Translator's Subjectivity In Chinese To English Translation Of Publicity Materials From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

The 6th China-ASEAN Expo just ended in Nanning on October 24, 2009. Thetrade volume concluded at the Expo turned out to be the highest in the history. It isvery important for the enterprises to publicize themselves favorably and improve thecompetitiveness of the products so as to enter the international market, to which, awell translated publicity materials would contribute a lot. However, it is not difficult tofind that there are many problems existing in the publicity materials such as usinginappropriate words, grammar mistakes,"Chinglish"as well as culture conflicts, etc. Itwould not only lead to the imperfection of publicity activities but also affect theestablishment of a favorable image of the enterprise. Therefore, how to improve thetranslation quality of publicity materials by inviting due recognition of the translators'subjectivity is very necessary and helpful.Starting from the research background, organization and significance, this studygives a brief account of the improvement of translators'status in the western andChinese history. It points out that the translators'subjectivity has been recognized bysome scholars in the initial translation studies rather than being completely invisiblebehind the source text. With a brief overview of the development of the FunctionalistSkopos Theory in the west and China, this study claims that the Functionalist SkoposTheory places its emphasis on the purpose of the translation and allows the translatorsto choose proper translation methods and strategies in accordance with the anticipatedfunction and purpose of the target text. As the reader, illustrator and author, thetranslator is endowed with more"rights"and freed from the traditional bondage of the"absolute fidelity". Therefore, this theory is applicable to the translation of publicitymaterials with specific purpose.The translation of publicity materials deals not only with language, but also withculture. Both Chinese and English publicity materials have their own characteristics asa result of the great differences between the two languages and cultures. By analyzing the function and purpose of the publicity materials, this study compares thecharacteristics of Chinese and English publicity materials, and points out that in theC-E translation of publicity materials , the linguistic and cultural features of Englishpublicity materials as well as the English readership's habits and expectations have tobe observed carefully.Based on the Skopos Theory,this paper studies Chinese-English translation of theenterprise publicity materials with two parts: quantitative analysis and qualitativeanalysis, i.e. researching the social and cultural elements that influence the translator'ssubjectivity by questionnaires and studying the C-E translation of publicity materialsby taking the materials collected from the China-ASEAN expo (2009) as examples. Itpoints out that, translators not only need to master both the native language and theforeign language, the cultures that they are rooted, their respective value and thinkingway, but also exert their subjectivity in translation according to the requirement of theclient, the purpose of the translation and the taste of the target readers. Applying theSkopos Theory to the study of translation of publicity materials, these two levels ofanalyses will be supported by literature and empirical research. This thesis willexposes the problems lying in the C-E translation of enterprise publicity materials byconcrete investigation statistics, with an aim to help improve the translators'capabilityas well as the quality of the translation.