A Study Of E-C Translation Practice Of Political Writings Under The Guidance Of The Adaption Theory

Political writings mainly referring to the governmental documents and work report is an important approach to understanding the politics of a country.In the light of the Adaption Theory,this report addresses the English-Chinese translation of political writings with the examples taken from The United States Government Manual 2013.The text of the translation project featuring a large number of technical terms and complex sentences belongs to the category of political writings pertaining to the constitution and responsibility of the U.S.government.As an informative and expressive text,the particular linguistic features of political writings exert a great on translator's choices.This report starts with a brief introduction of the translation project,including the source and content of the text.After a concise description of Adaption Theory,its application in translation studies as well as the textual and linguistic features of the political writings,this report then focuses on the case study,analyzing the translation cases from the project to prove that the Adaption Theory can be applied to the English-Chinese translation of political writings.This report concludes that the English-Chinese translation of the political writings,according to the Adaption Theory,can be regarded as a choice-making process,where a mutual dynamic adaption should be achieved between the structural objects and the contextual correlates.Firstly,given the linguistic feature of parataxis and the dynamics of Chinese,the translated text should conform to the characteristics of Chinese language at the lexical,syntactical,and discourse level.Secondly,the translation should adapt to the physical,mental and social world including the political and cultural context of the Chinese reader.Thirdly,the choice of the structural object should adapt to the variances of the contextual correlates,vice versa.Last but not the least,the translation should take into account the reader's way of thinking and aesthetic expectation.