Chinese-English Translation For Global Communication From The Perspective Of Communication Studies

Communication is a common activity or phenomenon in human society and itsbasic elements are signs (verbal signs and non-verbal signs). In essence, it is asharing and exchanging of information. With the growth of society and theadvancement of the acknowledgement about translation studies, translation makes anessential contribution to the communication and exchange of information whendifferent languages are used. From this, it can be seen that communication studiesand translation are all involved in the delivery and exchange of information. There isjust one major sender in communication whereas there are at least two senders in thetranslation. This renders translation as a mode of communication more complex, butthe theoretical framework of Communication Studies still provides a strongreasonability for translation studies.There have been fruitful accomplishments in the research area of translationfor global materials at present. Although there are some masters’ theses and doctoraldissertations on Communication Studies and translation for global communication,the number of these theses is quite few to the best of the present author’s knowledge.From this, they are devoid of the ability to guide the practice of translation. Amongthe experts and scholars in the area of translation, the research on the communicativenature of C-E translation for global communication (CETGC) does not receivesufficient attention. This paper makes an attempt to open a new perspective for theresearch on CETGC through the combination of Communication Studies andtranslation. By a comprehensive and systematic description about the features andprinciples of CETGC from the perspective of Communication Studies, the firstpriority should be given to receivers of the target text in translation, namely,receiver-oriented principle should be emphasized. Furthermore, the translator shouldalso pay much attention to faithfulness and readers’ feedback.With the theoretical framework of Communication Studies, this paper appliesthe qualitative research method and the quantitative research method. The C-Etranslation of China Today is selected as a case study. By comparing the Chinese and English versions of China Today from the year of2002to20012, this paper makes acomprehensive analysis at the lexical level and at the discourse level. At the lexicallevel, five methods are used, such as transliteration, literal translation, transliterationcoupled with literal translation, literal translation coupled with annotation, and freetranslation. At the discourse level, domestication method is adopted in the hope ofretaining Chinese-characterized culture based on the principles of readability andacceptability. Such a study is believed to shed a new light on the CETGC from theperspective of Communication Studies.