A Report On The Translation Of Chapter 8 Of The Language Instinct:“the Tower Of Babel”

The Language Instinct published in 1994 is a masterpiece of American linguist Steven Arthur Pinker.He used simple and humorous words discusses almost all languge phenomena and myths,so it opens the wondow for all people who are curious in the myth of language.The Chinese version of The Language Instinct is translated by Hung Lan,who is an educational psychologist,and professor in National Central University.For there are many gross mistakes,the author of the report intends to re-translate one chapter of the book.In the report the author describes the task first and also records the translating procedures.The author mainly analyses the phenomenon of long sentences translation,and the author uses proper translation skills – division,addition and shift,and analyses them in detail.The report includes the original and the translation of Chapter 8— page 231 to page 261.Finally the author summarizes the report,and the experience of the whole process of translation.The report which consists of six parts,the first part mainly introduces the author of the book,the content of the book as well as the language features of the book,etc.,paving the way for the translation.The second part is translating procedures.It introduces the procedures of preparation,translating and revising.The third part is literature riview,introducing studies of translation of linguistic works and studies of long sentences translation.The forth part is the theoretical basis and translation strategies,which introduces the theory in detail.The fifth part is case study,focusing on the translation phenomenon of long sentences with case study on application of methods in detail,such as division,combination and shifting.The six part is the conclusion.