A Perspective Of Adaptation Theory On The C-e Translation Of Hubei Publicity Materials

The trend of globalization and ever closer international contacts give rise to growing need for the C-E translation of publicity materials, which is an essential channel for people from different countries to gain a better understanding of China. The quality of the C-E translation of publicity materials determines the publicity effect and hence influences China's integration and participation in the international cooperation. Under such circumstance, the thesis adopts qualitative approach to analyze samples collected from the C-E translation of Hubei publicity materials including bilingual TV news-reports, tourism materials and corporate profiles. General review of the C-E translation of Hubei publicity materials reveals that they fail to achieve desired publicity effect due to problems caused by mistranslation, redundant information, abuse of literal translation and poor structures. In response to problems in the C-E translation of publicity materials, previous researches largely focused on certain unsystematic translation methods. Theoretical and systematic analyses remain absent in the study on the C-E translation of publicity materials. In view of their communicative nature and informative and vocative function, the thesis revisits the C-E translation of publicity materials from a pragmatic perspective of Adaptation Theory in an attempt to propose the theoretical model of the C-E translation of publicity materials and offer suggestions for improving the C-E translation of Hubei publicity materials.Adaptation Theory, a new-born but encompassing theory proposed by Verschueren, assumes that language use is a continuous choice-making process for the purpose of adaptation to contextual correlates. Translation, as a special form of language use and a cross-cultural activity, can be approached by Verschueren's Adaptation Theory.Under the framework of Adaptation Theory, the C-E translation of publicity materials is a multi-layer choice-making process where adaptation to communicative context and linguistic context guides the translator to make linguistic choices. Specifically speaking, communicative context includes the target readers' mental, social and physical world while linguistic context refers to utterance-building principles of sequencing and cohesion. In that sense, Adaptation Theory gives theoretical account of linguistic and extra-linguistic constraints in the process of the C-E translation of publicity materials. With theoretical guidance of Adaptation Theory, the thesis points out that the translator should achieve communicative contextual adaptation and linguistic adaptation so as to make English versions of publicity materials more intelligible and acceptable in the eyes of ordinary foreign readers. Therefore, in practice, the translator is entitled to simplify flowery phraseology, add annotation to historical terms and allusions, paraphrase political slogans and economic jargons, delete cultural stereotype and restructure the discourse pattern of the source text so as to achieve adaptation to communicative and linguistic context and fulfill the communicative goal of the C-E translation of publicity materials.