The Application Of Category Shifts Theory In The Translation Of Prepositions And Prepositional Phrases In Scientific And Technological Texts

With the constant interaction between nations,the development of emerging technologies and the emergence of scientific and technological texts,the translation of these scientific and technological texts is constantly developing at the same time.This report selects the Evolution of Carbon Markets as the material for the translation practice,which mainly introduces the design features and the development process of the European Union’s carbon emission trading system,and the actions taken by countries following the step of the European Union to introduce carbon emission trading systems to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.Therefore,selecting this book as the material for the translation practice is of profound and practical significance.The translation material selected in this report is of the scientific and technological text,containing many long and difficult sentences and a large number of prepositions.If they are translated into their corresponding prepositions and prepositional phrases in Chinese without any translation shifts,the translation will not conform to the Chinese expression habits.Under the guidance of Catford’s category shifts theory,this report makes analysis on a variety of translation examples of prepositions and prepositional phrases,putting forward that class shifts can be carried out in the translation of prepositions and prepositional phrases.When prepositions and prepositional phrases have attributives of verbs,they can be translated into verbs.when prepositions and prepositional phrases have functions of conjunctions,they can be translated into conjunctions.When prepositions and prepositional phrases are used as adverbials in sentences,they can be translated into adverbs.For the translation of prepositional phrases,unit shifts can also be conducted.When the information contained in the prepositional phrase is enough to make up a sentence,it can be upgraded into a sentence.When the information contained in the prepositional phrase can be summed up in a single word,it can be downgraded into a word.In addition,for the translation of prepositional phrases,structure shifts can also be adopted.When prepositional phrases are used as postpositive attributives,they can be translated into prepositive attributives.When prepositional phrases represent passive structures,they can be translated into active structures.This report is divided into six chapters.The first chapter introduces the content of the source text and the research significance of this report.The second chapter summarizes the three steps of this translation practice,namely pre-translation,while-translation and post-translation.The third chapter introduces the definition of prepositions,the comparative study of English and Chinese prepositions and the study of the E-C translation of prepositions and prepositional phrases.The fourth chapter introduces the concept and classification of the category shifts theory,including class shifts,unit shifts and structure shifts.It also discusses the possibility of the application of the category shifts theory to the translation of prepositions in the scientific and technological text.The fifth chapter discusses the application of the category shifts theory in the translation of prepositions and prepositional phrases with translation examples.The last chapter concludes this report,consisting of research findings and limitations.