A Study On Chinese-English Translation Of Publicity Materials From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

China's booming economy and the trend of globalization bring about a growing need for pub(?)icity materials for foreign audience.At present,since translating publicity materials from Chinese to English is still playing a prominent role in China's communication with the outside world,its quality,has a great impact on the effect of international communication,which ultimately influences China's image abroad and its cultural communication with western countries.As a result,it is of great practical significance to study Chinese-English translation of publicity materials.However, previous researches in this field were mainly focused on summarizing translation methods or skills,which may lack theoretical support and appear somewhat subjective. Up to now,few of more systematic and comprehensive researches with theoretical support have been conducted on the process of Chinese-English translation of publicity materials.Besides,multiple motivations and constraints determining translators' strategies in the process of translating publicity materials from Chinese to English have not been given enough attention to.The present study attempts to explore Chinese-English translation of publicity materials from the perspective of Adaptation Theory,or in its full name,Pragmatics as a Theory of Linguistic Adaptation,proposed by Jef Verschueren.According to this theory,language use is a continuous process of choice-making out of linguistic and extra-linguistic reasons to achieve the communicative purposes;adaptability is a property of language and adaptation-making is to approach points of satisfaction for communicative needs.Since Chinese-English translation of publicity materials is a special kind of cross-cultural communication,translators as communicators have to make different choices and adaptation in this process.Under the guidance of this theory,the present research tries to bring linguistic,psychological,social,cultural, and physical factors in the process of Chinese-English translation of publicity materials into a coherent and unified framework in the hope of broadening the scope of study in this field.The present thesis firstly presents a review of previous researches on this translation branch,and then gives a brief survey of publicity materials,including features of publicity materials and requirements for translators in this field.After integrating theoretical explanation and application of the Adaptation Theory into the present research on Chinese-English translation,it probes into the different yet interrelated constraints involved in the process of translating publicity materials from Chinese to English,and explains how translators make adaptation based on a qualitative analysis of the first-hand examples from the Chinese and the English editions of China Today,an authoritative magazine in the field of China's international communication.Thus,the present study reveals that during the choice-making process of translating publicity materials from Chinese to English, translators should adapt not only to the linguistic convention,but also to target readers' mental world,social world,and physical world by flexibly adopting various translation methods,such as addition,deletion and reformulation.Although Chinese-English translation of publicity materials is not a new topic to be touched upon for scholars and researchers,few of them have observed it from the angle of Adaptation Theory.It is our hope that the present thesis can shed new light on researches into this translation branch and provide some insights as well as guidance for those engaged in this field for the purpose of promoting a better international understanding of and friendship towards China.