| This dissertation,based on the theories on translation norms and the polysystem theory,describes historical phenomena of Chinese-English translation for international publicity?CETIP for short?,explores social influences?the parameters in the presumed CETIP system?on translators‘choices,and tries to partly predicate and establish general principles for CETIP practice in the future.The definitions of?norm?and?translation norm?indicate that studies on norms can be both prescriptive and descriptive.The duality of the notion provides us with a perspective to connect the descriptive research of translation phenomena?describing the?norms as they are??and the prescriptive research of predicating and establishing general principles?the?norms as they should be??.Meanwhile,the polysystem theory offers a systematic and dynamic view of the social parameters behind translation phenomena.According to Levy?1969?,translation is a process of translator‘s choice-making in particular historical and social circumstances,and a translated work is a hybrid of social norms and the translator‘s personal attitude.Therefore,the translated work is the best object of observation where the close connection between the translator‘s choice and the social parameters can be revealed.In the research,a case study will be first carried out on the canonized CETIP magazine China Today to describe the regularities in CETIP practice?the?norms as they are??.The second step is to analyze why such choices were made in those particular historical and social circumstances from the perspective of national image building.In the end,this dissertation tries to predicate social expectations and requirements?the?norms as they should be??,which are generated by various subsystems of the macro-polysystem?the comprehensive social-cultural environment of a nation?,and to establish a set of general principles for CETIP.Under the framework of Toury‘s theory that classifies translational norms as the initial norm,preliminary norms and operational norms,the CETIP practice of China Today is observed throughout two historical stages,1952-1977 and 1981-2015respectively.But due to the lack of source texts in the first stage,this research mainly focuses on the second stage.It is revealed that China Today‘s selection of source texts in the first stage was mostly to serve the political needs at the time and more concerned with?what we want you to know?rather than?what the readers want to know?.And because of the political chaos that spanned the 1960s until early 1970s,the norm of?showing the real China to the world?established by Soong Ching Ling,the founder of China Today,was abandoned.Nevertheless,the norm has been reestablished since the beginning of the second stage,which can be proved by the regular selection of materials that described China from common people‘s perspective.Besides,the source texts selected in the second stage explored the questions in China in a deeper way and from a broader international view.In addition,the materials were chosen with more specific targets of national image shaping.Meanwhile,in the aspect of operational norms,the translations in the first stage inclined to keep the source language features while the translators in the second stage were more concerned to take readers‘reading habits and cognitive style into account.Therefore,many translators in the second historical period either reshaped the holistic structure of the source texts or refined individual sentences or linguistic elements through measures such as amplification,paragraphing,omission and rewriting in their renditions.Based on the observation of preliminary norms and operational norms,this dissertation concludes that the initial norm followed in the first stage of CETPI was for the pursuit of?adequacy translation?.While in the second stage,norm systems in the target culture have been triggered and set into motion,and translators were more concerned about the?acceptability?of the translations.In the second part,the perspective of national image is adopted to reconstruct the original historical and social background in which the translation choices were made.The research finds,in the stage of 1952-1977,China intended to shape an image of a socialist country that never feared any capitalist countries.The emphasis on ideological difference resulted in a high percentage of political reports in the selected source texts and the foreignization strategy in text operation.After the reform and opening policy was launched,?an opening and developing country?became the goal of national image building which decided the predominance of economic reports in source text selection.At the same time,the growing market awareness in this period led translators to follow target culture‘s norms in order to?win the market?of the readers.And in the early 21st century,China intended to be a trustworthy and responsible member in the international community;hence it not only followed the appropriate international norms but also was committed to replacing the outdated ones with new ones.This goal of national image building has led to changes in both preliminary norms and operational norms of CETPI.In source text selection,the focus was on communicating the ideas of peaceful and cooperative development,and in text translating,foreignization and domestication strategies were employed at the same time but to different degrees,in order to ensure that the translated texts could be accepted by readers while establishing China‘s own discourse system.What‘s more,the comparison between the goals of national image building and the actual international images of China shows that some problems in CETIP may have contributed to the blunders in national image building in certain historical periods.The problems include the over-emphasis on ideology divergence,overuse of economic literacy,inappropriate choice of strong words and the low language proficiency of translators.Based on the case study and the analysis of historical and social background,the dissertation tries to predicate the social norms generated by different subsystems in the macro-polysystem that overlap CETIP,including the expectancy norms,the communication norms,the relation norm and the accountability norm.To be specific,the expectancy norms generated by the political and the ideological systems are to fulfill political expectations,to defend national interests and to promote socialist ideology;the communication norms from the language system and the communication system require translators to ensure clarity and accuracy of the language in translated versions,to follow the western criteria of news selecting and writing,as well as to gradually establish China‘s own discourse system;the relation norm produced by current mainstream translation theories is to reproduce the?communication effect?of the original text in the translated text rather than to keep the words or sentences;finally,the maximum output principle in the economic system is an echo of the accountability norm designated by Chesterman,namely?a translator should act in such a way that the demands of loyalty are appropriately met with regard to the original writer,the commissioner of the translation,the translator himself or herself,the prospective readership and any other relevant parties?.However,the norms mentioned above are not at an equal footing,because the subsystems occupy different positions in the macro-polysystem.Generally speaking,the subsystems in central positions have stronger power in enforcing their norms.Therefore,translators have to weigh and consider which norms to follow and which to breach,or to strike a balance between the conflicting norms.After an analysis of the positions of the subsystems,this dissertation raises an idea of a binary decision-making mechanism in CETIP,which can be specified on each level of the translation norms.As for the initial norm,translators are suggested to adopt domestication as the main strategy in translating in order to meet the readers‘anticipation.But in the case of traditional values,ideological concepts or political terms,the strategy of foreignization is preferred to convey the ideas with Chinese characteristics and to gradually establish China‘s own discourse system.The binary decision-making mechanism about source text selection involves two preliminary norms to follow:first,the source texts selected should serve the interests of the country and be conducive to the national image building;second,the readers‘needs and interest shall be taken into account.This means a merged vision of the initiators and the readers,and translators can gradually expand the vision by adding up Chinese elements.However,when conflicts emerge between the two norms,the first one shall prevail in the first place.With regard to operational norms,the primary concern of translators shall be the accuracy of ideas and concepts,first in terms of semantic accuracy and second the image created accordingly.On the premise that the accuracy of ideas and concepts is guaranteed,norms of the target culture are expected to be followed to cater to readers‘esthetic taste and reading habits.To be specific,the expressions need to avoid vagueness,redundancy and exaggeration,the organization of the texts demands coherence and appropriate logic,and the emotional effect produced on the readers shall be carefully considered.In one word,the two-dimensional decision-making mechanism means catering to the readers‘need while sticking to the principle of building a positive national image.And the latter outweighs the first if only one of the two norms can be followed.Meanwhile,in following the norms mentioned above,translators can play their subjectivity to full swing by adopting various translating methods and skills.In summary,this dissertation describes the historical translation phenomena of CETIP and extracts?the norms as they are?in the regularities of translation practice,with the aim of predicating the social norms generated by the subsystems of a socio-cultural macro-system and establishing a set of?norms as they should be?for CETIP practice.However,the wide scope of the study and its complexity have posed great challenges on the author and leave large room for the research to be further explored. |
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