House's Translation Quality Assessment Model Applied In English-Chinese Translation

Since the implementation of Reform and Opening-up policies at the end of1970s, Chinese translation endeavor has begun to boom for the second time, following the first literary translation prosperity right after the foundation of PRC. However, the quality of translation is worsening in recent years, which has been widely denounced by translation critics and scholars in many other academic fields. German translation theorist Juliane House introduced her model for translation quality assessment(TQA) in her PhD. dissertation A Model for Translation Quality Assessment(1977) and the revised version Translation Quality Assessment:A Model Revisited(1997). Her model has been considered as the first and one of the few complete systems based on scientific theories and translation practice. Since House's model was based on German and English, two highly similar languages, it might not be universally applicable for other language pairs. This paper would introduce House's model into English to Chinese translation practices, with the purpose of testifying and verifying the feasibility and operability of this model for English-Chinese language pair. To do so, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture written by the American anthropologist Ruth Benedict and its Chinese version published by the Commercial Press are chosen to be the research subject; the source text and the translated text would be analyzed and evaluated in strict conformity with the procedures of House's model; and finally a conclusion would be reached. As is testified by practice, House's model is basically suitable for the assessment of English to Chinese translation, though certain points need to be adjusted so as to fit in the huge linguistic differences between English and Chinese. Therefore, as an inspiring perspective, House's model is valuable to be introduced into Chinese translation studies, for one thing, to promote the development of Chinese translation criticism, and for another, to improve the translation quality of English-Chinese translation.