Translating The Oxford Handbook Of Public Policy(Chapter44) From The Perspective Of Theadaptation Theory

This thesis is intended to summarize how Jeff Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory isapplicable to the author’s concrete translation practice in translating Chapter44from TheOxford Handbook of Public Policy into Chinese. It mainly focuses how the authoremployed the Adaptation Theory to solve the various difficult points she encountered whiletranslating before some corresponding translation strategies are put forward. Thetranslation strategies lay an emphasis on the E-C translation skills at the lexical level andthe syntactic level to demonstrate how the translation theory can be applied to solvepractical translation problems.Adaptation Theory holds that the use of language is a continuous process ofchoice-making to achieve the communicative purpose. According to Jeff Verschueren,there are three properties for language in use, namely, variability, negotiability andadaptability, of which adaptability is the core. This thesis mainly makes an analysis of thetranslation process from three angles: contextual correlates of adaptability, structuraladaptability and dynamics of adaptability. The author points out that during the process ofa given translation, the translator will consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously adapthis/her translation to the target language.This thesis starts with a brief introduction to the translation task and the structure ofthis thesis. Chapter1describes the concrete process guided by Adaptation Theory. Chapter2is a case study, which analyses the translation of Chapter44from The Oxford Handbookof Public Policy from three angles, including contextual correlates of adaptability,structural adaptability and dynamics of adaptability. After the analysis of many concreteexamples, it is found that Adaptation Theory can account for the various translationproblems she encountered in her translation of The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy（Chapter44）. For this reason, the author contends that Adaptation Theory can serve as a guiding theory for the author’s translation. In the end, the thesis has summarized theexistent problems and insufficiencies while pointing out that Adaptation Theory is oftheoretical and practical value for translation practice.