On Translation Policies From The Perspective Of The Social Functions Of Translation

With the rapid development and globalization of the world's economy, the communication among different cultures has become more and more frequent. As an indispensable medium in the transnational economical and cultural communication, translation is playing a more and more significant role in promoting the international communication and advancing human development. With quite a long history of translation, our China saw three translation climaxes in history: the translation of Buddhist texts from Eastern Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty, the translation of western science and technology in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty and the introduction of western learning from the Opium War to the May 4th Movement. An overview of these three translation climaxes makes it quite clear that some of the important social progress in Chinese history was tightly related to the translation activities at that time. Currently, the cyberization and integrity of global economy and the further advancement of the opening and reform in China have set a favorable situation for the fourth translation climax, which offers good opportunity for the prosperity of translation in our country. Under such a background, study on translation from different angles is becoming more and more significant practically. And putting translation into the social contexts and studying it from macroscopic perspectives should undoubtedly be the focus of today's translation studies. However, in recent years, though the study fields have been extended by many Chinese scholars, the proposal for formulating translation policies through the systematic and comprehensive research into the current situation of translation world turns out to be a new issue so far. Based on the reality, the author hopes to make a tentative study systematically on translation policies so that it can receive adequate attention.The study conducted in this thesis falls into three facets. The first part is about the study of the social functions of translation. The author maintains that as regards the study of translation policies, the social functions of translation should be the primary issue that needs to be concerned first. On this issue, the author holds the idea that translation does play quite a positive role in enhancing communication, enriching culture, enlightening people's minds and promoting language development. Meanwhile, the author points out that translation may exert some negative influence on human society due to the inappropriate introduction of some foreign cultural dregs.The constraining factors on translation within the social contexts are analyzed in the second part. By employing the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, the author thinks that such factors as social politics, economy, patrons and translators themselves including their motive, concept and abilities will exert the most influential impacts on translation.Based on the analysis above, some ideas on translation policies are put forward in the third part. First of all, today's situation in translation world is that under the influence of the market economy, many links during the translation process are facing criticism by many. So, on this issue, the author first makes a comprehensive overview and analysis of the current situation in translation world and finds that some problems like pursuing the quantity of translated works rather than the quality, the deficiency of corresponding statutes and the inefficiency of the supervision and the inadequate academic concern exist today. Then, the author draws the conclusion that it is of great urgency to work out positive policies so that the translation activities can be guided to the right track and in establishing translation policies the role of government and the society should never be neglected. First, our government should increase investment into translation to further translation education and encourage and reward excellent translations. Second, it is advisable that our government enact corresponding laws to regulate translation activities. Thus, the translation market can be restricted by the supervision and management of law. Third, our society should attach more importance to translation in order to create a favorable atmosphere for the normal conducting of translation activities thus to promote the healthy and orderly development of translation.