An Analysis Of Annotations’ Effectiveness As Compensatory Method In Children’s Literature Translation

Literature works for children are written for young readers who have specificlinguistic and recognition requirements, which make themselves distinguished from adultreaders. Vivid images and lively expressions are preferred in children literature works togive kids moral lessons, so are children literature translations. Translators are required toprovide target readers instructive messages in an easy-teaching way as authors do, and toexpress what authors wanted to express to target readers (children).Culture gaps may occurin the translation due to different social background, history and culture, and there alsoexist the possibility that author’s intentions may be misled. In order to fulfill the cultural,historical and social insufficiencies, translators take annotations or explanatory notes ascompensate means to provide detailed messages and perfect their works. Annotation is alsoa choice for translators to provide equivalent messages and facilitate cultural exchangewhen they are trapped in culture dilemma.Annotation is commonly applied in children literature translation as compensationtool for children’s cognitive deficiency. It is extremely important for translator to provideannotation in an appropriate way so as to communicate with young readers in a lively,instructive way. It is worthwhile to notice that theoretical framework has been illustrated inrelevance theory and the concept of thick translation can also be applied to support theeffectiveness of annotation in children literature translations.Quantitative data analysis is adopted as research method to analysis the effectivenessof annotations as compensatory method in different Chinese versions of the Jungle books.Relevant studies about children literature, annotation and relevant theories are adopted asreference to illustrate the effectiveness of annotation as means of fulfilling cultural gaps,providing contextual information and clarifying author’s intentions.