A Report On E-C Translation Of The Culture Of Speed(Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory

The translation material is selected from The Culture of Speed: The Coming of Immediacy,a social science text which mainly discusses the impact of accelerating speed on life and society.The language in the book is diverse with complex sentences and passive voices frequently used.In order to convey the original information as accurate as possible while ensuring that the translation is fluent and loyal to the characteristics of the target language,John Catford’s translation shifts theory is adopted to resolve the difficulties on the translation of words,passive voices and complex sentences.Translation shifts theory,first put forward by John Catford,mainly emphasizes the dynamic equivalence and avoids the limitation of formal equivalence,which is proved to be the basic theory to guide the translation in this report.This report adopts the case analysis method by employing level and category shifts to explore the guiding significance of translation shifts on social science texts.Through analysis,the present author holds that translation shifts theory can improve the coherence and readability of the translated text.However,translation shifts theory can merely guide the translation at the sentence level maximally,and it does not analyze the translation from cultural aspect.Based on the characteristics of source language and the expressions of source text,the present author analyzes the translation of culture-loaded words and idioms from the perspective of cultural shifts,which complements Catford’s translation shifts theory.It is concluded that appropriate translation shifts corresponding to the characteristics of the text and specific context can contribute to a smooth,coherent and acceptable translation.