A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Growing Together: Personal Relationships Across The Life Span(Excerpt)

Good interpersonal relationships are valuable wealth across the life span and contribute to the construction and development of a harmonious society.The current author selects as the source text for the translation task Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 of the book Growing Together:Personal Relationships Across the Life Span edited by Professor Frieder R.Lang and Associate Professor Karen L.Fingerman,based on which this translation report is completed.The selected chapters mainly discuss how to cope with stress in social relationships and the association between social support and health,which is a part of significant value in sociology research.With an introduction to task description including the source text and target readers of the translation task,this report deals with the translation process of pre-translation,translation and quality control,and gives the case analysis under the guidance of functional equivalence theory,where the translation of nominalized structures,polysemy,impersonal subjects,passive sentences,long and complex sentences,and cohesive devices in the source text is systematically analyzed from lexical,syntactical and textual levels.The author benefits a great deal from the translation practice and writing of this report,which is summarized into the following four aspects.Firstly,the current author has a better understanding of language features of sociology and social psychology texts and relevant research on social relationships.Secondly,the translators should keep in mind textual awareness and holism in the process of translating so as to work out the meanings of difficult words and complex sentences in the context.Thirdly,with regard to the translation of sociology and social psychology texts,especially interpersonal relationship texts,and in order to achieve functional equivalence between the source text and the target text,such translation strategies and methods as amplification,omission,literal translation and free translation should be employed in a flexible manner.And lastly,for both translation and academic research,a rigorous and meticulous attitude,an addiction to knowledge and unremitting spirits are all indispensable.During the process of translation practice and writing of this report,the current author attaches much importance to the combination of translation theory and translation practice,taking into consideration the readers’ reading expectation without ignoring the content and meanings of the source text.It is hoped that this translation report will shed light on research of social relationships and the translation of sociology and social psychology texts,and contribute to the Chinese readers’ further understanding of sociology and social psychology.