Techniques Involved In The Translation Of Imperative Sentences From English To Chinese

This paper studies the strategies and techniques involved in the translation of imperative sentences from English to Chinese,based on the translation of Critical Thinking,a textbook written and edited by New York Academy of Sciences and translated by the author.The textbook aims to train teenagers to master critical thinking and related soft skills.The paper begins with a discussion on the general translation strategy suitable to the languages and audience,as well as the communicative function of imperative sentences to give command,request and instruction.Translation techniques at lexical,syntactic and discourse level are then proposed together with examples from the textbook.Such techniques are demonstrated to be effective in softening the book’s imperative mood and relieving audiences’ burden of understanding by making the language clearer and more concise,making them applicable to the translation of textbooks and imperative sentences in general.