A Report On E-C Translation Of Informative Text Of Engineering Invention(Chapter1-12)

This report is a reflection on the task which was done for practices intended to improve the translation ability.The selected text is chosen from Engineering Invention(chapter 1-12),with over 10,000 words.Out of the interests in this book,the author downloaded this book from the Internet to read and to translate.This book is written by Frederick Dalzell and objectively narrates the life story of an American inventor—Frank Juliet Sprague—who is reputed as "The Father of the Electric Traction in America".Besides Sprague's inventing activities narrated in the sequence of the time,it also introduces many great inventions appeared in the nineteenth century,presenting a brilliant mind and remarkable events to the world.According to the features of the text,this translation task can be categorized as the informative text type.The text type theory was come up with by a British translation theorist—Peter Newmark,who suggested that due to the different features of the text,different translation strategies should be adopted to reserve the original flavor of the target text.Therefore,to identify the text type before translation process really matters,because it determines the following procedures of the translation work.Peter Newmark concludes that there are three text types:the informative text,the expressive text and the vocative text type.The informative text is suggested to adopt the communicative translation strategy to retain its features of formality and objectiveness.As a text can hardly be purely informative,semantic translation strategy sometimes should also be adopted for retaining the "expressiveness" of the target language.In this report,the author is aimed at reflecting on the translation process,from demonstrating the purpose of this project and theoretical preparation to summarizing the translation methods and strategies used in the process and concluding the translation practice.Among all the chapters,chapter four is the vital part to analyze the translation practice in the translation practice at the lexical,syntactical and the discourse level respectively.At the lexical level,the main focus is on how to translate terms,compound words and culture-loaded words.At the syntactical level,the classifications of simple sentences and complex long sentences are discussed.At the discourse level,analysis is conducted on the characteristics and style of the source text and the corresponding characteristics maintained in the target text by adopting suitable translation strategies and methods.By summarizing these typical examples,the author can accumulate relevant translation experience,which helps to improve the author's translation ability.