E-C Translation Of Cosmetic Instructions: From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

With the rapid development of global economy, more and more foreign goods especiallyall kinds of cosmetics occur in the Chinese market, and to let consumers know its products inthe Chinese market and to win a spot are very important. Therefore the cosmetic translationsare more and more important. So how to produce a high quality translation in order to bettersatisfy domestic consumers will become an important issue for the translators. At present thestudy of E-C translation of cosmetic instructions, is a weak part, it lacks of theoreticalguidance and the research angle is narrow, so the achievements are low in this field. So thispaper, from the adaption theory, discusses E-C translation of cosmetic instructions.Verschueren presents the pragmatics from a new perspective in the Adaptation Theory.He argues that language use is a process of choice making; language users not only makechoices at every possible level of language structure but also in communicated culture context.Dynamic adaptation is the core of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, and in fact, thecontextual adaptation and structural adaptation provide the content for the dynamic adaptation.The E-C translation of cosmetic instructions is cross-cultural communication, in order toachieve a successful communication and the ideal cognition, the dynamic adaptation shouldbe adopted according to the context, and therefore, applying the Adaptation Theory for theE-C translation of the cosmetic instructions is feasible. So this paper, with the guidance of theAdaption Theory, based on the principles of the E-C translation of cosmetic instructions,combined the instruction corpus, is to the discuss the translation strategies and methods fromthe target-oriented language and the target-oriented culture. The former respectively discussesthe translation strategies from the level of the words (the shift of parts of speech, substantialuse of adjectives and four-letter words), sentences (substantial use of simple and shortsentences, wide use of the active voice), figure of speech (metaphor, antithesis assonance) anddiscourse (the Change of Content, the change of form). And The latter respectively discussesthe translation strategies from the mental world (consumer’s cognition, the way of thinking,Aesthetic Need) and the social world（social customs and traditions, social traits and preferences, social settings and legal institutions).After the analysis, it can be found that in the process of the E-C translation of cosmeticinstructions, the dynamic adaptation, as a translational strategy, is applied to the words,sentences, figure of speech and discourse at the language level, and also to the mental worldand social word at the cultural level. It is pointed out that the Adaption Theory provides afeasible theory for the E-C translation of cosmetic instructions and inspires translators toadopt the corresponding strategies and methods from the language and culture aspects, aimingto produce a high quality E-C translation of cosmetic instructions, therefore this thesis, tosome extent, promotes the study of E-C translation of cosmetic instructions and has a guidingsignificance.