On C-E Translation Of Foreign Publicity Materials From The Perspective Of Communicative Translation Theory

With closer interaction with the international community, China has witnessed greaterimprovement in comprehensive national strength and international influence. It hasbecome a strategic task to foster foreign publicity, thus the translation of foreign publicitymaterials has drawn increasingly more attention as well. Translation of foreign publicitymaterials can cement the understanding of and cooperation with China by the internationalcommunity, set up a positive international image, and help to create a favorableinternational atmosphere for China. With the development of E-government, the Englishgovernment website has become a showcase for China. The quality of these websites hasgreat impact on China’s national image.Development and Research Center of the State Council (DRC for short) is directlyunder the jurisdiction of the State Council, People’s Republic of China, which is acomprehensive policy research and consulting institution. The DRC is one of the advancedpolicy research and consulting institutions home and abroad, which has wide coverage ofmany areas and fields. Since its establishment in1981, the DRC has provided a great dealof research results with superior quality, and practical policy suggestions, whichcontributes a lot to China’s economy and society. The English website of the DRC hasbecome a showcase for foreigners to know about the development of all undertakings inChina. During the postgraduate period, I engaged in the internship in this institution,mainly in charge of the operation, updating, translation and proofreading work of theChinese and English website, rendering me to select this website as my study object.The core translation theory of Peter Newmark is semantic translation andcommunicative translation. He also put forward three text functions and text types, that is,expressive, informative and vocative. The text type will determine which translationstrategy is adopted. However, the basic purpose of C-E translation of foreign publicitymaterials is to fully and truthfully introduce China to the rest of the world, which serves asthe informative function; and the ultimate purpose is to enable foreigners to have acomprehensive understanding toward China, thus enhancing the influence of China amongthe world, which serves as the vocative function. These two functions together connect thetranslation of foreign publicity materials with Peter Newmark’s communicative translationtheory, with the focus on the reaction of the target language readers and communicationeffect. Proceeding from the language and cultural background of the target languagereaders will help them better accept the form and content of the target language,consequently realizing the anticipative communicative effect. This thesis firstly makes an analysis of the status quo of the C-E translation of foreignpublicity materials research, the C-E translation of website for foreign publicity purposeresearch, and research relevant with communicative translation theory by literatureresearch method, then proposes the research subject, that is, On C-E Translation of ForeignPublicity Materials from the Perspective of Communicative Translation Theory; secondly,makes an introduction to Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory, and therelevant definitions, features, and principles of translation of foreign publicity materials;thirdly, with DRC website as a case study, this thesis, by case study method, makesanalysis of the typical source text and target from the updating content of the website,about5,4000words, summing up the translation methods and techniques in the C-Etranslation of foreign publicity materials guided by the communicative translation theory;last but not the least, by quantitative analysis method, it summarizes the defects andproblems on this English website found during the April28th,2014to November1st,2014,and puts forward some advice for improvement, in an attempt to provide reference to otherEnglish website.