A Report On The C-E Translation Of Family Tradition Of The Wangs In Xincheng County (Excerpt) From The Perspective Of Newmark’s Translation Theory

Chinese family culture is the epitome of excellent traditional Chinese culture.It covers many aspects,including family management,learning,being an official,moral cultivation,ways of dealing with people,health preservation,etc.Chinese family tradition,on the one hand,has a profound influence on the development of its descendants,and on the other hand,promotes the formation of a good social atmosphere.Works on Chinese family instructions,as concentrated reflections of family tradition,have not only widely disseminated in China,but have also been translated overseas successively,becoming an indispensable part of the communication of the excellent traditional Chinese culture.The source text of this translation practice is excerpted from the Family Tradition of the Wangs in Xincheng County.The author selects the second and third chapters of the book for translation practice,so that the target language readers can have a direct understanding of the history of the family and the gradual development of the family tradition and family instructions.The source text objectively states the history and cultural development of the Wangs,with the main purpose of transmitting relevant historical information.This type of text,according to Newmark’s text typology theory,belongs to the informative text.Cultureloaded words,family instructions,poems and couplets quoted in the source text belong to the cultural forms with Chinese characteristics.Reproduction of the form in translation is as important as the content,which belongs to the expressive text.Based on the characteristics of the original text,the author adopts Newmark’s communicative translation and semantic translation strategies.For informative texts,the author adopts the strategy of communicative translation.For example,for the translation of four-character expressions,official titles and sentences with serial verbs,the author adopts free translation,division,amplification,omission and other translation methods.On the basis of accurate translation,the author attempts to present a more fluent and natural translation for the target language readers.For expressive texts,the author uses the strategy of semantic translation.For example,the author adopts transliteration plus annotation and literal translation to translate the culture-loaded words,family instructions,poems and other texts with distinct cultural characteristics.On the basis of conforming to the linguistic structure of the target language,the original text form should be preserved as far as possible.For texts that cannot be effectively translated by using either communicative translation or semantic translation alone,Newmark suggests that the two translation strategies can be combined to complement each other and achieve a better translation effect.For example,the author combines the translation methods under the guidance of the two different strategies for the effective translation of book titles,place names and figurative sentences.The author tries to use Newmark’s translation theory to guide translation practice which provides a reference for the English translation of other educational books on family tradition and family instructions.