On Application Of The Strategy Of Documentary Translation In Translating Political Informative Text-A Report On The Translation Of The People And Its Problems(Excepts)

This report is based on the translation of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of The Public and Its Problems which is a 1927 book by American philosopher John Dewey. In this work, Dewey touches upon major political philosophy questions that have continued into the 21 st century,specifically: can democracy work in the modern era? Is there such a thing as a “public” of democratic citizens, or is that public a phantom? All these questions are still quite significant in our times. Not only than that, Dewey’s definition of “public”, as described in the book, has profound implications for the significance of journalism in society.According to Reiss’ s text typology, this book can be categorized into the informative type. To be more specific, it can be regarded as political informative text since it mainly presents Dewey’s political views. The language he used is formal and concise. Moreover, the selected text contains numerous culture-loaded expressions with American political and social characteristics and long sentences. Consequently, by adopting the translation strategies of documentary translation issued by Nord to present source-culture and using both the English and Chinese version of The Phantom Public as key reference, the goal of this translation task is to convey information, as well as to present the cultural connotation hidden between lines.This report is divided into 5 parts, including task description, process description, the quality-control methods used in the process of translation, case study and conclusion. At the very beginning of this report, the author makes a brief introduction about the selecting source text and its author. And then she states her preparation before translating the text and presents the quality-control methods she used to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the translation.In the part of case study, the author makes preliminary discussion on the translation ofculture-loaded words and long sentences, and how to ensure to convey the meaning of terms accurately under the guidance of the selected translation strategies. It is expected that what we have discussed in this report can bring some suggestions and insights for both the author and its readers about the translation of political informative text.