Translating Run-on Sentences And Culture-specific Words In Chinese Travelogues

This thesis is a reflective report on the English translation of Legends of the Jinshan Mountains and two major issues are discussed here: translation of the run-on sentence and the culturespecific word.For the first one,two questions are worth particular attention: how should the translator render a Chinese clause with a missing subject and what role will incidental adverbial play in translation.As far as the author is concerned,the translator should first locate the missing subject—invariably hidden in the previous clause,and then put it back by using indefinite attributive clause,ensuring the coherence and rhythm of the original sentence.For the second question,the translator is supposed to line the predicates of a Chinese sentence according to the order of importance and function,and then deploy them at different places: the predicate of the main clause,the modifier of the object,the purpose adverbial and so on.The incidental adverbial will prove useful when some predicates are used to serve another,usually right before them,describing it a more detailed way or its results.The translation of culture-specific words representing an integral part of a culture is as challenging as that of Chinese run-on sentences.One of the purposes of this study is to present a systematic approach.Three methods have been utilized in the cases displayed in the thesis.The author believes that only a small fraction of them can be literally translated for a culture-specific word is typically about difference.A translator is supposed to have a thorough understanding of the word before he decides to translate it freely,making sure the already established English expression is able to reflect as much information of the original one as possible.If a literal translation doesn't make sense and there's no equivalent in English,transliteration and annotation should be considered.After all,faithfulness comes first when it comes to translation of culture.All a translator should do is to judge precisely the loss of information before utilizing a certain method.