Selected E-C Translation Of Chapter Five And Chapter Six Of Native American Worldviews:An Introduction And A Critical Commentary

This translation project contains two parts:a selected translation and a critical commentary based on the translation practice. The source text for this translation project is Chapter Five and Chapter Six of Native American Worldviews:An Introduction by Jerry H. Gill. As a religious philosopher, Professor Gill focuses on the religious systems and values of Native Americans in his book. His research on the indigenous world views covers three areas:philosophy, anthropology and religion. Although these areas explain the world views of indigenous peoples from different perspectives, they all present the unique understanding of Native Americans about the world we live in. In exhibiting the distinctive Native American culture, Professor Gill not only explores the function of geography and history in the composition of Native American culture, but also shows the special connotations of time and space for indigenous peoples as well as their different understanding about clan and kinship. The writer aims at presenting a clear and reliable system of Native American worldviews so that more people can better understand Native American culture.This translation project is guided by Eugene A. Nida’s theory of functional equivalence. Instead of the equivalence in form or content, functional equivalence aims at producing in the target language reader the same response as is produced in the original text reader. Strategies used in the translation of words and phrases include amplification, proper diction and using Chinese idioms. In the translation of sentences, strategies such as following the original syntactic order, turning passive voice into active voice, turning phrases into clauses and reinventing sentence structures are used.