A Study On The Normalization Of State Organ's Rule Of Law Discourse Translation

Norms studies in western philosophy have witnessed the transformation from the direct study of norms to the descriptive study of the content of the norms.Norm is precisely an important concept in descriptive translation studies.The aim of studying the translation norms is not merely to establish a set of standards,principles and rules to guarantee the accuracy of translation and secure the translation quality,but also to probe into translation activity through considering the background of entire society and international communication so as to conduct a descriptive study of the essence of translation norms.In this study,rule of law discourse refers to more about the political documents released by the state on comprehensively promoting law based governance.In terms of translation practice,however,diversified subjects devoting to the rule of law discourse translation leads to the phenomenon of being short of standardization in the terminology translation of different versions,and even some misunderstanding of the original text and inaccuracy of expression can also be found in the same translation.In other words,violation of norms always appears in the rule of law discourse translation.In terms of related theoretical study,more research has been done on the lexical level of political and legal words and there is relatively less study of the translation from the macro level,that is,the text.In addition,the related research is short of theoretical guidance and the achievements are also far from systematicness and comprehensiveness,all of which also gives us a new chance to study the translation norms of rule of law discourse.State organ's expression of rule of law discourse is much more influential and therefore this study chooses Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse as our study objects.Targeting at the phenomenon of violating translation norms in rule of law discourse translation,this study mainly attempts to tackle those problems including:(1)In light of the wide introduction of western theory of translation norms into China and the application of it in translation studies,can the theory of the western translation norms be directly applied to the translation of Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse? Why?(2)Different from the literary works,Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse bears its distinct characteristics and features.What is the specific content of translation norms for Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse?(3)Transition from the norm to the normalization is the change from the static to dynamic process.How can the normalization of Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse translation be achieved?As norms can be viewed as social rules and standards with strong prescriptive nature,this study of the translation norms cannot be totally free from prescriptive aspect with the ideal value and aim of developing the norms system.The main aim of this study is to put forward and develop a hierarchical,structural,pluralistic and systematic framework for rule of law discourse translation norms,so as to strengthen the theoretical explanation of translation norms study and give practical guidance to the specific translation practice of state organ's rule of law discourse.This study adopts such approaches as philosophical analysis(such as deduction,induction,and comparison)and case study.By deduction,a systematic theoretical framework has been developed and then it has also been applied to the case study of the rule of law translation by induction and comparison.The main findings include:(1)The conclusion of the western translation norms study cannot be directly applied to the study of Chinese state organ's rule of law discourse translation.Here,there are three reasons to support this point.Firstly,the study of western translation norms theory originally started from the field of literary translation.However,the translation norms vary from different texts and genres.Rule of law discourse translation falls into the applied ones,and different approaches and features are required to give distinct description of the translation norms of various texts.Secondly,western translation norms study has promoted the transition from the cultural turn to social turn in translation studies.However,this transition is merely a kind of perspective alteration.Whether the cross discipline study between translation and sociology represents a kind of paradigm transition still depends on its philosophical basis.As there is no fundamental change in its philosophical basis,western translation norms study is still based on philosophical hermeneutics,which is the continuation of the paradigm of deconstructionism.Thirdly,as it is precisely the continuation of the paradigm of deconstructionism,we cannot find the constructive but fragmented and deconstructive feature from the conclusion and results of the representative figures in the western translation norms study.(2)The translation norms of state organ's rule of law discourse are sure to be a system embodying the elements of the micro,meso and macro level,which are of systematic and multifaceted nature.This study applies the theory of communicative action developed by Jürgen Habermas to translation norms studies,linking the norm with the subjects' behaviors,based on the practical philosophical foundation of communicative ration and constructivism,which brings the research from the subjectivity level to the inter-subjectivity level,thereby developing a new research paradigm,that is,communicative paradigm.By using and transforming the theory of Karl Popper,Habermas developed the systematic and comprehensive theory of three worlds,covering all the entire field of communicative action,that is,objective world,social world and inner world.The theory of three worlds developed by Habermas has provided a systematic and complete theoretical framework for the study of rule of law discourse translation norms.Translation itself is a kind of complex communicative action,which also involves the field of three worlds and realizes the communicative action among the subjects,objects and other pluralistic subjects.Furthermore,the change of social environment also brings the transformation of the essence of translation and translation itself is on the way of approaching socialization and professionalism.The western norms theory of translation can be reclassified and further supplemented to form a new type of structure and hierarchy,namely,the macro,meso and micro level are equivalent to the subjective world,social world and objective world respectively,or rather,the communicative action in different level of worlds corresponds to different translation norms,thereby forming a systematic and complete framework of translation norms.Different translation norms of rule of law discourse translation in the three worlds are not fragmented but are an integral whole of multi dimensions and fusion.The language,culture and individual understanding are the fusion interface and carrier of the three worlds.Specifically put,on the macro level,the subjective world of rule of law discourse translation requires the translators to follow ethical norms(or moral norms),including value norms,purpose norms and interest balanced norms.On the meso level,to recognize the social world of rule of law discourse translation is to promote the formation of professional norms(including expectancy norms,accountability norms,operation norms,regulation norms,technical norms,and evaluation norms),and also to strengthen the project management of translation.On the micro level,to recognize the objective world of rule of law discourse translation is,after all,to cater to the product norms(including preliminary norms,relation norms and text norms).The preliminary norms include the selection of text and translator and the cultivation of translation talents.The main content of relation norms is to focus on the conversion of linguistic symbols,under which translation norm is primarily studied from the level of words and expressions.In addition,rule of law discourse translation has also to focus on the textual level so as to form textual norms.(3)The work of normalization of state organ's rule of law discourse translation should follow the two principles of systematicness and continuation.The normalization work should be based on the systematic framework of translation norms,that is,targeting at the ethical norms,professional norms and product norms in the subjective world,social world and objective world,and the related strategies and methods are to be given respectively.This study bears the dual significance of theory and practice.From the theoretical perspective,the study aims to complete and perfect the western translation norm theory and develop a systematic theoretical framework to strengthen the explanation capacity of translation norms theory.From the perspective of practice,this study aims to better recognize the phenomenon and nature of rule of law discourse translation norms,so as to give guidance and reference for the state organ's rule of law discourse translation practice.