A Brief Survey On The English Translation Of Chinese Garden Introduction: Text Analysis Approach

Classical Chinese gardens have been appealing to tourists all over the worldwith the unique construction style and rich cultural connotations. The publicitymaterial of classical Chinese garden serves as a tool to assist tourists in getting toknow the gardens meanwhile it can also evoke tourists’ interest in paying an actualvisit to the gardens. As an effective and a convenient way for international tourists toappreciate the essence of Chinese garden, the translation of the publicity materialdeserves due attention.The parallel text model and Christiane Nord’s text analysis model are both ofhigh feasibility and practicality in instructing the translation of such applied texts aspublicity material of scenic spots.Deriving from contrastive text linguistics,“parallel text” refers to the texts indifferent languages or cultures but with similar communicative function. As theauxiliary text, parallel text can provide translators with authentic cultural andlinguistic conventions in TT. Through the observation of linguistic and stylisticfeatures of the parallel text in TT, translators can reproduce these features intranslation. Nord’s text analysis model on the other hand involves interlinkedanalysis of both intratextual and extratextual factors. Combined with the analysis ofthe intended functions of both ST and TT, Nord’s text analysis enables translators toidentify the translation problems from a macro perspective.On the basis of these two models, this thesis compares the characterizations andlimitations of the two models and further proposes a new model by takingadvantages of both models. The author further applies the proposed model into theC-E translation of classical Chinese gardens, intending to shed some light on thetranslation practice of garden introduction.