English Translation Of Four-Chinese-Character Structures In Report On The Work Of The Government From The Perspective Of Skopostheory

As an authentic source for other countries in the world to learn about China’s development, policies and future plans, China’s annual Report on the Work of the Government (hereinafter referred to as RWG), made by the Premier at the National People’s Congress, has aroused widespread concern around the world. It covers the latest advances in the aspects of politics, economy, culture, military, science and technology and so on, and becomes a "window" through which the world can know more about China. Therefore, it goes without saying that the successful English translation of RWG is of great significance in helping the world better understand China. RWG not only covers enormously wide social domains in China, but also is a typical representation of characteristics of Chinese language, in which four-Chinese-character structures are a good example and account for a large proportion. Hence, whether the four-Chinese-character structures can be appropriately translated will affect the accuracy of RWG’s information delivery; that is to say, the English translation of four-Chinese-character structures carries a big weight in introducing RWG to the world. However, the "four-Chinese-character structure" is a kind of language form with unique features:diverse structures, closely related semantics and a sense of rhyme and music, which poses great obstacles to its translation; in particular, the transference of those with peculiar characteristics of Chinese language and culture are more challenging.At present, a flood of studies on the English translation of RWG have hit the shelves in China. However, almost all studies have been conducted from the levels of the discourse, syntax, stylistics and lexicon, etc. and the four-Chinese-character structures are simply treated as a small part of examples at lexical level, while few investigate systematically and thoroughly the translation of the four-Chinese-character structures in RWG. Therefore, this thesis, from the perspective of Skopostheory, attempts to study how translators adopt different translation strategies to achieve the skopos of RWG through analyzing a wealth of examples. To be specific, having systematically studied the translation of these four-Chinese-character structures in RWG, this thesis gives a clear definition and classification of four-Chinese-character structures in RWG; meanwhile, analyzes and summarizes the dominant translation strategies adopted by each kind of four-Chinese-character structures.Through exploring specific and appropriate translation strategies, this thesis is helpful to later related studies from the following points:firstly, the Skopostheory, especially Reiss’s text typology and Vermeer’s Skopostheorie (its three rules:skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule), are well applied to guide the English translation of four-Chinese-character structures in RWG and other political documents, so as to maximize the skopos of RWG—information delivery. To be more specific, with Reiss’s text typology, this thesis finds that RWG is an informative text, which aims to deliver facts, such as information, knowledge, opinions, etc. The English translation of RWG should place more emphasis on its topic and content. In order to well translate the four-Chinese-character structures in RWG, the accuracy of information delivery, the readability and acceptability of the translation and the fidelity to the original text are key factors that should be fully considered. Correspondingly, these factors are exactly the manifestation of the three rules in Skopostheorie. This also in turn demonstrates that the three rules can be a practical criterion in guiding the English translation of the four-Chinese-character structures in RWG.Secondly, the main findings of this thesis, the primary translation strategies employed by each type of four-Chinese-character structures, are concluded as follows:the liberal and literal translations are preferred for the "four-Chinese-character idioms", and the omission translation is secondary; the "four-Chinese-character structures with Chinese characteristics" mainly adopt the literal and amplification translations, and the liberal translation is secondary; for the "conventionalized semi-fixed four-Chinese-character structures", the dominant strategies are the literal and liberal translations, the omission is secondary; for the "parallel four-Chinese-character structures", the omission and literal translations are more applied, and the liberal translation is relatively less. All in all, the main translation strategies employed in each kind of four-Chinese-character structures succeed in serving the skopos of the RWG, and are widely accepted by target readers.