A Report On E-C Translation Of Cambridge University Press 1584-1984 (Excerpts)

This report is based on the translation practice of Cambridge University Press1584-1984,a book records the establishment of the Press and its development from1584 to 1984.The source text is excerpted from Chapter 2 to 4 of the book which describes the University obtained a royal charter in 1534,and founded the Press in1584.The source text is a historical text which belongs to the informative text.In Newmark’s theory of semantic translation and communicative translation,semantic translation focuses on the original text,while communicative translation focuses on the target readers.For translation of informative text,readability and acceptability are the top priorities;therefore,communicative translation is applicable in the translation of the source text.Besides,the original text contains terms of printing and law,proper nouns,and early modern English words.Since their referential meanings are particularly important,their exact contextual meaning and accuracy should be emphasized;hence,their translation is guided by semantic translation.Under the guidance of semantic translation,literal translation,annotation,literal translation plus annotation are mainly adopted to tackle the difficulties in translation of these words,so as to render the original meaning accurately and objectively.On the other hand,communicative translation is mainly used in translation of long sentences and discourse.For long sentences,conversion is used to convert the word classes and passive voice in the original text;addition is used to add the implicit information and inversion is employed to adjust the word order of the original text.As for discourse,the cohesion and coherence of the target text is achieved by adding logical words,clarifying reference,and changing punctuation.Through this translation practice,it is believed that both semantic translation and communicative translation can effectively guide the translation of historical texts.It is expected that the translated version could provide some references for future translation of historical text.