A Translation Report On Lucrative Targets:The U.S.Air Force In The Kuwaiti Theater Of Operations

This article is a report on the translation of an excerpt from Lucrative Targets: The U.S.Air Force in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations.This book is about the respective positions and measures taken by the U.S.leadership and the U.S.military after Iraq?s invasion of Kuwait.President Bush,the commander-in-chief of the U.S.armed forces,launched operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm”,after which the Gulf War began.The book is featured with formality in language,rigorousness in narration,clearness in logic,richness in background knowledge and military terminology,worth in-depth study.This report will take the theory of “Translation Shifts” as a theoretical framework.The concept of “Translation Shifts” was brought forth by J.C.Catford for the first time in his monograph A Linguistic Theory of Translation in the 1960 s.Based on Halliday?s systematic-functional linguistics and classification of “levels” in language,this theory introduces four grammatical categories at the level of grammar as well as lexis: unit,structure,class and intra-system.It holds that the communicative function of a language is realized through different levels and classes and translation shifts can be divided into two types: level shifts and category shifts.This theory proves to be very useful in the translation of Chapter Two of Lucrative Targets: The U.S.Air Force in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations.Since this excerpt is typical of military literature,which contains many formal and long sentences and requires more complicated shifts in translation,this report will analyze the translation process in depth from the perspective of structure shifts,which will be more distinctive and instructive to the report.This report includes five chapters.Chapter One introduces the translation task.In this part,the pre-war preparations for,the background and significance of the Gulf War will be briefly described.Chapter Two analyzes the task procedure,including work before,during and after translation practice.Chapter Three deals with the theoretical framework,focusing on the theory of Translation Shifts.Chapter Four elaborates with examples on the application of the theory more thoroughly.Chapter Five concludes the report with some after-thoughts,experience and inspirations derived from the translation practice,as well as prospects for the theory of translation shifts in future translation study and practice.