A Principle For C-E Translation Of China's University Introductions

With Skopostheorie as its theoretical framework, this thesis is conducted on the study of the translation principle of China's university introductions. The thesis investigates 20 introductions of "Project 211" universities in China before finding out two kinds of translation problems in them:(1) pragma-linguistic failures, such as, inconsistency in terminology translation, inadequacy in collocation translation and improper arrangement of the target text; (2) socio-pragmatic failures, such as the ignorance of the differences between source-text addressees and target-text addressees in cultural convention and cognitive convention. These translation problems of university introductions hinder the effective communication between the university and its target readers.The author first reviews the studies on pragmatic translation as well as the studies on translation of university introductions, and analyzes the current translation of university introductions. Based on the investigations, the author points out that a university introduction is a kind of practical text and the translation purpose of a practical text is to realize the expected functions of target texts. After that, the author explores the translation purpose of university introductions and the functions of target texts.The investigations above help the author to discover the causes of the translation problems of university introductions. The problems arising out of the faithful translation based on the static equivalence of source texts, make the translated versions violate the target language conventions and fail in attracting target readers.. The author, therefore, proposes a translation principle of university introductions, namely, "Target Language Convention Adequacy".The principle "Target Language Convention Adequacy" refers to the qualities of a target text with regard to the translation purpose. It means that a target text should be adequate to the requirements of target language in conventions and norms. The principle covers 5 aspects for target texts to achieve:(1) adequacy to linguistic convention of target language, that is, target texts should be concise, accurate and idiomatic so as to avoid the Chinese thinking pattern; (2) adequacy to style convention of target language, that is, target texts should be close to the target readers'acceptance of the style convention so as to avoid overformal and tedious expressions; (3) adequacy to discourse convention of target language, that is, the target texts should focus on the key information and characteristics of the universities; (4) adequacy to cultural convention of target language, that is, the translated versions should deal with the cultural-specific terms and names of historical celebrities by adaptive devices; (5) adequacy to cognitive convention of target language, that is, the translated versions should consider the different thinking habits and cognitive disparities on ideological words and superfluous words so as to avoid the negative associations in target texts.In the thesis, the author employs 47 typical examples with modified versions provided. With the comparison of the original translated versions and the modified versions under the guidance of the principle, the translation principle proposed has been proven capable of solving the translation problems of university introductions.The thesis concludes that:with "Target Language Convention Adequacy" as the guiding principle, translated university introductions should be adequate to the conventions and norms of target language in linguistics, style, discourse, culture, and cognition, so as to eliminate the obstacles in cross-cultural communication and to improve the C-E translation of China's university introductions.