On Translation Of Government Documents Under The Guidance Of Catford's Translation Shift Theory

John C.Catford's translation shift theory is more concerned about the semantic equivalent in translation,and level shifts and category shifts are two concepts first put forward by Catford.This thesis begins with a brief summary of the origin and development of translation shift theory,followed by the literature review concerning studies of Catford's translation shift theory by scholars home and abroad.The translation material is The 13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Comprehensive Transport System of Hebei Province(Excerpt),which is an official government document.The language features of the translation material are analyzed from lexical level,sentence level and textual level,such as transport-related terminology,abbreviation,sentences without subject,short and paratactic sentences as well as cohesion devices including reiteration and parallelism.Shifts in the translation of words,translation of sentences and in textual translation are studied under the guidance of Catford's translation shift theory.Based on the translation practice,this thesis holds that class shift,or shift from nominal phrases to prepositional phrases,and level shift,or shift from non-inflection to inflection,are needed in translation of words;structural shift,such as shift from the active voice to the passive voice,shift from parataxis to hypotaxis or shift from pre-positive attributives to postpositive attributives,is needed in translation of sentences;and in textual translation,class shift from nouns to pronouns,structural shift from parallelism to subordination and unit shift from phrases to sentences,are needed.In conclusion,the author of this thesis holds that it is feasible to use Catford's translation shift theory as guidance in translating government documents.By means of shifts of different kinds,the translator can try to make her translation both faithful in meaning and authentic in expression.