A Study On Contemporary Translation Institutions In Chinese Mainland

With development of translation discipline and increasing demand for translation, translation institutions as their matched systems, have consequently enjoyed fast growth in scale and number since reform and opening up in China in 1978. Translation studies has been established as an independent discipline in very recent years in Chinese mainland, leaving so many fields to be improved for better, and translation institutions haven't grown quite mature with various drawbacks, which, to some extent, have hampered development of the institutions themselves. Worse still, present disordered situation of translation institutions haven't aroused enough attention within contemporary translation studies. Translation institution study is still a virgin land. Under such situation, it's quite high time to touch the unexplored field in order to improve the chaotic situations which are not favorable to the whole system of translation discipline. The dissertation is intended to make initial research on this land so as to get a clear and thorough knowledge of translation institutions and provide guidance for their further development. In this thesis, translation institution study pertains to applied part of translation studies, and so, the research is hoped to enrich the applied translation studies and further contribute to the whole translation discipline.Translation institutions bear general characteristics of ordinary institutions and meanwhile, are closely related to translation studies, which distinguish themselves from other ordinary institutions. They exist as entities in the society, providing physical conditions for construction and development of translation discipline. Without specific operation of translation institutions, any efforts related to translation studies can not be fulfilled, so the bridge role of translation institutions is rather crucial and necessary. As an inter-discipline, translation studies involves language, culture, psychology, information technology, history and other perspectives, all of which can't play their role in vacuum but have to relay on specific embodiment. It's translation institutions that integrate those factors into translation, and otherwise, it's worthless to pay any painstaking efforts on translation if translation institution study is ruled out of translation studies.Different types of translation institutions are originated from various demands for translation and consequently, there occur a diversity of translation institutions with according functions. Some mainly play their role on translation theory, some are primarily involved in cultivating translation professionals, some in translation publishing, and there are other providing translation services. Based on distinctive functions, these translation institutions have their own working principles, goals, activities. They serve development of translation discipline, and satisfy social demand for translation from different regards. In addition, relevance with translation theory is different because of their individual nature. The fact that difference between them seemingly surpasses their similarity doesn't deny their common features, which lie in their physical constitutions for supporting and promoting development of translation discipline.From descriptive models of a vicissitude of translation institutions since reform and opening up in 1978, we can obtain a relatively comprehensive learning on how each type of translation institutions act, their principles and their contributions to the discipline. Facing various translation institutions, only if all of them are classified according to certain standard and typical ones within each type are described, can we have a clear knowledge and a good mastery of translation institutions with ease and step into our research on them with more scientific starting point. Current translation institutions in Chinese mainland include four main types according to their distinctive function, i.e. translation research institutions, translation education institutions, translation publication institutions and translation service institutions. Each type plays its role in translation studies from different angles.In this dissertation, translation institutions study pertains to applied part in Holmes" framework of translation studies, with an aim of providing guidance in macroscopic development and specific operation of translation institutions. The study contains theoretical and applied part, the former focusing on translation institutions' nature, principle, value and so on. differentiating translation institution study from research on other aspects within translation field, the latter on concrete operation which can be undertaken from internal and external angles. Theoretical part contains general theory and partial theory. The general theory mainly involves common features of translation institutions, while the partial part is to research certain type of translation institutions in terms of functions or to study some aspect of translation institution in detail.The significance of any theory lies in guiding practice. As matched products of an emerging discipline, it's inevitable for translation institutions to generate various problems in not only management but also operation. In this dissertation, some tentative suggestions for solutions are proposed in macroscopic and microscopic levels. Macroscopic solutions for translation institutions will guarantee that translation institutions can run in a planning road, restricting and avoiding occurrence of any disordered situation, while in microscopic level, specific work within a translation institution will be engaged, directly directing how to operate some translation institutions properly to ensure that end-products will come out smoothly and get satisfactory acceptance.In conclusion, the limitations are foreseen as inherent in the dissertation and the prospect on translation institutions in the future is predicted.