A Report On E-C Translation Of Parentheses From The Perspective Of The Communicative Translation Theory

Based on the English-to-Chinese translation of Chapter One to Chapter Three of Robot:What Everyone Needs to Know by Phil Husbands,a respected research professor of artificial intelligence,this report analyzes the translation of English parentheses from the perspective of Newmark’s communicative translation.As one of the popular science series published by Oxford University Press,the book provides an authoritative and balanced account of the history,current state,and future development trends of robots.Through the translation of this work,the public can gain a rational understanding of cutting-edge technology and limitations in robotics,dispel futuristic hype by the media about the imminent arrival of super-intelligent robots,and be enlightened about robot ethics and socio-political challenges posed by robotic technology.Throughout this work,parentheses are used extensively to explain previous content,provide supplementary information,highlight the main idea,and enrich language forms,which makes the original text more accurate and vivid.Meanwhile,the large presence of flexibly inserted parentheses increases the complexity of English sentence patterns and makes it challenging to clarify the logical relationship between the main sentence and the parenthetical expression.Given the differences in writing habits and ways of expression between English and Chinese,the literal translation of English parentheses hinders Chinese readers’ accurate understanding.Therefore,when dealing with parentheses,the translator takes communicative translation theory as guidance and flexibly applies various strategies.The report utilizes a case study to explore effective translation techniques for English parentheses.Guided by communicative translation theory,the translator divides parentheses into four types according to their grammatical functions:parentheses acting as appositives,parentheses acting as unrestricted attributes,parentheses acting as adverbials,and independent sentences.On the basis of a detailed analysis of the selected text and strategies proposed in the existing literature,the translator summarizes four translation strategies:retaining,embedding,splitting,and recasting.After the translator’s careful translation and research,the report draws the following conclusions:First,the translator chooses four techniques based on her actual application in the analysis of the chosen case,as the classifications provided by the relevant literature often overlap with each other.Second,retaining is the most commonly applied translation strategy.However,appropriate adjustments should often be made when the translator utilizes this technique.These adjustments include replacing dashes with other parenthetical marks,omitting words or phrases to avoid redundancy,adding some words to guarantee the completeness of the translation,etc.Third,the length and position of the parenthesis as well as its semantic relations with other parts of the sentence will influence the selection of translation strategies.Lastly,this report illustrates the limitations of this practice in the hope of providing a reference for future attempts to translate English parentheses in popular science texts.