A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of West African Countries-The Republic Of Ghana (Chapter Seven)

This is a report on the English-Chinese translation of the seventh chapter of West African Countries-The Republic of Ghana,a book co-compiled by several departments of University of Ghana.Chapter Seven is composed of six papers,which introduces the social conditions of Ghana from the perspective of social structure,rural and urban areas,social security and welfare system,quality of life,health care system and environmental protection.Peter Newmark divides texts into expressive,informative and vocative types according to functions,and puts forward semantic translation and communicative translation strategies accordingly.Based on Newmark's text typology theory,the source text is analyzed firstly from perspectives of text functions and text types so as to adopt corresponding translation strategies.After an in-depth analysis of the source text,it is found that the original text belongs to social science literature,containing vocative,expressive and informative texts.For expressive texts,semantic translation is used as the guidance while communicative translation is employed as the guiding strategy in the translation of informative and vocative texts.In addition,Newmark believes that a text can have two or more functions at the same time and points out that translators can adopt multiple translation strategies for the same text as required.Therefore,semantic translation and communicative translation are regarded as a whole in the translation of texts with hybrid nature.Secondly,concrete examples are listed to show the application of semantic translation and communicative translation in the translation process.Finally,some feasible translation methods are summarized with semantic translation and communicative translation as the guiding principle.Specifically,with the aim of maintaining the syntactic structure and semantic meaning,the structure equivalent method is adopted in the translation of metaphorical expressions,comparative and parallel structures.The translation of polysemous sociological terms is selected mainly according to the context.Translation methods like omission,voice conversion,division and reconstruction are flexibly employed in the translation passive sentences and long and complex sentences so as to achieve the natural and smooth translation and increase the readability.Semantic translation and communicative translation are used as a united strategy in the translation of culture-loaded expressions and pronouns,aiming at achieving accuracy and faithfulness,conveying cultural connotations and ensuring smoothness and readability.Under the guidance of Newmark's text typology,this report summarizes the basic characteristics of social science texts and the source text,demonstrates the validity of semantic translation and communicative translation in the translation of social science texts with concrete translation cases and summarizes specific translation methods correspondingly,aiming at providing suggestions for the translation of social science literature.