Translation Techniques In Image Reproduction

This thesis is mainly aimed to find out what translation techniques of image reproduction can be employed while we are translating from English into Chinese. Two English versions of Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, Vol., III were used in this thesis as the main subject of my study, namely the one published by Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1967 and the one by International Publishers, New York, 1956. Sentences full of images in the two English versions were sorted out and translation techniques of image reproduction adopted in these sentences were classified into nine categories, namely literal translation, free translation, borrowing the closest natural equivalence, transformation of images, addition to image, image omission, transliteration, making new words and taboo translation. Each category has been given enough supporting examples and analyses. Problems relevant to each translation technique have also been discussed. It was found that in some cases the reproduction of an image requires more than one technique and different techniques are adopted when a sentence or a whole text is under translation. A diagram was drawn at the end of this thesis to illustrate from the angle of occurrence percentage the relation among image reproduction techniques. Adding footnote, an important translation supplement, has also been discussed in the thesis.