Trans-editing As A Strategy In University Webpage Profile Translation

It is generally acknowledged that 21 st century has seen tremendous development in the Internet technology and the reinforcement of globalization. In the educational area, with the robust coverage of Internet, higher institutions around the world are able to accelerate their paces of cooperation and internationalization, which is characterized by the increasing attention from students of different nations and the more frequent exchanges among the counterparts. Against this general background, Chinese universities take no exception. Through the English versions of web-pages, foreign students or whoever shows an interest in Chinese universities may have an easy access to the relevant information. And webpage profiles have a very important role to play as they serve to bridge between the universities and the intended readers of the profiles by offering them a quick and direct account of a particular university, including its history and status quo. The profiles being important, the importance of their translation is beyond doubt, too. The effective translation of UWPs has become a link in the chain of internationalization of domestic higher education. Therefore, a high level of validity and acceptability of UWP translation is not only of practical significance but also echoes the call of the times, through which the universities in China will communicate more successfully with the rest of the education community the world over.According to Andre Lefevere, a postcolonial theorist of translation studies, translation is rewriting resulting from such factors as patronage, ideology and poetics. The theory is also be applicable to university webpage translation in China. As a cross-cultural and cross-lingual publicity material, UWP translation is no less than a rewriting, too. Its rewriting nature is attributable to the afore-mentioned three factors and the purpose for rewriting is to realize the communication value of the text. To be specific, the rewriting aims at delivering the important message of the source text and make the translation conform to reading habits of target readers. However, what information is the target reader’s concern? And what are the reading habits of target readers? Faced with the two questions, a translator who sticks to the traditional “faithfulness” in pursuing the equivalence at the verbal level will find himself tongue –tied, feeling unable to fulfill his responsibility. Hence another translation strategy sets in, that is, trans-editing. Huang Zhonglian maintains that trans-editing is a translation variation. Two steps comprise trans-editing: editing and translating. Before translation, translators have to process the source text message by resorting to skills like “addition”, “deletion” or “restructuring” in order to implement the step of “editing”.Following that step the translator begins the step of “translating”. Moreover, the validity of translation is only guaranteed by the reasonable and proper editing.This thesis intends to research trans-editing as a strategy in university webpage profile translation, with the ultimate purpose of justifying its validity and practicality. To be specific, the research, under the guidance of Rewriting Theory and Communicative Translation, focuses on pursuing the answers to the three questions. First, why is it necessary to apply trans-editing to UWP translation while it goes against the nature of translation? Second, judging from the current situation, to what extent is trans-editing applied in UWP translation? And lastly, how is trans-editing to be used in UWP translation and what are the rules to govern the effective execution of this strategy?Thirty universities are selected for specimens of research, including 20 universities in China and 10 universities in native English-speaking countries(including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada). The whole research process goes as follows. Firstly, the main features of the English-speaking countries are studied in both language and format. From a descriptive approach, the author will generalize the distinctive features of this genre, in the hope of working out a standardized model of high acceptability and applicability for Chinese translators to follow suit. Secondly, for university webpage profiles in China, the Chinese English versions are compared to discover the existing problems with UWP translation and also the frequency of trans-editing being used. Thirdly, under the guidance of Lefevere’s Rewriting Theory, the research lays a focus on studying the manipulative factors in UWP translation, attempting to explore deep answers therein. Following that, the relation between trans-editing and communicative translation is discussed in order to prove trans-editing is a variation of translation and the purpose of trans-editing is to ensure smooth communication. Lastly, concrete methods of UWP translation are also studied to implement trans-editing strategy.The thesis come to the following conclusion: First, since the English-speaking countries have strong positions in power discourse, their UWPs naturally become “standard model” with worldwide recognition. However, as domestic UWP translation has been following the principle of “faithfulness”, the versions are still a far cry from the “standard model”, making the use of trans-editing a more pressing task. Second, trans-editing hasn’t been so widely used in the translation of English UWPs in China due to the manipulation of ideology, poetics and patronage. This leads to the difference from the international model.Last but not least, by adopting trans-editing as the strategy, the translator intends to make sure that target readers’ expectation and reading habits are reasonably met. Four concrete methods of the trans-editing strategy, restructuring, deletion, addition and simplification are to be adopted.