Applying The Translation Shift Theory To The Translation Of Privacy,A Very Short Introduction

Translation is an activity during which one language is shifted into another.This definition shows that the focus of this activity is shifting.In 1965,J.C.Catford first put forward the concept of shift and established the translation shift theory on the basis of linguistic studies.After that,a more objective and scientific approach in translation studies came into play.This commentary explores the application of translation shift theory to English-Chinese translation.The translation of a common text of social sciences,Privacy,A Very Short Introduction,has been chosen as the subject of study for the book communicates knowledge effectively.Although this book is written in popular language which,however,typically displays differences existing between English and Chinese,it provides possibilities for the application of translation shift methods that are going to be discussed.Under the guidance of J.C.Catford's translation shift theory,this commentary first discusses the characteristic marks that display differences between English and Chinese.Those differences included in or manifested as past tense,perfect tense,passive voice,number,affirmative meaning and negative meaning,postpositive attributive and preposed attributive,the conversion from a noun to a verb,the promotion from a word group to a clause,etc.are then resolved respectively by different shift methods:level shift methods and category shift methods.In actual translation practice,the author has to primarily make full sense of the text and then analyzes the differences she comes across and finally adopts appropriate shift methods to resolve them such as supplementing words or phrases,converting voices and meanings,preposing attributive,changing the part of speech of a word and promoting linguistic unit.By doing that,hard and stiff translation becomes evitable;the quality of translation is improved;the information of the source text will be transferred accurately and effectively into the target language.