C-E Translation Of Publicity Materials On Government Websites:a Study Based On The Skopos Theory

With the accelerating pace of globalization and informationization, exchanges between China and the rest of the world have become increasingly closer. In order to let more overseas people have a better understanding of China, more and more Chinese cities have launched their own English government websites. The C-E translation of PMGWs is a direct channel to foreigners. As a result, the quality of translation is crucial for enhancing international communication.A preliminary exploration found that theoretical studies on the C-E translation of PMGWs have been scarce. Although some papers on the C-E translation of PMGWs have been published in Chinese core journals, most of them deal with finding specific language problems in the translation, but lack theoretical frameworks. Therefore, the researcher intends to conduct a study of C-E translation of PMGWs from the functionalist perspective, which is of great help for translation.For Skopos theory,"the end justifies the means", so before translating a text, the translator should know what the purposes of the text are and what the audience expects. In this thesis, the researcher conducts a case s.tudy of C-E translation of PMGWs by generalizing the purposes of government websites, categorizing the texts according to the purpose, and testing whether the C-E translation of PMGWs has achieved the prospective purposes based on the Skopos Theory and Neubert and Shreve’s seven features of textuality.The findings are as follows:1.The communicative purpose of government websites is to promote exchanges, cooperation and friendship between the City and the rest of the world by providing the City’s basic information to all foreign governments, organizations and individuals who have interests in the City’s development and those foreign friends who currently study, work and travel in the City through the access of Internet.2. The following translation principles based on the survey of the seven features of textuality can be put forward respectively:1) Translation principle based on coherence and cohesion:the translator can employ a variety of cohesive devices to enhance the cohesion of the target text, such as reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical devices. In addition, the translator should pay special attention to the thematic structure in translation so as to construct a coherent target text.2) Translation principle based on intentionality:a translator should be aware of what makes the text relevant to the audience. What will be translated must conform to the need of the target audience.3) Translation principle based on acceptability:during the translation process, the translator should access the information requirements of the L2as a text in its own right and make adjustment to compensate. The translator may have to resort to translation procedures like compression, omission, paraphrase or explication.4) Translation principles based on informativity:the translator should convey information within the target reader’s processing resources. The translator can sometimes use textual devices, like reconstruction to direct the target reader’s attention to ideas from the source text which should be relevant in the target language situation. Otherwise, the translator may have to intervene by inserting footnotes, providing translator’s notes, or creating explanatory paraphrases.5) Translation principles based on situationality:translation is always easier when the situation of the L1text parallels the situation of the L2text. In these cases, the situation can be said already exist in the L2culture"(Neubert&Shreve,1992:87). There are often cases when the target text situation can not coincide with that of the original. On this occasion, the translator must adopt translation procedures, such as explication, compression, recasting and textual re-arrangement to adjust the text to its new situation6) Translation principles based on intertextuality:the translated text must be in accordance with the target audience’s textual expectation. If the translator wants to create a translation that appears natural, then he or she should create a text whose linguistic surface evokes a similar recognition.