The Influences Of Translational Purposes On The Translator's Selections

It is widely believed that translating is a process of successive selections. Accordingly, when he begins to work, the translator will confront a series of choices., ranging from the source text to be translated, the translation strategy to be employed, to the choices of specific words, tones, emotional colors of words and so forth. It is assumed that these selections involve macro, intermediate, and micro levels respectively. And they are influenced by translational purposes of corresponding levels. Translational purpose on macro level affects the translator's choice of the type of translation materials; the purpose of intermediate level influences the translator's choice of a specific source text in a given translation action, and will largely decide his translation strategy to carry out the work; and micro purposes are those at work in the process of literal transference, which are intended to guarantee the achievement of translational purposes of the other two levels. These purposes of various levels, work together to govern the translation activities of a given period, forming a hierarchical order.Based on the action theory of German sociologist Habermas, Bertalanffy's general system theory, and Wiener's theory of cybernetics, the author of this study defines and reclassifies translational purposes. Then through the exploration of the ways that the translational purposes of varied levels affect the translator's selections within the context of the so-called third tide of translation in modern China, this study proves the above assumption. Since translation always takes place within a specific cultural context, translational purposes likewise are inevitably affected by the external factors from the receiving culture such as the ideology, the social needs of the target society, the target readers' reading expectations. So, translational purposes are historical and always change with the time. Based on the discussion, this author arrives at the conclusion that the translator's selections at different levels are governed by the translational purposes on the corresponding macro, intermediate, and micro...