On C-E Translation Of Culture-Specific Items From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Since the implementation of the policy of reform and opening up,the comprehensive national strength and international influence of China have been enhanced continuously with the rapid development of modernization in China.As China's international status has gradually improved,the cross-cultural communication with other countries has become more and more frequent.Wuhan,the central city of central China as well as the capital of Hubei Province,is an important city that can represent the power of China.The 7th CISM Military World Games held in 2019 in Wuhan has made Wuhan better well-known to the international community.Wuhan is eager to show its unique cultural and economic achievements to the world,and the world also hopes to know more about Wuhan.In recent years,some of the most typical elements of Wuhan like its tourist attractions and food have been introduced to the foreigners through some translated works,but there are few translated works that systematically introduce the culture,life and customs of Wuhan to foreigners at present.However,translating this kind of introductory work of Wuhan is necessary to show the real charming of the city to the world.In the light of the above situation,the present author selects the C-E translation of Essays on the City of Wuhan as the translation project for her study.The original book is written by the famous writer Fang Fang who has lived in Wuhan for decades.In this book,she vividly describes the past and present of Wuhan and talks about almost all the aspects of the city,including its history,culture,life,customs,food,places and so on.The book shows the features of Wuhan in the 1980s and 1990s.The tone of the book is easy,concise,freely and funny.Therefore,the book is an excellent and comprehensive book to introduce Wuhan to the foreigners.Based on her translation practice of Essays on the City of Wuhan,the present author,taking Adaptation Theory as the theoretical basis,focuses on the translation of the culture-specific items in Essays on the City of Wuhan and makes a discussion from the four aspects:the contextual adaptation,structural adaptation,dynamic adaptation and salience adaptation.The thesis begins with a brief introduction to research background,task profile,significance of the research and structure of the thesis.And then the author illustrates some significant points in the preparation before translating,translating process and post-translating work.Thereafter,the author gives a survey of Adaptation Theory and explains three language properties and four angles of pragmatic study.In addition,the thesis also focuses on the analysis of the specific examples of the culture-specific items in Essays on the City of Wuhan from the four aspects of the contextual adaptation,structural adaptation,dynamic adaptation and salience adaptation.The research finds that Adaptation Theory has good applicability for the study of the translation of culture-specific items.In the process of dynamic adaptation,the author mainly adopted two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization,as well as three translation methods of transliteration,liberal translation and literal translation,so as to meet the communicative needs to the utmost.Besides,the author also adopted such translation techniques as addition,omission,division,combination and shift in an effort to facilitate the desirable dynamic adaptation between two languages and cultures.The present study aims to provide some helpful references for the translation practice of culture-specific items and contribute to the publicity of the image of Wuhan.