A Report On Sci-tech E-C Translation Under The Guidance Of Translation Shifts Theory

With the advent of the era of globalization,global business,technology and cultural exchanges are flourishing.Due to the vigorous development of science and technology,advanced products and electrical appliances spring up,occupying a large proportion in the international trade market.Therefore,in the trade market,the demand for translation of product manual is ever-increasing.The source text selected in this report is a TV instruction m anual of the brand Finlux.As an information-based text of EST(English for science and technology),the language of the instruction manual is characterized by simplicity,accuracy,professionalism,objectivity and standardization.At lexical level,vocabulary and terminology in the field of electronics and communication are widely used,with there being a large number of acronyms and compound words.At syntactic level,complying with the objectivity of language,a large quantity of passive voice and nominalization are conducted.In the process of translation,the translator chooses the translation shifts theory by English linguist J.C.Catford as the theoretical support to provide solutions to the difficulties encountered in translation.The theory of translation shifts is divided into level shifts and categorical shifts,among which categorical shifts are divided into structural shifts,categorical shifts,unit shifts and instra-system shifts.In the fourth chapter,some typical cases are selected to analyze the translation processes and results with category shifts,so as to explore how to apply translation shifts to the translation of TV instructions.Through the translation practice,the translator finds that Catford's translation theory has great adaptability,operability and guidance in the English-Chinese translation of EST,especially in electrical product instructions.Under the guidance of structural shifts,the translator first understands the deep meaning of the ST,and then adjusts the sentence structure according to the semantics to find the accurate expressions in the target language.In terms of class shifts,the conversion of parts of speech is carried out on the basis of the different characteristics of English and Chinese vocabulary.In unit shifts,five types of units are converted to each other at the sentence level,so that the translation can be more consistent with the reading habits of target language readers.In terms of instra-system shifts,the literal translation of professional words or terms in the ST is not maintained.Instead,the most authentic expression and the most correct version are searched in the target language system to replace the words in the ST,so the reading obstacles can be avoided.Therefore,Catford's shifts theory is of great significance in guiding the translation of EST.The translator hopes that this report can provide some help and reference for future studies on the translation of EST and instructions.