A Study Of The Translation Of Obama’s Speeches From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured,deliberate manner which intends to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. Themost representative person is Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama waselected the44thPresident--and the first Muslim President of the United States. Andhe was reelected the45thPresident in7th, November,2012, and is the top people ofthe year. Obama is a talented speaker who uses powerful words to appeal to people,persuade people and win support from them. Obama and his speeches are paid muchattention to by many Chinese people, so many of his speeches have been translatedinto Chinese. However, few people do research into the translation of Obama’sspeeches from the perspective of Adaptation Theory. The paper attempts to carry outthe research on the translation, employing the framework of Verschueren’s AdaptationTheory.Under the framework of Adaptation Theory,“using language must consist ofcontinuous making of linguistic choice, consciously, for language-internal andlanguage-external reasons”. Taking it clearly, the research focus of translation is notonly on the endless debates on “equivalence” any more. Instead, other factors, whichmight affect the rendering of the text, should be taken into consideration. On the basisof Adaptation Theory, this thesis tends to inspect the translation process and prove theapplication to translation. This research intends to lay a root for more application ofAdaptation Theory to the translation and deeper investigation. The thesis will carry out the research from four viewing points: Contextual correlates of adaptability,structural objects of adaptability, and dynamics of adaptability and salience of theadaptation processes. By comparing and analyzing different translation of Obama’sspeeches, it is obvious to see that translation is also a process of adaptation.Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory provides a new insight for the study of translation,and provides a theoretical framework for pragmatics and translation.