On Translation Of Chinese Culture-specific Items In News From A Schematic Perspective

This thesis explores the decision-making process and translation strategies ofChinese culture-specific items (CSIs) in news with schema theory as the theoreticalbasis. Viewed from cognition, translation comprises of two phases of comprehension,between the translator and the source text, and between the target text readers and thetranslation.From a schematic perspective, the present research explores the decision-makingprocess in translating Chinese CSIs in news. Through analysis, it is found out that,influenced by the schemata of the ST receiver and that of the TT receiver, thetranslator would choose different translation strategies in the decision-making process,in order to activate or establish relevant schema in the cognition of the TT receiver.From the news reports by two Chinese mainstream bilingual media, namely,China Daily and Xinhua News Agency, the author collects translation of Chinese CSIsas research data. Based on the proposal by Liu Mingdong, the author puts forward hertaxonomy to account for five schema relations, namely, A-A, A-B, A-Zero, Zero-Zeroand Zero-B. With the data collected, a descriptive analysis has been conducted withinthe five relations, resulting in the summary of seven translation strategies for ChineseCSIs in news, including transliteration, literal translation and substitution. The authorbelieves that the translator is able to determine a suitable translation strategy whenhe/she fits the CSI in question in the five relations, taking the activation andestablishment of schema into consideration.The CSIs in news not only embody the cultural uniqueness, but also shoulder theresponsibility of being objective, effective, accurate and prompt. Through analysis, itis found out that the translator should not only take schema of the ST and TT receiverinto consideration, but also attempt to disseminate Chinese culture by establishingnew schema in the cognition of the TT receiver. It is hoped that the current study mayhave implications for Chinese CSIs translation in external publicity materials and inbilingual media.