Application Of Translation Shift Theory In English-Chinese Sentence Structure Shift

Influenced by systemic functional linguistics,Western translation theorist J.C.Catford proposed the concept of translation shifts.Based on the principle of translation equivalence,this theory affirms the discrepancies between the two languages on and below the sentence level and at the same time seeks to use translation shifts to handle these differences.Further more,Catford highlighted the importance of maintaining the meaning of the source language rather than pursuing the total same on the original structure.It is said that this clear and brief theory has shed a new light on translation analysis.This translation project is selected from Communicating Science Effectively,an article published by the National Academy of Sciences.With the concise language style and complex sentence structure,this text has typical features of an informative text,involving many noun phrases,passive voices,and complicated clauses.It is believed that Catford's translation theory can address theses issues more effectively.Therefore,this report tries to summarize how to use this translation theory in the process of translating informational texts based on the translation project.Catford's translation theory is divided into two types of translation shifts which are level shifts and category shifts.This report combines the inherent differences between English and Chinese in terms of sentence structures,language expressions,and thinking styles in an attempt to discuss the effective way of using category shifts in addressing the above issues,and to sum up conditions of using translation methods for such texts.Only by choosing the correct and appropriate conversion method can the translation quality and translation ability be improved.