Semantic Translation And Communicative Translation In The Translation Of Chinese Narrative Proses

This paper focuses on analysis of the Chinese translation of narrative proses based on Semantic Translation (ST) and Communicative Translation (CT) proposed by Newmark who is a famous British translator.ST and CT are important applications of semantics and communication in the translation field. This paper firstly analyzes differences and relations between ST and CT and then elaborates the application of ST and CT in various text types based on different linguistic functions. Semantic Translation attempts to remain the exact contextual meaning of the original text within the original culture and assists the reader only when they have difficulty in understanding the connotations of the text. Communicative Translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original.Based on a careful analysis of the language and cultural features of narrative proses together with the language and cultural obstructions in narrative proses translation, this paper discusses the application of ST and CT in narrative proses translation. Narration and description are main means of expression in narrative proses, together with argumentative and lyrical means. These means applied in narrative proses together reflect the expressive function and informative function of languages.Therefore, on the one hand, ST are employed to remain the context and aesthetic value of the original text; On the other hand, CT should be used to make appropriate adjustments of the vivid figurative meaning of the original content which can’t be expressed accurately by ST so that the readers of the target language would comprehend the information of the original content. However, the translator should take some factors into account such as the text type as well as knowledge and cultural background of readers when they translate in order to produce precise and concise target texts.