A Comparative Study On Codes Of Ethics For Translators Based On Andrew Chesterman’s Five Models Of Translation Ethics

Ethics usually refers to a harmonious and ordered relation between people regulated with moral means. It is believed that ethics is there and plays its function so long as human participate in their life and other activities. Translation is one of human’s cultural activities which involves at least two languages and plays a very important role in cross-cultural communication. An impartial cross-cultural communication depends on translation practice guided and bounded with ethics.The cultural turn in Translation Studies generates prosperity of new theories and views both in western and Chinese academia, e.g. descriptive theory, polysystem theory, norm theory, manipulation theory, rewriting theory, post colonial theory, Skopos, etc. Anthony Pym’s Introduction in The Return to Ethics, Special Issue (2001, Volume7, No.2) of The Translator, firmly pointed that translation studies has returned to the discussion on issues of ethics. In Special Issue, Andrew Chesterman puts a focus on translation ethics in his article "Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath". This article represents in detail the five models of translation ethics, namely, ethics of representation, ethics of service, ethics of communication, norm-based ethics and ethics of commitment, based on his previous research result.Translation nowadays has come to the fore as a profession and an independent business. This means it is necessary to establish a set of professional code of ethics which is specific to translation practice in order to ensure correct translation practice and healthy development of the profession as well as to protect translators’rights and the reputation of the profession as a whole.International Federation of Translators (FIT) and translators associations in countries and regions have issued their own codes of ethics or professional conduct governing translation practice and service, which may vary in values. Translation Service Committee of Translators Association of China (TAC) also enacted Code of Ethics for Translation Services (hereinafter referred as the Code) on October28,2005. Following Chesterman’s research, the thesis makes a comparison of The Translator’s Charter (FIT), and the counterpart of major English-speaking countries (the USA, the UK, Australia) as well as China. It is found out in the contrastive study that the Code of TAC is extraneous and peripheral to the nature of translation and practice in many ways. The translator’s competence and issues as what translation should be are not evidentially included. Many of its clauses are so general and "adaptive" that they can be borrowed by the code of ethics of any profession, if they are acceptable in a certain profession. The generalness and irrelevance of such a code cannot be expected to be governing and binding for translators and their practice.Further study finds that although the issue of translation ethics is discussed by senior scholars and practices times and from multi-levels, it is unexpectedly neglected in translators’education (training) and accreditation system in China. In this sense, the thesis produces the following proposals:1) to improve and refine the clauses of the Code of TAC;2) to incorporate translation ethics into the curricula and syllabus of translators’education (training) institutes in universities and schools of foreign studies and translation; and3) to include translation ethics as a part in China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) to evaluate translator candidates’recognition and respect of translation ethics.Translation ethics is a crucial issue to translators. It should be considered as one of the key fields in Translation Studies in the years ahead.