A Report On The Translation Of Historical Material Book The Habsburgs:the History Of A Dynasty Under The Guidance Of Translation-shift Theory

With the continuous development of globalization today,more and more Chinese readers are eager to comprehend European history deeply.The translation of history is different from literary translation that it needs to be more accurate and logical with just simple and explicit words.The author of this report selected over ten thousand words from Chapter Nine of The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty written by Benjamin Curtis to analyze.The excerpts mainly introduce the deeds of the only female ruler of the Holy Roman Empire,Maria Theresia,and her two sons,Joseph ? and Leopold ? who contributed to the diplomatic transformation throughout Europe and had a major impact on the world.The House of Habsburg is a royal family that rules the wildest realm in European history.The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty covers the first king to the last one that gives a concise overview of this dynasty chronologically and geographically.This book is at entry level to learn European history;thus,it is meaningful to translate this book and analyze it precisely.Translation-shift theory is first raised by Scottish linguist and phonetician John Cunnison Catford,attempting to solve translation problems from the micro level.The target of this report is to analyze the book from the perspective of Catford's Translationshift Theory to overcome obstacles during the process of history material translation in order to speed up and improve the quality of translators' work.What's more,Translation-shift Theory is rarely applied to analyze such a kind of text,so it will definitely help translators work with related text to find a better way in practice.Many examples will be given so as to embody the analysis clearly and logically,aiming at the differences of external syntax structure.This thesis applies Translation-shift Theory respectively in the process of pre-translation,translating and post-translation in mainly two perspectives,namely level shifts and category shifts.Solid theoretical basis is the pre-requisite of outstanding translation work while practice enriches and supplements theories the other way round.