocabulary, free translation is employed to offer the readers sufficient and reasonable context information. Zhu Mengchun(2018) studied from the perspective of ecological translation theory hot words in 2017 "Government Work Report and explored the translation principles and methods of these hot words. Zhang Yawei(2018) elaborated and analyzed the translation process of 2017 Hubei Provincial Government Work Report from three aspects: pre-translation, translation, and post-translation, focusing on the language features of government work report from the perspective of text type theory.
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