Translation Of Non-Fiction Literature From The Perspective Of Newmark’s Translation Theory

In view of the relatively few domestic researches on the translation of non-fiction literature,this paper analyzed the text features of the translation project of an American narrative non-fiction story named “The Oilman’s Daughter”,and then discussed Newmark’s text classification theory,translation methods of semantic translation and communicative translation as well as his correlative approach applied in the project for prominent problems emerged in translation practice.It included comparative analysis of two drafts for each example and summarized the translation experience gained from discussion with the aim of contributing to the study in the field of non-fiction literature translation.This paper found that the original text mainly reflects the following characteristics: real content,objective narration,informative on legal issues,rich American background knowledge and culture,simple language and smooth logic with some literary contents and identifiable words and expressions.A guideline was summarized in the paper for translators dealing with non-fiction narratives: it suggests that macro and micro analyses of text features,text types,language functions and language importance should be taken into consideration,that such methods as semantic translation and communicative translation be applied flexibly,and that correlation principles proposed by Newmark be served as reference for guiding translation practice.Specifically,it was divided into four parts.Firstly,exact contextual meaning is of great importance as both semantic translation and communicative translation require the accurate contextual meaning of the original text to be transferred.For legal contents and even seemingly common words and expressions,the information should be verified carefully within the text and in American culture.Secondly,literary parts,the author’s identical contents and unique expressions should be translated as close as possible to the original text.It is advised to mainly use close translation and semantic translation.Thirdly,for contents reflecting the background knowledge and culture of the United States,translators can choose semantic translation and communicativetranslation appropriately on the ground of the importance of the original language and the actual differences of the two countries,and supplement the missing background information in the Chinese text when necessary.Finally,for other general contents that are easy to be understood,the differences between English and Chinese language forms,the characteristics and importance of the original text should be highly valued.Translators should mainly use communicative translation to ensure the fluency and readability of the target Chinese text.