Translation Shifts In E-C Translated Children's Literature And Their Effects

A Little Princess,a classic children's literature written by the American female writer Frances Hodgson Burnett,with its delicate and vivid delineation,fascinating narrating,and unique stylistic charms,attracts a large of number of children and plays an important role in the history of children's literature in the world.It has been translated into various languages with at least forty versions in Chinese children's literature market.However,its quality is not as satisfying as its quantity.At present,in general,translated children's literature has a relatively high proportion in the market,which has become the main driving force for the development of children's literature market in China.Relatively speaking,the translation research of children's literature in China has not received much attention from translation scholars.In addition,the overall development process lags behind the West.Thus,the unbalanced development between practice and theoretical research in children's literature indeed deserves in-depth study which can provide useful theoretical foundation for translators,and to some extent make contributions to improving the quality of translated children's literature in China.Translation shifts is proposed by Catford.Existing studies on translation shifts are mostly descriptive case studies under the guidance of Catford's translation shifts theory,thus manifesting the significance of this theory in translation practice.Nevertheless,few scholars have studied the potential effects of translation shifts on target language or readers.Drawing on Catford's translation shifts theory,this research aims to trace translation shifts at the micro level in the children's literature translation and exam their effects on target readers in the empirical study by means of cloze test with special reference to Chinese translation of Frances' A Little Princess.In addition,with the help of text process tools,the frequency of translation shifts identified in selected translationswill be presented in the form of charts and graphs,revealing the guiding role of translation shift theory in practice,and ensuring a systematic and comprehensive research method.In the case study of the comparative analysis of A Little Princess in English and Chinese,it is found that the translator's selection of translation strategies is not a seemingly arbitrary act,but the manipulation of the text that can be reflected through“translation shifts”.Owing to various linguistic differences between the two languages,this study,based on Catford's classification,further subdivided different types of shifts,and identified a total of 18 translation shifts frequently appearing in English-Chinese translation;The statistical results of the translation frequency in the sample show that the various translation shifts proposed by Catford are ubiquitous in children's literature translation,and the discrepancy is found in terms of frequency in different types of translation shifts.Among the 18 types of translation shifts common in English-Chinese translation,structural shift and unit shift are the two types of translation shifts with the highest frequency.It can be revealed that Catford's translation shifts model is to be of great guiding significance for children's literature translation.Improving the translator's self-awareness in the process of children's literature translation is extremely critical,especially in terms of the choice of translation strategies.By analyzing the cloze test results,it is concluded that translation shifts has a certain impact on the readability and acceptability of the target language,and different types of translation shifts exert impacts on the translation to varying degrees.With the focus on “translation shifts”.This research provides a new insight into children's literature translation,and a relatively comprehensive research framework is formed by combining case study,quantitative research and empirical research,verifying the feasibility of applying Catford's translation shifts theory to children's literature translation.And Catford's classification of translation shifts has been further extended based on the linguistic difference of two languages.In the empirical research,the effects of translation shifts on translation is measured in the cloze test,and the theoreticalguiding significance of translation shifts theory on children's literature translation practice is summarized.Meanwhile,it is hoped that this study will make its own contributions in the improvement of overall unbalanced progression in the field of children's literature translation both in theory and practice.