Translation Strategy Of Social Science Text From The Perspective Of "Equivalence" Theory

The project is composed of two parts. The first part is the translation of the excerpts of Understanding Social Networks from English to Chinese, which is written by Prof. Charles Kadushin, a notable sociologist and social network analyst at Columbia University and later, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Chinese copyright has been bought by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press and my translation will be published in2013. The second part is my afterthoughts about how to achieve a translation technically under the guidance of "dynamic equivalence".The original book Understanding Social Networks aims to demystify some of the ideas of social networks by explaining the "big ideas" that underlie the social network phenomenon. Intended for readers with no or a very limited background in mathematics or computers, it is not a "how to do it" book; instead, it mainly introduces the basic concepts of Social Network. The translation of this book could expose Chinese readers to such an interesting field and might help prompt the application of social network concepts to Chinese reality.In the critical commentary that follows, there are the translator’s afterthoughts, discussing the preparatory work before translating and analyzing the actual examples from the translation process, with a focus on translation strategies. What is more important, efforts are devoted to discussing how Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence has performed as the guidance of translation in terms of terminology translation, wording and phrasing, long sentences and annotation processing.The author also wants to indicate that well-qualified translators are essential for a successful translation and among these qualifications are:good bilingual ability, related background knowledge, the conscientious and careful attitude and exposure to translating theories.