Translating Informative Texts From The Perspective Of Reiss’s Text Typology

Under the guidance of Reiss’s text typology,this paper discusses translation standards and strategies of informative texts based on the translation of the Introduction and Chapter 1 of The Ideas Industry.According to Reiss,the type of text determines the choice of a proper translation method.The Ideas Industry mainly falls into the type of informative texts.As Reiss observes,when translating informative texts,the translator should represent the information of the original comprehensively and accurately with explicit and plain language comforming to the usage of the target language,and pay attention to special terminology of respective fields.With the features of the original text considered,this paper tries to summarize the translation standards of informative texts from Reiss’s observations,namely,accurateness,thoroughness,logic and smoothness.Specifically,accurateness requires the translator to pay special attention to the rendering of proper nouns and terminology of certain fields.Thoroughness focuses on the compensation of culture-loaded words and phrases,and on the explanation of terminology whose context is inadequate for common readers.Logic means the translator should explicate the logic relationship of the original.Smoothness demands that the linguistic form of the translation be adapted to the norm and rules of the target language.The research of this paper demonstrates that text typology is helpful in determining translation standards and strategies of informative texts and thus in improving translation quality.