E-C Translation Of The Ethics Of Memory (Excerpts) In The Light Of Translation Shifts Theory

The departures from formal correspondence are defined as translation shifts by an influential linguist J.C.Catford who gives a detailed classification of them for flexible meaning correspondence on the basis of previous research.With The Ethics of Memory,a work on philosophy as an example,this paper aims to study the methods of translation shifts and how to improve the quality of translated text under the guidance of Catford's theory.Apart from the analysis of Catford's translation shifts types,this paper adds macro levels such as discourse shifts and thinking shifts so as to overcome the limitations of Catford's theory which only focuses on word and sentence levels and does not concern the levels of discourse and thinking patterns.Through a comprehensive theoretical analysis of translation practice in terms of word,sentence,discourse and thinking levels,this paper summarizes a number of specific techniques in terms of translation shifts in the hope that it would contribute more or less to the study of the translation of philosophical texts.