A History Of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach (Chapter Five)

As one kind of translation of academic works, the translation of linguistic works is of vital importance to communicate and exchange ideas. This paper is a translation report written by the author who has translated Chapter Five of A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach edited by Barbara A. Fennell. The chapter mainly introduces social and political history, linguistic development, literary achievement and sociolinguistic focus in the Early Modern English period. With focus on core questions of linguistics, the work, which is of high value, discusses the history of English with the basic theory of sociolinguistics. By translating, it can provide a new perspective of studying English history for Chinese scholars and explore translation strategies of linguistic works, English history ones and sociolinguistic ones. This paper summarizes difficult points and laws of translation from the perspective of linguistic terms, contrast between adverbials of English and Chinese, adverbial with adverbs, participles, and clauses. It is hoped that this report can offer methods and references to E-C translation of linguistic works.