A Report On The Translation Of An Excerpt Of Records Of Streets And Alleys In Chengdu From The Perspective Of Text Typology Theory

In order to familiarize more English readers with the old Chengdu’s streets and alleys,and attract more foreign friends to approach the long history of Chengdu and splendid Ba-Shu culture,the translator selected an excerpt of Records of Streets and Alleys in Chengdu for English translation.The original work is written by research specialist of Bashu Culture,Mr.Yuan Tingdong,who describes the history and culture of Chengdu through the streets and alleys of old Chengdu.At the same time,the book is also rich in historical and geographical knowledge,reflecting the objective historical facts and attaching importance to the truth of history.According to Text Typology Theory,it can be seen that the source text has both expressive function and informative function.Therefore,“semantic translation” and “communicative translation” should be both applied.The purpose of the original author is to make more readers learn the culture of old Chengdu better.Therefore,the translator should be author-centered and focus on the source culture,and give priority to semantic translation.However,due to the different cultural presuppositions between the target language readers and the original author,semantic translation can not accurately convey the implicit meaning of some words in the original text,then communicative translation should be adopted in order to make the target language readers more easily accept the content of the originaltext.Based on Newmark’s Text Typology Theory,this translation report adopts the method of case analysis to analyze how to apply appropriate translation methods to translate material culture-loaded words,social culture-loaded words and linguistic culture-loaded words in the excerpt of the source text under the guidance of semantic translation and communicative translation.