UN Document Translation Strategies Under The Guidance Of Catford's Translation Shifts Theory

The theory of translation shifts was firstly proposed by the renowned English linguist and translation theorist,J.C.Catford.With the reference of systemic function linguistics,he provided a clear theoretical framework and defined a set of translation shifts at different levels.His theory is widely acknowledged for its conciseness and scientific feature,effective in guiding the translation study of UN official documents.United Nations,as the largest intergovernmental organization in the world,aims to coordinate the international efforts to maintain global security and peace.It emphasizes the fair distribution of UN documents in six official languages so as to ensure cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.Therefore,Soochow University is honored to cooperate with the Department of Public Information,UN to produce the Chinese version of UN Yearbook Express.It is an annual publication characterized with diverse topics,professional terminology and formal style.How to achieve the accurate and refined translation of Express has attracted the concerns both from UN translators and translation researchers.The 1997 UN Yearbook Express is selected as the analysis material and over 20 examples are cited to elaborate the application of level shifts,structure shifts,class shifts,unit shifts and intrasystem shifts.This report recognizes the intrinsic disparities between English and Chinese and identifies the efficiency of translation shifts specifically in E-C translation.It intends to provide some instructive strategies for practitioners and furthermore,attract more scholars to carry out the research about UN document translation.