A Report On E-C Translation Of AMERICAN PASSAGE:The History Of Ellis Island(Excerpts)

The United States is a country composed of a number of immigrants,and its history can in some ways be described as a history of immigration.The EnglishChinese report is based on excerpts from AMERICAN PASSAGE: The History of Ellis Island by American professor Vincent J.Cannato,which recounts the historical facts of the immigration on Ellis Island.The changes of Ellis Island have been investigated in this book,and the contents are thought-provoking,recreating the history of the United States,the “great nation of immigrants,” and Ellis Island over the past century.Guided by Catford’s translation shifts theory,typical cases are selected for analysis in three aspects: structure shifts,class shifts,and unit shifts under category shifts.Structure shifts involve the shifts from passive voices to active voices,from inanimate subjects to animate subjects and from postmodifiers to premodifiers.Class shifts involve the shifts of nouns,adjectives and prepositions in the source text.Unit shifts involve the shifts of grammatical units of phrases and long complex sentences.By combining the differences between English and Chinese and the linguistic characteristics of the historical text,literal translation and liberal translation are flexibly applied to the translation.The translator also uses translation techniques such as shifts,amplification and omission,change of order,division to complete their translation practice and ensure the accuracy and fluency of the translation.The report aims to broaden the application of Catford’s translation shifts theory to historical texts,deepen the understanding of American immigration history for readers of the target language,and at the same time provide a reference for further research and translation in the same field.