Norm Evolution Of The English Translation Of The State Leaders' Selected Works

The English translation of the state leaders' selected works,sponsored by the state,is a translational activity with Chinese characteristics.It is also an important approach to the construction of China's international political discourse system.The English translation activities of the state leaders' selected works in different historical periods share common features,but they do have their own distinctive characteristics,and manifest diachronic evolving features.Therefore,analyzing the norms of the English translation of the state leaders' selected works and their evolving features,and discussing the social and cultural causes of the evolution of their translational norms,are the major tasks in the current study.This study is carried out to answer the following questions: 1.What are the distinctive norms of the English translation of the state leaders' selected works in different periods? 2.What are the evolving features of the English translational norms of the state leaders' selected works? 3.What are the causes of norm evolution in the English translation of the state leaders' selected works? 4.What are the constructing modes of the source-text meaning of the state leaders' selected works in the target culture?This study chooses the source texts and the English versions of Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping: The Governance of China as its research objects,choosing from these works the same five kinds of texts in accordance with the requirements of the study,namely,the title,the colloquial expression,figurative speech,political discourse and culture-specific items,and thus carries out the sampling analysis.This study starts from the term of norm in the light of descriptive translation studies,and makes a comparative study of the norms of the English translation of these three leaders' selected works based upon the sampling analysis of English versions of the leader' selected works.The study aims,through the comparative analysis,to extract the common features of the English translation of the state leaders' selected works,to analyze the norm evolution of the English translation of the state leaders' selected works and to analyze its social and cultural causes.The study generally adopts an integrated research approach by combining the micro-study methods and the macro-study methods.Specifically,it mainly comprises the following research methods.Firstly,the method of document analysis,which is mainly seen in Chapter 2(literature review).Secondly,the method of sampling analysis,which is mainly seen in chapter 3,chapter 4 and chapter 5.A number of examples are chosen by means of random sampling from the English versions of the three leaders' selected works,through which this study analyzes the translation strategies of the sampling translation examples,and explores the translational norms of the three leaders' selected works according to the results of sampling analysis.Thirdly,the method of comparative study,which is mainly seen in chapter 6.The comparative analysis is made based upon the results of the sampling analysis,and then the study intuitively displays the basic features of the English translational norms of the state leaders' selected works by making tables,line charts and column diagrams according to the results of the sampling analysis.Fourthly,the method of exemplification,which is mainly seen in chapter 3,4,5 and chapter 7.Through the analysis of a large number of translation examples,the study makes an empirical analysis on the English translation strategies of the three leaders' selected works,and then proposes the initial norms and operational norms of the English translation of the state leaders' selected works.Fifthly,the method of theoretical interpretation,which is mainly seen in chapter6.The study,based on the theories of the cultural and sociological approaches,analyzes and discovers the influences of such factors as the changing social-cultural context,ideology,power,poetics,patron,translators' habitus,on the establishment and evolution of the translational norms of the leaders' selected works.The findings show that the initial norms of Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping: The Governance of China are respectively "China-oriented","Dialogue-oriented" and "Understanding-oriented";their operational norms are respectively "Foreignization-dominated","Diversification-inclined" and "Multiple-complementary".The English translations of the Leaders' selected works reflect the evolving features in different social-cultural contexts,but all of them stick to the fundamental principle of being "China-oriented".Generally,it has five basic characteristics: the political nature of the translational action,the clarity of translation principle,the collectiveness in translation mode,the antidromic feature in translation direction,and the pertinence in translation strategies.Based on the study above,the study proposes three modes for constructing the source-text meaning in the foreign world in terms of the English translation of the leaders' selected works in the context of the new era,with the example of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,namely,"cultural transplant","cultural combination" and "cultural reconstruction".It also points out some corresponding translation strategies and methods with these modes.The study is helpful to deepen the comprehension of the English translational norms of the leaders' selected works,and it is of great importance for the development of the translation theory and practice of the CCCPC Party literature.