The Application Of Compensation In Translating Management Texts Under The Guidance Of The Text Typology Theory

With the development of the economy and the accelerated pace of society,time management has become a common concern.People are eager to have more time,thus creating a strong demand for time management.At the same time,many popular time management books have been translated into Chinese and entered the public’s view,helping Chinese people form a basic concept of time management.The material of this translation practice is excerpted from Successful Time Management For Dummies,which was written by Dirk Zeller,a famous American expert in marketing.After being published,this book was translated into many languages and spread widely around the world.In this book,he first introduces the value of time and then gives some explanations on how to use time in a reasonable way,how to confront challenges to time management and how to deal with interruptions.The translation of this book will not only deepen Chinese readers’understanding of time management but also help them to solve time management problems and develop good time management habits to a certain extent.This report studies the phenomenon of translation compensation in the translation practice of this book based on the Text Type Theory.As a means,translation compensation is often used to make up for translation losses caused by cultural and linguistic differences in the translation process.The Text Type Theory enables translators to know the text type,features and functions of the source text in advance,thus pointing out the direction for the selection of translation strategies and the application of compensation priorities.Under the guidance of Text Type Theory,the target and priorities of translation compensation will be clearer,and the effect of translation compensation can be measured,thus avoiding the problems of blind compensation and excessive compensation that exist in the previous studies of translation compensation.In the translation practice,the author finds that this book has the characteristics of informative texts,such as disseminating knowledge and communicating information,as well as the characteristics of vocative texts,such as strong appeal and persuasion.Therefore,the author classifies this book as a text with informative and vocative functions.Then based on the characteristics and main functions of this special text,the author summarizes four compensation priorities in the translation process,namely,compensation for readability,compensation for conciseness,compensation for persuasiveness and compensation for tones.Finally,compensation techniques such as amplification,annotation,adaptation,division,and combination are adopted by the author to retain the main text function(to a certain extent)of the source text in the translation process and basically realize translation equivalence,the goal of compensation.Finally,on the basis of distinguishing the dominant function of the text from the secondary function of the text clearly,the author proposes that "easy to understand" is the common rule that should be observed in the process of practicing those four compensation priorities.Then the author analyzes the situation when conflicts arise in the translation practice(such as the conflict between the compensation for conciseness and the compensation for persuasiveness)and finally concludes that in the specific translation practice,when the conflict arises,compensation for the dominant function of the source text must be ensured,even at the expense of reproducing the secondary function of the source text.All in all,to translate the text with the informative and vocative functions,translators must practice translation compensation with text functions as the core and seek corresponding translation compensation methods through analyzing its text functions to retain its dominant text function and basically achieve translation equivalence,the goal of compensation.