A Translation Project Report On The Lieutenant(Chapter ?)

This project is on The Lieutenant,a colonial historical fiction of Australia written by Kate Grenville.Based on a real historical event,it tells a story between English colonists and aborigines in New South Wales,Australia,in 1788.In order to demonstrate the value of Newmark's Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation theory in the translation of colonial historical fiction,the translator takes it as the instructive theory of the current translation practice.The current translation practice will not only contribute to make Chinese readers get a deeper understanding of the colonial history of Australia,but provide a feasible translation theory in the translation of colonial historical fiction.The text material of this project is selected from the fourth chapter of the novel,“To Be Of The Party”.This chapter involves translation of proper nouns,idioms,common nouns and adjectives in particular contexts,and translation of elliptical sentences,passive sentences and long and difficult sentences as well as translation of language descriptions and psychological descriptions,so it is characterized by difficult words,complex sentence patterns and various descriptive techniques.It would lead to ambiguity in text's connotation and misunderstanding of character's emotion without a correct comprehension of the source text.After studying a mass of translation theories,the translator found that Newmark's Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation theory emphasizes the connotation and effect of the source text,which can be a effective solution to the problems above.Under the guidance of it,translation methods like literal translation and free translation and translation skills like addition,depletion,division and readjustment of the word order were applied flexibly in the whole process of translation practice.And eventually,the plots of the source text was precisely restored and the intention of the author was correctly conveyed.Through this translation practice,the translator finds that in the translation of colonial historical fiction,the Semantic Translation suits the situation when the sentence structure and connotation of the source language corresponds with that of thetarget language.For example,when translating some simple and short sentences,the translator shall retain the sentence structure of the source text so as to reflect its literary style.While Communicative Translation suits the circumstances when the sentence structure and connotation of the source language contradicts with that of the target language.For example,when translating some idioms and long and complex sentences,the translator shall choose the proper expression which conforms to the culture and codes of the target language so as to overcome the understanding barrier caused by the cultural diversity and give the target readers the same feeling as the source readers.However,Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation are not separate but interdependent,translators should apply these two translation strategies flexibly in translation practice.