| China is a big country with a long history and profound culture. The extant sites of the Grand Canal are not only the precious Chinese cultural heritage, but also the common wealth of mankind. In order to make it well-known all over the world and better preserved, the Grand Canal has already put into the path of applying for the world cultural heritage, which is tortuous and still a long way ahead to go. The C-E translation of the document used for applying for the world cultural heritage is the key link of the whole process. In the translation, translators bridge exchanges and communication between two languages and cultures. They are highly responsible for and play an important role in the translation which matters the success of the Grand Canal applying for the world cultural heritage.The thesis is intended to make a systematical analysis of the translation task carried out by the author, of the document of the Grand Canal used for applying for the world cultural heritage from the perspective of Newmark’s translation theory. Based on Buhler’functional theory of language, Newmark divides all texts into three types, i.e. expressive text, informative text and vocative text. The adoption of translation method depends on the text type. Therefore, Newmark puts forward semantic translation and communicative translation. Generally speaking, semantic translation is used for expressive texts, which stresses the exact contextual meaning of the original and is author-oriented, while communicative translation is used for informative texts and vocative texts, which attempts to reproduce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original, mainly focuses on the acceptability of the target language readers and is target language readers-oriented. According to Newmark’s translation theory, the author classified the document used for applying for the world cultural heritage as the informative text which communicative translation is used for. However, Newmark proposes that few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative:most include all the three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three. Therefore, communicative translation should be the leading method for such text type, while semantic translation as supplementaryThe thesis consists of6parts, including4chapters, introduction and conclusion. The first part is introduction. Chapter One firstly brings out the background of the translation task, including basic information of the translation task, requirements of commissioner and significance of the translation task. Secondly, it mainly presents the preparation work for the translation task before translation. Preparation work includes the rough assessment of difficulty of the translation project, translation plan and quality control program making, preparation of the aided translation tools used in the process of translation, glossary drawn up to unify terms, and relevant material collecting. Chapter Two analyzes the source text at lexical, syntactic and textual levels. Chapter Three discusses the difficulties in the first draft of translation. First of all, misreading and mistranslation in the first draft are analyzed at lexical, syntactic and textual levels. Second, problems in translating sentences written in classical Chinese are analyzed in details. Chapter Four is solutions to problems in the first draft of translation so as to improve the quality of translation, including three aspects:1) principles for the document of the Grand Canal, i.e. text typology as the basis,"informativeness" as the focus in function and target language readers-oriented;2) methods of translation, i.e. transliteration, transliteration plus annotation, addition and omission;3) improving translators’ essential accomplishment, including bilingual competence, adoption of aided translation tools, storage of knowledge of all kinds of industries and attitude towards translation. The last part is conclusion. |
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