A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Shadow System,Mass Incarceration And The American Family (Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Translation Norm Theory

This report examines the translation norms and strategies used in translating The Shadow System,Mass Incarceration and the American Family from English to Chinese,with a focus on Chesterman’s translation norm theory.The source text is a social science work that tells the story of some black families suffering from the shadow system and unreasonable incarceration system from the perspective of an African-American journalist.The text values both authenticity and literariness,thus requiring adherence to certain translation norms to ensure faithful conveyance of information and preservation of the source text’s style and tone.The study sheds light on the application of translation norms in the translation process and emphasizes the significance of balancing accuracy with artistic expression.According to Andrew Chesterman,a text can only be considered a qualified translation if it adheres to prevalent translation norms and specific norms should be determined based on the characteristics of the original text and the expectations of the reader or client in the target language.The choice of specific norms should be based on the characteristics of the source text and the expectations of the translation.This report presents a detailed analysis of the English to Chinese translation of The Shadow System,Mass Incarceration and the American Family,using a framework based on expectancy norms and professional norms which contain the accountability norm,the communication norm,and the relation norm.After scrutinizing the translation examples from the perspective of the transmission of the syntax,the semantics and the pragmatics,the translator discovers that the translation has to undergo various shifts and changes,such as transposition,unit shift and sentence structure change at the syntactic level,paraphrase of the culture-loaded words,abstraction change and ellipsis at the semantic level,coherence change,visibility change,and explicitness change at the pragmatic level,to meet the requirements of the translation norms.The article concludes that Chesterman’s translation norm theory can provide valuable guidance and skills for producing high-quality translations.