Studies Of China's Foreign Publicity Translation: A Constructivist Perspective

This study is an effort to relate theoretical studies of foreign publicity translation to studies on nation-branding, where the author tries to explore guidelines under which foreign publicity translation helps to enhance public image of China and thus cement its soft power in international competition.From the perspective of social constructionism, human relations are institutionalized by shared ideas, rather than by material substances. And identities and interests are not in natural existence but by themselves social construct. Thus, the image and interests of a nation in international communities are the result of its interactive dynamism with other nations over time, that is, national image is the projected conception of us in the mirror of mind of others:it might be positive or negative, it might be the one we want or the one that deviates from our expectation and our purpose is to skillfully represent ourselves and correct that deviation so that China is visualized more favorably in the mind of other nations. In reality, national image is in large part construed media facts where national identity is legitimized through negotiated media discourse, and foreign publicity translation helps with this negotiation. Leveraging media's social functions, foreign publicity translation should, the author argues, play the following roles, so as to help enhance China's international image:to respect truth in message transmission, to respect China's foreign policy while selecting information to be conveyed, to play the role of "agenda-setting" so as to well manage public attention and opinion; to promote "foreignization" strategy in introducing culture-specific expressions to the west world, to proactively seek the right to name, strengthening China's discourse power in the international community, and to adapt to western rhetoric-pragmatic norms in discourse organization with view to enhancing perlocutionary power of translated foreign publicity materials.This study has as its theory framewok Professor Lujun's Constructivist Translatology which is based on Habermas's theory of Communicative rationality. Habermas tries to explain human rationality as necessary outcomes of successful communication and he ties rationality to the validity basis of everyday speech. Through the formal pragmatic analysis of communication, he reveals that rationality should not be limited to the consideration and resolution of objective concerns. He claims that the structure of communication itself demonstrates that normative and evaluative concerns can (and ought to) be resolved through rational procedures. He emphasizes the equal importance of the three validity dimensions implicit in communication, which means he sees the potential for rationality in normative rightness (WE), theoretical truth (IT) and expressive or subjective truthfulness (I).Under this framework, foreign publicity translation as an integral part of China's global communication, aims to build rationality of communication between China and other nations, the success of which is conditioned by fulfillment of the validity requirement inherent in different types of communication. In the context of foreign publicity translation:there is emphasis on normative rightness in texts such as public signs, on theoretical truth in texts such as government documents, on expressive truthfulness in texts such as news reports. For Habermas, the goal of coming to an understanding is "intersubjective mutuality…shared knowledge, mutual trust, and accord with one another". In other words, the underlying goal of coming to an understanding would help to foster enlightenment, consensus, and good will. However, the basic concern in universal pragmatics are utterances (or speech acts) in general, based on idealized presupposition of communication, which needs to be supplemented with operable principles, that is, the dual principle of constructivist paradigm:to follow linguistic as well as pragmatic rules. Under constructivist paradigm of translation study, the vague term "faithfulness" is no longer the only golden rule in making judgment of translation quality; instead, validity concerns in different communication contexts have given rise to three cardinal constructivist principles:the translator should respect truth in his rendering of the original text; his interpretation of the original shall be legitimate and widely applicable in the target context; his rendering of the original shall give due respect to the overall setting of the original.Enhancing China's international image in the context of translation, entails the need to highlight the power of discourse to influence and shape reality, and to understand how. This paper then borrows text analysis tools of Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar and its "Context theory" in particular to conduct text analysis of the original, so that the rendering of translated text will take care of both the linguistic and social meanings. Similar to formal pragmatics, functional grammar studies meaning in context, and through analyzing the field, mode, and tenor of a discourse, we can find out its register, that is, its situational context, and through analyzing its genre, we can study its related cultural context. Context analysis enables the translator to better understand the original at discourse level, so as to better delegate translation tasks for certain communicative purpose from register level, to semantic level, lexical and grammar level as well. In this study, context study and study of discourse metafunctions are carried out for the three major types of foreign publicity material, so as to find out more about the way the original is worded. And coupled with the three major constructivist translation principles, the author discusses some common problem-shooting tactics for foreign publicity translation, especially how to render theoretical truth in government documents; how to render subjective truthfulness in news report and how to render normative rightness in public signs.On top of that, it is pointed out that the social function of persuasion of foreign publicity materials has made the traditional full text translation strategy virtually impossible and unnecessary. That is to say, in most cases, where the need to communicate and persuade outweighs that to obey the authority of the writer, the strategy of translation variation is applicable, or more precisely, the tactic of translation plus editing and writing. This leaves large room for enhancement of the communicative force of the translated text, for example, the improvement of rhetoric in the translated text can considerately cement its power to influence and persuade. This study tries to include major western rhetoric thinkings including the traditional supposition about "logos, ethos and pathos", and Burk's famous theory of "identification", arguing that evoking "empathy" of western readers through adapting to their rhetoric tradition and identifying with their real needs and wants is an efficient way to sharpen the persuasive edge of the translated publicity material. Similarly, pragmatic theories provides support for FPT strategies, for example:the relevance theory helps explain the translation variation strategy; the adaptation theory helps justify its foreignization strategy; and the "meme" theory points out the direction in which words are reproduced so that lexical vitality is maintained in foreign publicity activities.This dissertation comprises of the following 7 parts. IntroductionThis part is a snapshot of the background, object, goals, methodologies and theoretic framework of this research.Chapter 1 Foreign publicity translation and its studies in ChinaIn this chapter, the major terms used in this study are defined and clarified so that the readers can be better tuned in to the subject matter. It includes also a definition of the scope of the research---translation of foreign publicity materials by (indirectly by) Chinese government, and a quest on the two major problems found in present studies of foreign publicity translation.Chapter 2 National image building and translation strategy---a social constructivist perspectiveThis chapter begins with a definition of national image, its denotation and connotation, and its relation with soft power of a nation. Then it goes on to elaborate on nation branding from the perspective of transmission of national image, the historic evolvement of China's international image, and the discourse and translation strategies that should be taken correspondingly.Chapter 3 Theory framework for foreign publicity translationIn this chapter, Prof. Lujun's constructivist paradigm is introduced upon examination of existing translation study paradigms. The constructivist paradigm with its pragmatic perspective on translation restudies, has its distinct guiding principles and criteria, which is a rational overhaul of the existing translation study paradigms and a viable choice for text-classification of China's foreign publicity materials. To complement the text classification of constructivist paradigm, the text analysis tool of functional grammar is introduced for meticulous examination of the original. It is emphasized that the communicative features of foreign publicity translation entails changes in the mindset of the translator:It is (in most cases) no longer a full-text translation in the traditional sense, instead, it should be translation, editing and writing activities all rolled into one.Chapter 4 Text discussion and translation strategy for foreign publicity materialsThis chapter is the continuation and elaboration on the previous one, where foreign publicity texts are classified into government documents, news report and public signs based on genre theories and context analysis of functional grammar, and a detailed text examination of the original is carried out followed with corresponding translation strategies for each of the three text prototypes based on the three cardinal principles of the constructivist paradigm.Chapter 5 Pragmatic and rhetoric perspective on foreign publicity translationIn this chapter, the author argues that it is a viable choice to improve the communicative force of foreign publicity translations through enhancing its pragmatic and rhetoric performances.ConclusionIn the last part of the paper, problems of this study are pointed out for improvement in further researches. Furthermore, prospect of foreign publicity translation has been briefly discussed in the end.