An Empirical Study Of Translation Strategies In Chinese-English Translation

Translation is a complex mental activity involving two aspects:"translation process" and translation products."Traditional translation studies pay attention to translation products while researches in translation process have been relatively weak.Since empirical study of translation strategy has been one of the maj or topics in the research of translation process,the thesis carries out a Think-Aloud Protocols(TAPs)study to investigate features of translation strategies adopted by translators when translating texts with culture-specific items(CSIs).Ornginated from cognitive psychology,think-aloud method is an introspective way to collect data.The ideal condition of TAPs requests the subjects to keep speaking out any information in their minds without interruptions.In the present study,the translation task was chosen from part of the text of the 30th Han Suyin Award for Translators Contest.Eight senior postgraduates majoring in English at Xiamen University were selected as research subj ects.They were required to speak out their mental activities when doing the translation task and fill in a questionnaire after the translation.To ensure validity of the research,triangulation technique was used for data collection,data coding and analysis.The transcribed think-aloud data were used as primary source of the study while questionnaires and translated texts served as supplementary resources.Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of collected data,the thesis endeavors to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the general features of translation strategy use displayed in C-E translation process?(2)What are the general features of translation strategies adopted by translators when translating CSIs?(3)What are the cognitive processes when translating CSIs?Results of the study indicate:(1)The maj ority of strategies provided by Kiraly have been adopted by the subjects except the strategy of back translate.Besides,another eight strategies are identified and added in the study based on the transcribed think-aloud data.In the C-E translation process,the strategies used with a high frequency by the subjects are uncontrolled interim unit production,reading ST segment,L1-L2 dictionary search,identifying problem,accepting interim solution.The least frequently employed translation strategies are breaking off translation and starting over and uncertainty regarding acceptability.(2)In the process of translating CSIs,the frequency of the adopted translation strategy has increased.The most frequently employed strategies in translating CSIs are L1-L2 dictionary search,identifying problem,proposed dictionary solution and uncontrolled interim unit production.(3)The ideal pattern of cognitive processes when translating CSIs may carry out as follows:CSIs Input ? TL Search?Background Knowledge Activation?External Resources Search?Monitoring for TL accuracy?TL Output.