Translation Strategies For Long Sentences From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Spy Chiefs,co-edited by intelligence experts Christopher Moran,Mark Stout,Ioanna Iordanou and Paul Maddrell,tells the story of the famous intelligence officers of the United States and Britain in the twentieth century.The translator chooses Chapter seven of the book as the source text.Chapter seven is named To Command or Direct? and reports the history of how several earliest directors of the US National Security Agency used their power and wisdom to meet challenges and succeed during their tenure.There are a lot of long sentences in the source text,which causes difficulties in both understanding and translation.In light of Adaptation Theory,this report analyzes the translation methods for long sentences in the source text.Adaptation Theory was put forward by the famous Belgian linguist Verschueren.According to Adaptation Theory,language has three characteristics: variability,negotiability and adaptability.The process of language use is a dynamic process of continuous choices on the basis of the three characteristics.Adaptation Theory is originally a theory in the field of pragmatics,but now is widely applied in translation studies because it comprehensively discusses various phenomena of human language use and can successfully explain many controversial issues in translation studies.From the perspective of Adaptation Theory,the process of translation can be regarded as the process of continuous language selection,through which translators can make the translation conform to the style of the target language and adapt to the reading habits of the target language readers.Such a view provides great inspiration to the translation of long sentences in the source text.When translating long sentences,translators should continuously adapt to the features of both the source language and the target language in order to achieve better effects.Under the guidance of Adaptation Theory,the translator uses sequencing,reversion,division,reconstruction,inserting and synthesis to translate English long sentences,so that the target text is faithful and expressive enough to help readers better understand the original text.The report is divided into six chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces the content of the source text and the significance of researching;Chapter Two introduces the process of translation;Chapter Three elaborates Adaptation Theory,focusing on three characteristics of language and dynamic adaptation;Chapter Four analyzes the characteristics and classification of long sentences in the source text;Chapter Five is the case analysis,which analyzes how different types of long sentences are translated with various methods under the guidance of Adaptation Theory;Chapter Six is the conclusion,which summarizes the findings and limitations of this translation project.