A Survey On The English Translation Of Chinese Universities’ Mottoes

In recent years, a growing number of C hinese universities had their school mottoes translated in English and publicized to showcase their profound culture, unique school-running ideas, educational philosophies and traditional humanistic spirit, and their endeavor to the goal of building the world-class universities.Having reviewed the literature on English translation of school mottoes, the thesis discovers that the previous studies achieved both positive and productive results. The English translation principles and methods, the culture connotation of school mottoes on the basis of translation theories are explored, and even the language structure of English translation of school mottoes had been mentioned. However, the work that combines translation theory, language structure, existing problems, suggestions and solutions has not been carried out on a systematic basis.In the light of Nida‘s equivalent translation theory, the thesis aims to study the English translation of Chinese universities‘ mottoes without confining to the purely theoretical perspective. Its survey scope furthermore involves language structure of school motto translation, existing problem, suggestion and solution, and whether the English translation effectively conveys the underlying culture and educational philosophies of the source language.By employing statistical analysis method and case studies, the thesis conducts a study from the overall situation, language structures, translation theory application and existing problems of the 137 prestigious C hinese universities. Meanwhile, with 21 cases of motto translation, the thesis makes detailed interpretation and analysis from translation theory, existing problem, suggestion and solution.Through logging into both Chinese and English official websites of 116 Chinese ―211 project‖and ―985 project‖ universities and 21 well-known universities from Hong-Kong, Macao and Taiwan to study the school mottoes and the English translation, the thesis achieves the following discoveries:First, at a macro level, although currently C hinese universities have made some progress in motto translation, the status quo of English translation is not optimistic. More than half of the surveyed universities haven‘t English translation. There are only 68 universities having the English translation of their university mottoes, only accounting for 49.6 % of the total.Second, at a micro level, in the English language structure used in the English translation of the mottoes, the noun structure and the verb structure play a major role, together accounting for 85% of the total. In the application of equivalence translation theory, the percentage applying formal equivalence to the English translation is the biggest, reaching 53%.Third, there are problems such as language error, culture- understanding deviation and artistic &aesthetic sense loss in so me English translation of the universities‘ mottoes,whose percentage is 25%, 20.5% and 29.4% respectively among the 68 translated mottoes.To solve these problems, a comprehensive study needs to be conducted on the English translation of C hinese universities‘ mottoes so as to identify the specific problems and seek practical solutions.The major findings in this thesis are as follows: First, in language structure of school motto translation, we may use the four basic language structures universally adopted by the well-known western universities for reference, so as to make them correspond to the English expressions. Second, in translation theory, translators should combine formal equivalence with dynamic/ functional equivalence so as to achieve the unity of both literal translation and free translation, and the coordination of form and content. Third, as regards linguistic errors, culture- understanding deviation and artistic&aesthetic sense loss of school motto translation, translators should ponder over such aspects as wording, collocation, expression, cultural&artistic connotation for the purpose of avoiding making mistakes. Fourth, those universities having no English translation of the school mottoes should attach importance to the translation work and announce the translated mottoes to the world as soon as possible.The thesis makes an attempt at studying the English translation of universities‘ mottoes from multi-angles. The marked differences between Chinese and English language structures, the differences between C hinese and western cultures, and the differences of artistic&aesthetic sense between C hinese and English could help English learners further understand C hinese&western cultures, different expressions between English and C hinese as well as aesthetics, which will be of great benefit to their language study and cultural cognition.Due to the limitations of the author‘s knowledge and ability as well as the enormous differences between C hinese and western cultures, when doing the Chinese-English translation, it is difficult for the author to preserve and reproduce the unique artistic and aesthetic sense of Chinese universities‘ mottoes.