A Report On The Translation Of Language And Power:An Introduction To Institutional Discourse(Chapter 6)

This thesis is a project report of an English-Chinese translation.The source text of this translation report is drawn from Language and Power: An Introduction to Institutional Discourse,a book co-published in 2008 by Andrea Mayr and three others.The book mainly investigates institutional discourse from different points of view,and in Chapter 6,it focuses on the importance of national defense discourse.In China,academics mainly focuses on the research of defense white paper.However,the position and function of discourse in national defense affairs have not been clearly understood so far.Thus,even in this relatively peaceful era,translating and introducing the study of national defense discourse is also of great significance to the construction of modern national defense in China.In the source text,the long and difficult sentences are the majority,which not only increases the translation difficulty,but also increases the reading difficulty of the target language readers.Therefore,under the guidance of Eugene Nida’s back-transformation theory,the translator makes a detailed analysis of the sentences and semantic structures of the source text,so as to break through the constraints of it,and make the translation of long and complex sentences more idiomatic and natural and in line with the reading habits of the target language readers.Specifically,the translator mainly adopts four translation skills,namely,sequencing,reversing,reorganizing and division in the process of translation,to make the translation not only more consistent with the Chinese expression but also faithful to the original text.The author hopes that through the close combination of the back-transformation theory and this translation practice,it can provide both a newer perspective for translation learners and references for the subsequent translation of long and complex sentences.