Translating The Informative Text Under The Guidance Of Reiss’ Text Typology Theory

Reiss proposes Text Typology theory on the basis of Karl Bühler’s three linguistic functions.In her view,the linguistic functions can determine the text types,and then the latter can help define the related translation principles.Thus,it is clear that Reiss’ Text Typology connects the linguistic functions,text types and translation methods.For the classification,Reiss believes that in a certain text,maybe there are at least one linguistic function,but generally it is only one function that occupies the prominent position,and this linguistic function will determine the text type.The source text is the ninth chapter of A Research on the “Going Global” Strategy of China’s High-speed Rail under the “Belt and Road” Initiative,which was published in 2019.The source text selected introduces the overall description of the vision,mission,values and goals of the “going global” of China’s high-speed rail and makes the strategic deployment from these aspects.Based on its dominant linguistic function,the author of this report classifies the source text as the informative text.For such texts,Reiss advocates two requirements for translation criticism,which are used as two translation principles by the author.First,the original information must be faithfully delivered.Second,the target readers and target language should be oriented.Required by the first principle,the author makes precise determination of the general and vague expressions and achieves explications of the hidden components and implicit logic relations.Based on the second principle,the translation adapts to the target culture and conforms to the language habits of the target readers.When translating the words of cultural and historical significance,the domestication translation is adopted.For the translation of metaphors,the author tries to find the functionally equivalent metaphorical images in the target language.Besides,the author makes the linguistic forms familiar to the target readers by omitting the repetitions and restructuring the long sentences of the source text.With these efforts,original information has been faithfully delivered and the target readers have been given top priority.This report not only shows the significance of Reiss’ Text Typology theory for the translation,but also provides some perspectives to other translators of similar translation materials.