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The Translator's Treatment Of The Target Text: A Socio-cultural Perspective

Posted on:2004-10-30Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y BaiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360092492536Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
This study is undertaken to find out how translators treat the target text from a socio-cultural perspective. Translators can not avoid such questions as "what to translate", "for whom to translate " and "what specific words to use in the target text'". The author has studied the relationship between three socio-cultural variables i.e. socio-political situation, socio-economic conditions and socio-ethic atmosphere of the target culture, and three kinds of choice that the translator has made in real translation. Adopting the method of synchronic and diachronic contrastive description, the author studies the three variables respectively and concludes that they each play a decisive role in the translator's choice of source text (topic), translation strategies (text -centered or reader-centered), and specific words and terms. The following are the findings generated from the exploration.Firstly, when translation serves a political purpose such as to inform people of the necessity to conduct a political reform or to educate people about the ways to carry out a policy, politics will influence the translator's choice of texts. Translators may choose translation topics related to political reform. They may deliberately approach the text from a political perspective, adopt the methods like omission, addition and substitution to make the translated text survive in the target culture. Secondly, translation can also serve economic purposes. Then, translators have to take business effects into consideration when choosing texts, so they employ methods of omission, addition and substitution and use the expressions, which are appealing to the readers. Thirdly, as translation is done within an ethical frame, the translator usually chooses topics which are morally acceptable in the target social context and has to adopt such methods as omission, simplification and substitution to deal with sensitive ideas. And words chosen also result from moral consideration. The results of this study suggests that appropriateness in translation is a relative concept and that socio-cultural variables may help people understand in depth the translator's motivated treatment.
Keywords/Search Tags:Socio-cultural variables, translation strategies, appropriateness
PDF Full Text Request
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