A Contrastive Study Of 2009 Report On Works Of Chinese Government And Its Translation

Political language is generally required to be concise, accurate and expressive. The Report on the Work of Government (the Report) is a joint effort by China s best experts and scholars and represents concise and precise characteristics of political language. An emerging China, as a peaceful and responsible power on world stage, needs a broad access to make its voice heard by the rest of the world, and the Report provides such a channel. Therefore, the translation quality of the Report matters not only in an efficient communication, but also in building a national image.This study aims to investigate characteristics of language in the Report and assess the translation work through a contrastive and economic study on its lexical and syntactic systems. The various differences between Chinese and English language have prompted linguists and translators approach them in very different ways. Based on discussions of language economy, this thesis is designed to look into a variety of approaches to translating the Report through a contrastive method.This study is mainly based on Zipf s the Principle of Least Effort and refers to various fruitful research results of micro study on lexicon and syntax in contrastive linguistics. The study also benefits a lot from recent studies by famous scholars in China. The author approaches the Report from lexical and syntactic perspectives dissecting multi-layers of theories in this field. In short, this thesis is designed to make a thorough investigation of language economy in the Report, and compare differences and similarities in Chinese and English languages.