A Translation Report On The E-C Translation Of The History Of Architecture(Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Thick Translation Theory

This is an English-Chinese translation report.The report is based on the translation of some sections of the book The History of Architecture,which mainly introduces the history of the iconic European buildings throughout the ages.In accordance with Reiss?s classification of texts,the source text belongs to informative text,which requires the author to adopt appropriate translation strategies that can transmit the information of the source text.In addition,the source text is also a historical text which is abundant with proper nouns including historical figures,events and places,terms in regard to history,geography,architecture and religions,and Greek and Roman mythologies and so on.However,most target readers are unfamiliar with these culturally-loaded words or phrases.Therefore,in consideration of the features of the source text and the cognitive level of target readers,the author attempts to translate the source text under the guidance of thick translation theory.On the basis of the “thick description” put forward by British philosopher Gilbert Ryle in 1968,Kwame Anthony Appiah,a British-born Ghanaian-American philosopher,cultural theorist and novelist,proposes thick translation that is defined as the translation which seeks,with its annotation and its accompanying glosses to locate the text in a rich cultural and linguistic context.Under the guidance of Appiah?s thick translation theory and inspiration of other scholars,the author divides annotations into six types in terms of the content of annotations,and three types including text-self annotations,text-close annotations and text-remote annotations according to annotations? relations to the main body of the target text and concludes the principles of annotations from a macro perspective.In addition,focusing on text-self annotations,text-close annotations and text-remote annotations,the author concludes applicable targets,advantages and disadvantages and specific principles of each type of annotations throughout the case study.The author hopes that this report can provide some guidance for translators on how to achieve thick translation throughout annotations when translating similar texts in the future.