Analysis And Translation Of Informative Texts

This thesis summarizes the Chinese-English translation process for The Wetlands Resources in China: Volume of Shanxi Province.This book is edited from the results of field investigation in Shanxi Province under the Second National Wetland Resource Survey.It contains the detailed information of the wetland resources in Shanxi Province such as the wetland classification,distribution pattern and the species and characteristics of the flora and fauna found in wetlands.The author is responsible for the translation of the Section 2 in Chapter I and the Section 1~5 in Chapter V,in a total of 10,400 Chinese characters.These parts mainly introduces the social and economic situation,wetland types and the range in Shanxi,specifically in6 municipalities of Datong,Shuozhou,Xinzhou,Taiyuan,Luliang and Jinzhong.Wetland is a valuable and cherishable resource of the humankind in the world.It also the indispensable habitats for animals,including human being.This translation project is expected to be useful in strengthening the communications in wetland protection across the world and the learning from each other,for contributing to the protection and development of wetlands.This thesis is based on Reiss' s conception of text typology.The theory divides the text into four main types: informative text,expressive text,appellative text and audio-visual text,and suggests the selection of appropriate translation strategies according to the function of each text and its language features.Reiss argues that the textual function of informative texts is to objectively describe the objective facts with the emphasis on logical consistency,accuracy and objectivity.The text translated in this thesis presents the details status quo of Shanxi wetland resources with objective language and accurate data,thus falling in the category of the informative text.The first part of this thesis introduces the definition and characteristics of informative text under the text typology of Reiss,and discusses its translation principle.Under the guidance of this theory,the author employs the methods of the amplification,translation following the original syntacticorder,sentence reconstruction,and conversion of voice,and the logical analysis was used in examining the original text and verifying the translated version.Hopefully the attempt would shed a light on the generalized translation methods of informative text.