The Application Of Compensation Theory In Translating What The Tortoise Taught Us

There are some differences between English and Chinese,for which the losses in semantic,grammatical and cultural aspects will inevitably occur in the translation process.According to Xia Tingde’s theory of translation compensation,in order to reduce the losses,translators should make up for the potential loss,or the loss that has already happened in translation based on the text type and translation purposes.Obviously,compensation is a necessary way to ensure that the original information can be conveyed completely.The thesis is a translation report on the chapters excerpted from What the Tortoise Taught Us.Guided by the compensation theory,the thesis aims to explore the usage of compensation strategies in translating the text from the perspectives of language and culture.In the translation practice,the translator analyzes the characteristics of the source text on the basis of translation material,summarizing untranslatable factors in semantic,grammatical and cultural aspects.Besides,based on the specific cases,the translator proposes correspondingly compensation strategies targeted for the untranslatable factors.On the semantic level,the translator compensates for semantic loss by using annotation within text and specification.On the grammatical level,the translator adds the adverb of time and numeral to supplement the loss of grammatical meaning.On the cultural level,the annotation outside text and amplification are used to make up for the cultural loss.These strategies mentioned above compensate for the losses effectively by which the original information is conveyed accurately.