C-E Translation Of China’s Investment-inviting Project Texts:Problems And Countermeasures

Based on the current C-E translation quality of investment-inviting project texts, this thesis, under the guidance of register theory, analyzes a number of typical translation problems in this text type and puts forward corresponding countermeasures. Fifty-nine examples are selected from nearly thirty official websites at provincial or municipal level and analyzed from the dimension of field, tenor and mode in a working analytical framework. The results show that there are mainly six types of translation problems in the current text type, including:1) improper translation of project markers and2) professional terms in the dimension of filed;3) improper translation of sentences without subjects and4) of culturally specific expressions in the dimension of tenor;5) excessive use of colloquial expressions and6) poor cohesion in the target texts in the dimension of mode.These problems arose, to a large extent, from translators’ignorance of the register features of project texts. To achieve equivalence in register between the source and target texts, this paper further proposes such corresponding countermeasures as:1) to translate project markers in line with the instructional function;2) to translate professional terms in line with the subject matter;3) to use noun phrases and passive voices to translate sentences without subjects by impersonality;4) to use amplification and omission in the translation of culturally specific expressions by acceptability;5) to keep the target texts in written form; and6) to add cohesive devices to reproduce semantic relations.In short, an investment-inviting project text has its distinctive register features. A correct and adequate translation of it requires not only the fidelity to the source text but also the appropriate selection of linguistic expressions in the target text. To achieve this goal, the equivalence in field, tenor and mode in translation is indispensable.