A Translation Project Report On A Historical And Etymological Dictionary Of American Sign Language(Chapter4-6)

This is a translation project report on A Historical and Etymological Dictionary of American Sign Language(chapter 4-6)by Shaw Emily and Delaporte Yves,of which chapter 4 to chapter 6 are the source text.The source text contain a brief introduction to the establishment of this book and several vocabularies with their sign language explanation as well as picture illustrations.The main content of this report is divided into four parts.Part One is the translation project description,including project background,significance and translation theory base.Part Two serves the background of the source text,including the author introduction,main contents of the source text,linguistic features of the source text,and evaluation.Part Three is about translation difficulties and methods.The difficulties lie in the translation of concrete sign language,which requires a comprehensive understanding about the movement of hands and some specialized terminology.The methods include addition,conversion as well as division and restructuring.Part Four concludes gains and experience in translation and unsolved problems in the translation project: maximizing the transfer of the message in source text is the most important in translation;to achieve good translation needs a solid linguistic foundation.The translator must master the similarities and differences between two languages;being close to the source text at each level and focusing on the transfer of equivalent effect are of great importance in translation.