Semantic And Communicative Translation Approaches To The E-C Translation Of The Monster In Africa

British translation theorist Peter Newmark formulated the theory of semantic and communicative translation in 1981.Newmark.abandoned the two-dimensional framework of literal translation and free translation,taking into account such factors as the purpose.of the translation,the nature of the readership,and the type of the discourse,and defined several different approaches to translation.Among these approaches,Newmark regarded semantic and communicative approaches to translation as two fundamental,frequently used approaches.This thesis reports the process in which the present author,using the semantic and communicative approaches,translated a political text(The Monster in Africa,co-authored by Nigerian writers Awe Ayodeji and Adeuja Yetunde)from English to Chinese.In the process of translating the book,the present translator/author found the book was characterized by formal words,long and/or complex sentences and rhetorical devices.The key points of translating were therefore representing in the target text the stylistic features of the words of the source text to the greatest extent,making sentence structures of the target text conform to the Chinese way of expression,and rendering the original rhetorical expressions appropriately.By using the semantic and communicative approaches to translation,the present translator/author resolved these problems fairly smoothly.The present translator/author found that the semantic translation approach could represent the stylistic features of the source text to the greatest extent,while the communicative translation approach could make the target text more in accord with the Chinese way of expression and hence enhance the effects of the target text.In the commentary part of the thesis,the present author introduces the semantic and communicative translation theory and reviews previous studies on it as well as the differences between the two approaches.The present author categorizes the problems she encountered in translating the source text according to which of the two approaches she adopted in specific instances of translation.The present author illustrates the application of the semantic translation approach from the perspectives of representing the rhetorical features of SL expressions and retaining in the target text the overall stylistic features of the source text.She also illustrates the application of the communicative translation approach from the perspective of making necessary syntactic and lexical adjustments in the target text.By analyzing specific examples,the present author found that semantic translation combined with communicative translation is a helpful approach to English-Chinese translation.It is hoped that this thesis will be of some help to other translators in their English-Chinese translation practice.