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C-E Translation Of Zhangjiajie Tourism Materials From The Perspective Of Horizon Of Expectations

Posted on:2013-09-11Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H Z WenFull Text:PDF
GTID:2235330374987620Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Zhangjiajie, an incomparably beautiful area enveloped by mountains in the heart of central China, is winning increasing favor from foreign tourists for its picturesque scenery and unique culture. But foreign tourists have only accounted for a small proportion of the visitors in Zhangjiajie. So more promotional work needs to be done and more tourism materials are expected to satisfy the increasing appetite of foreign readers for pragmatic information about Zhangjiajie. Translation is one of the ways to make Zhangjiajie better known to the outside world. English is a language that is used by tourists throughout the world, so putting the tourism materials of Zhangjiajie into English much facilitates the promotion of the local natural scenery and culture. It is no exaggeration to say that the quality of the tourism material translations directly influences the reputation of Zhangjiajie Scenic Area and largely determines the economic growth of this region. The tourism material translation of Zhangjiajie has drawn some attention of the academic world and a few scholars have carried out relevant studies. But these researches are far from systematic and complete. These researchers have dug out the roots of the problems and have successfully revealed the mistakes to the public by the illustration of translation cases. Nevertheless, these studies are only listing facts and translation methods, with inadequate theoretical support.Tourism materials are both informative and vocative, as they introduce the beauty and uniqueness of particular scenic spots to potential tourists and at the same time attract them to pay a visit, buying the tourism products and services. Tourism material translation belongs to the field of pragmatic translation. Tourism material translation of high quality is one which receives responses from the target readers, i.e. the foreign readers, and more importantly, is understood and accepted by the target readers. Newmark points out that informative text and vocative text should focus on the readers and take into account the readers’various expectations and mentalities in order to achieve the expected communication effects. Reception aesthetics provides solid theoretical foundation for the study of the C-E translation of tourism materials of Zhangjiajie.According to reception aesthetics, translators should first care for the target readers’ acceptability, aesthetic requirement, the need for information as well as the linguistic features of the target language. This thesis is to apply the readers’ horizon of expectations, an essential notion of reception aesthetics, to the study of the tourism material translation of Zhangjiajie with a view to proving the applicability of the readers’ horizon of expectations in tourism material translation and providing suggestive methods to improve the quality of the tourism material translation of Zhangjiajie.According to reception aesthetics, before reading, the readers already have had certain horizon of expectations which includes personal view of the world, cultural background, social experience, aesthetic values, etc. When translating tourism materials, translators are expected to take into consideration the target readers’ role, especially their horizon of expectations. However, many of the translators responsible for the C-E translation of the tourism materials of Zhangjiajie, following Chinese tourists’ thinking patterns, fail to realize the differences existing between the two languages as well as the two cultures, and care little for or even totally neglect the foreign readers’horizon of expectations. As a result, they do not adjust the contents and structures of the source texts and produce translations that by no means conform to the target readers’ reading habits or needs of information. Due to the translators’ negligence of the foreign readers’ horizon of expectations, most of the translations of the tourism materials of Zhangjiajie are plagued with problems and errors, which hinder the introduction and promotion of the beautiful scenery and unique culture in Zhangjiajie, posing considerable difficulties to the foreigners who want to know more about Zhangjiajie or come to visit this region. Excellent C-E tourism material translation could not only cater to the foreign readers’ aesthetic requirements but arouse their interest and imagination as well, expanding their horizon of expectations and changing their aesthetic tastes. Therefore, in the C-E tourism material translating process, translators should adopt the appropriate translation strategies and methods under the guidance of reception aesthetics in order to satisfy the readers’ horizon of expectations and improve the promotional effects of the tourism material translations. If the contents of the source texts are within the target readers’ horizon of expectations, the translators could choose the translation methods of metaphrasing and paraphrasing. But when there is anything beyond the horizon of expectations in the translated text, conflicts would occur. In this case, translators have to adopt the methods of amplification, deletion, analogy, rewriting to change the target readers’ horizon of expectations and keep an appropriate aesthetic distance between the target readers and the translated text so that a fusion of horizons would be achieved. Translations of high quality could serve to faithfully extend the messages of the source text and the intention of the writer to the target readers and attract more foreigners to visit Zhangjiajie.
Keywords/Search Tags:horizon of expectations, fusion of horizon, aesthetic distance, the translation of tourism materials of Zhangjiajie, translation problems, translation methods
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