Application Of Translation Shift Theory In Translation Practice

Translation is a process of finding the translation equivalent of the Source Language, which is always accompanied by various form shifts between the two languages. The departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the Source Language to the Target Language are exactly what "translation shifts" mean. Through its half-centurial development, the translation shift theory has been continuously enriched by different theorists:from J. C. Catford who established the concept of "translation shifts" first to Leuven Zwart who came up with the "comparative—descriptive" model, from Gideon Toury who separated "obligatory shifts" from "optional shifts" to Professor Liu Miqing who put forward the concept of thinking adjustment and language sense mechanism in inter-lingual shifts, etc. All these theorists have classified translation shifts based on their understandings of this theory. With the existing relevant theories, this article tries to present a new type of translation shift classification including level shifts, category shifts, structure shifts, class shifts, unit shifts and thinking shifts from four perspectives—word, sentence, unit and thinking. It is worth mentioning that thinking shifts are usually made in a translator's subconsciousness, representing different ways of thinking of different nations.Examples cited in this article are all from the first four chapters of the translation project In the Kingdom of Ice:The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette. As a nonfictional historical literature, this book describes a long journey of the North Pole expedition two centuries ago. Examples will be analyzed under the new classification of translation shifts with the comparison of the differences between the English and Chinese languages.