Inter-Subjectivity In News Translation Based On Functionalism

News is the most common resource for people to get information of the world but is written in various languages. In this case, in order to know better about what happens in the world, the news translation is of great significance and its study deserves a further probe.Usually there are several subjects involved in the translation process, each with its own subjectivity. These subjects will overtly or covertly place requirements and restrictions on each other, and interfere with other subjects’thoughts and actions. In this way, in order to accomplish the translation task, they need to communicate and negotiate with each other so as to reach a consensus, which could be viewed as interactions among subjects, or in other words, inter-subjectivity. We cannot deny that news translation should objectively transfer the factual information in the source text, but we cannot ignore the importance of inter-subjectivity in news translation process either.Functionalists view translation as an interpersonal communicative interaction involving team-work among agents interconnected through a complex network of mutual relations, which is very similar to the conception of translation inter-subjectivity focusing on the interactions among subjects in the process of translation activity. Therefore, this thesis, with examples of news translation, attempts to discuss inter-subjectivity in news translation under the guidance of functional translation theory. Besides introduction and conclusion, the thesis is composed of three chapters:Chapter1firstly illustrates with examples the special features of news translation based on the author’s understanding of news translation (Any production of news in a language based on news materials of the same topic in another language can be accepted as news translation.), and suggests such news translation principle as "close to the source-text’s information, close to the initiator and patronage’s requirements, and close to the target readers’expectations" derived from "Three Closes" made for China’s external-oriented propaganda translation, and thus regards domestication as a more suitable strategy for news translation, which is further analyzed through examples. Finally, the author makes a brief overview about studies on news translation in China by dividing them into three types:studies from the linguistic level, studies on news translation theories and news translation critics.Chapter2begins with an introduction to functionalism by focusing on its leading figures and their contributions, and its highlights. Then according to the basic concepts of inter-subjectivity in philosophical sense, the author figures out the connotations of translation subject and inter-subjectivity, and maintains that the question of who are the subjects of translation cannot be answered with a simple answer; the answer depends on the translation circumstances. This chapter ends with two similarities shared by functionalism and translation inter-subjectivity: consideration for "the roles involved" and emphasis on "the interactions among agents". As to the first similarity, the author points out that the two seeming different words, the term "agent" used by functionalism and the concept "subject" in translation inter-subjectivity, have something in common:both refer to the roles involved in translation. And for the second similarity, the author goes further from the angles of the "Skopostheorie", the "loyalty principle", and the "translation brief" by functionalists the interactions among all agents involved in the translation process.Chapter3, with many examples, deals with inter-subjectivity in news translation under the guidance of functionalism by examining the subjects of news translation first. Based on the definition of translation subject, the process of news translation and the idea of "interpersonal interaction" in functionalism, the author thinks that the subjects of news translation should include the translator, the initiator, the patronage, the gatekeeper, the target-text user and the target-text reader, while the source-text producer should be excluded. Then to show the interactions among these subjects the author draws a diagram, which is followed by detailed explanations of the interactions among the initiator, patronage, gatekeeper, target-text user, target-text reader and the news translator guided by functionalism. The author finishes this chapter with inter-subjectivity reflected in news translation through discussions on topic or source material selection of the initiator, careful word choice of the news translator, and various methods adopted by the news translator such as abridging, adding, rewriting, abstracting and editing.In the end, this thesis reaches a conclusion that in news translation more attention should be paid to inter-subjectivity; it is possible to employ functionalist translation theory to guide inter-subjectivity in news translation.