A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American University Proifles And C-E Translation

Under the trend of globalization, English publicity materials of Chineseuniversities play an important role in Chinese international publicity work. It showsthe educational strength of Chinese universities to the outside world and builds upChinese university’s international image. However, for a long time, due to variousreasons, English university publicity materials in China haven’t been paid muchattention to. Some problems like Chinglish and failure to achieve effective readershipstill hinder the international communication seriously and reduce the effect of thepublicity work. As most of these English publicity materials are translated fromChinese versions, studying on the C-E translation of Chinese university profiles isimportant to solve those problems. Besides, possessing both theoretical and practicalvalues, this study will provide academic support to C-E translation studies. The authortakes Chinese and American university profiles which are the most importantpublicity materials of universities as research targets and conducts a comparativestudy between the two.The university profiles are obtained from the official websites of top100American universities (according to the ranking released by The US News and WorldReport in2011) as well as Chinese universities in211project. The author analyzes thesimilarities and differences between the two and tries to dig out the causes for thosedifferences. Besides, under the guidance of functional theories, the author analyzesthe problems of C-E translation of Chinese university profiles including linguisticerror, Chinglish, problems in textual structures, problems caused by cultural barriers,etc. The author points out that most of these translation problems are caused bydifferent cultures, thinking patterns, educational and political backgrounds betweenChina and English speaking countries.Under the guidance of functionalism, the author thinks that the translator shouldbe target reader-oriented and deal with the content, syntactical structure, textual structure and writing style flexibly during translation. In order to achieve goodpublicity effects, it is necessary for the translator to learn from American universityprofiles and comply with the target readers’ reading habits during translation.This dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction of thethesis, which presents the research background, research methodology andsignificance of the study. In chapter two, a brief review of relative studies on publicitymaterials is presented. In chapter three, the author conducts a comparative study ofChinese and American University profiles from the following aspects: content, style,syntactic structures and textual structures. At the same time, the author also digs outthe causes for those differences. In chapter four, the author introduces functionaltheories which are the theoretical framework of this study. Under the guidance offunctionalism, the author analyzes the translational problems of Chinese universityprofiles like translational problems in content, expression and style. In chapter five, inorder to solve the problems mentioned in chapter four, the author brings up solutionsto those problems such as omission, addition, restructuring and rewriting. In chaptersix, the author makes a conclusion of the whole thesis.It is hoped that this study may achieve a persuasive and representative researchresult that can guide and ameliorate the translation of Chinese university publicitymaterials.