A Study On Chinese-English Translation Of Food Instructions From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

This thesis attempts to study Chinese-English translation of food instructions from the perspective of adaptation theory. Verschueren’s adaptation theory has a strong explanatory power for a variety of translational phenomena. According to this theory, language use must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal and language-external reasons (Verschueren,2000).Variability, negotiability and adaptability are three properties of language. They also serve as the reasons to explain why people can make linguistic choices in the process of language use. Moreover, language use can be better described and elaborated from four angles. They are contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and the salience of adaptation processes.Through the empirical analysis, this thesis illustrates in what aspects translators make adaptation and how they adapt to these aspects in the process of translation. Based on the adaptation theory, it analyzes the classification, function and features of Chinese food instructions and probes into the translation of food instructions from four different angles:structural adaptation, contextual adaptation, dynamics of adaptability and salience of adaptation processes. This paper also indicates that translators should adapt to the structural characteristics of the target language, and make choices at the stylistic, phonetic, lexical and syntactic level. Besides, contextual correlates of adaptability requires translators to take into consideration the target readers’mental world, social world and physical world so that they can produce a translation version with high quality. Moreover, appropriate translation strategies and flexible translation methods, such as addition, deletion, domesticating and reformulation can be adopted in the C-E translation of food instructions to ensure that the target text can be in accordance with both language-internal and language-external conventions or motivations that have great influence on the choice-making.This thesis aims to shed light on the study in this field from a new perspective and provide some guidance for the food instruction translators. Hopefully, it will be instrumental for the Chinese food manufacturers to take their places in the international market. And at the same time, it is hoped to serve as a platform for foreign friends to know our Chinese food culture so as to improve cross-cultural communication.