A Report On History Of The War Of The Succession In Spain(Chapter Four)–From The Perspective Of Communicative Translation Theory

This report is a translation practice report based on the historical text History of the War of the Succession in Spain.The original author focuses on the description of the war that mainly took place in Spain in 1701-1714.The writer selects the fourth chapter of this book for translation and analysis.There is no Chinese translation version of this book.Most historical texts are mainly guided by semantic translation,because the translation can be closer to the source text in terms of form and linguistic features through the guidance of semantic translation theory.However,after trying to translate five thousand words of the fourth chapter,the writer chose to use Peter Newmark's communicative translation theory as the guidance to translate the whole fourth chapter.At the same time,according to Newmark's classification of texts,the writer thought this book should belong to informative text,which strengthened her idea of using communicative translation theory.The writer divided the whole translation process into three parts.Before the translation,the writer collected relevant information of the war of the Spanish succession and the books of communicative translation theory;secondly,in the process of translation,the author solved some technical problems with the help of computer-aided translation tools,which made the translation more convenient;thirdly,the writer has revised the translation several times after the translation.In the whole process of translation,under the guidance of communicative translation theory,the writer flexibly used a variety of translation strategies,such as conversion,amplification,omission,etc.,to solve the difficulties and obstacles in the process of translation,which would make the target language smoother.Through this practice report,the writer broke the inertial thinking that people associate semantic translation with historical texts and explored the application of communicative translation theory in historical texts.Through this translation,the writer found that the language of some foreign historical texts did not conform to modern grammar because of historical reasons,which made it more obscure and difficult to understand.So at this time according to the characteristics of historical text itself,communicative translation theory can better guide the translation.A smoother translation can be closer to target language readers and inspire their interest in foreign historical texts.Through this practice,the writer hoped that she can gain valuable translation experience,improve her translation ability,and provide experience and help for other translators.