A Report On The Translation Of Ratner's Star Based On Theme-Rheme Analysis

Ratner's Star,published in 1976,is an excellent American science fiction by Don Delillo.It focuses on a 14-year-old mathematician named Billy,chosen to work with other scientists to decipher the code from a star called Ratner and studied the secret of it.In the fiction,there is a sense of humour in an indifferent tone.Short and long sentences are mixed,which are sometimes inexplicable and sometimes loose.The long ones are usually descriptive sentences,while the short ones are dialogues.At the same time,there are a lot of compound and elliptical sentences.The word order of sentences is also different from that of Chinese.It causes a lot of difficulty to readers.The author applies an important concept in functional linguistics,that is,the theme-rheme structure to the translation practice.It helps the author clearly grasp the structure between the key components and auxiliary information,understand the intention of the source text author,and grasp the logic of sentences,so as to make the translation based on the source text author's thoughts.Meanwhile,the author tries to flexibly use certain translation strategies,under theme-rheme concept,to overcome the differences between English and Chinese to the greatest extent to accurately convey the information of the source text,and to stimulate readers' interest in reading.The report is divided into four chapters.Chapter one introduces the features of Ratner's Star and why the author uses theme-rheme concept to guide the translation practice.Chapter two introduces the translation process,including the pre-translation preparation,problems and related solutions in translation and revision after translation.Chapter three is case study;including the analysis of theme-rheme concept and its application in translation.Chapter four concludes the experiences of the translation and its implications for future translation practice.