A Report On The E-C Translation Of Australian A New Tax System (Goods And Services Tax) Act 1999(Excerpted)

Australia is an important trade partner of China.Correct understanding of Australian tax law is not only good for the trade between China and Australia but also conducive to handling trade frictions and protecting corporate and personal interests.However,there is no corresponding Chinese version of the Australian A New Tax System(Goods and Services Tax)Act 1999 which is currently in force in Australia,and the translation of it has certain value and significance.During the translation process,the author finds it difficult to translate the source text and a single strategy can hardly solve all problems encountered.Therefore,the author uses Zhang Falian’s four principles of legal translation as a guide to solve the specific problems in the translation process from three levels and uses Catford’s translation shift theory to improve the quality of target text from three levels.The report consists of four parts.The first chapter includes background and analysis of the source text.The second chapter introduces preparation for translation,translation process,and post-translation management.The third chapter is case study,which analyzes the problems and corresponding solutions from three levels.The lexical level includes the literal translation of tax-related terms,translation of polysemy according to context,and class shifts at the lexical level.The syntactic level introduces omitting personal pronouns to conform to Chinese expression habit,expressing the meaning of conjunction through semicolon,and level shifts at the syntactic level.The textual level includes highlighting the concise and serious style of legal text,consistency of unit designation in the whole text,and structure shifts and unit shifts at the textual level.The fourth chapter includes tentative conclusion,unsolved problems and relevant thinking,and puts forward the inspirations for future study and work.Through this practice,the author concludes that Zhang Falian’s four principles of legal translation and Catford’s translation shift theory are instructive and practical at the lexical,syntactic and textual level of legal translation.Hopefully,the author’s analysis and findings can be helpful for legal translators.