A Report On C-E Translation Of 2020 Audit Report And Financial Statements Of China Petroleum Engineering Corporation(Excerpts):Difficulties In Activating Target Readers’ Schemata In Translation And Coping Tactics

The C-E translation report is based on the excerpts of 2020 Audit Report and Financial Statements of China Petroleum Engineering Corporation.As China becomes a large and strong auditing country,numerous documents in the audit domain represented by audit reports need to be translated into other languages to enhance foreign cooperation and communication.Based on schema theory,the author summarizes main translation difficulties and proposes corresponding coping tactics to complete the report.Based on the analysis of the source text,the author found that semantic fuzziness of auditing Chinese reduces the accuracy of identifying the authentic meaning for translators.In addition,auditing systems in different countries have great discrepancies,which directly leads to great gaps of background knowledge in the audit domain.This is called the discrepancies of schemata.Schema theory was firstly proposed by Sir Frederic Bartlett,a British Psychologist,and then introduced in the translation studies by Chinese scholars such as Liu Mingdong.In this report,the author explores how to translate the text so that target readers can understand the information precisely.Schema theory suggests that comprehension depends on whether target readers’ relevant schemata can be activated,or,whether the new information can be related to the existing information.Therefore,difficulties can be specified as follows:(1)difficulties in activating target readers’ schemata caused by semantic fuzziness;(2)difficulties in activating target readers’ schemata caused by knowledge vacancy.To solve the difficulties,this report follows two translation principles proposed by schema theory,namely,the translation should be conducive to activating readers’ relevant schemata,and helping readers establish new schemata,as well as two development mechanisms of schemata,namely,assimilation and accommodation.In addition,the perspective of relevance theory is introduced,which emphasizes the ostensive-inferential nature of translation.Guided by related theories,the author takes the following coping tactics:(1)to disambiguate and make semantic meaning explicit by means of replacement and addition,so as to activate target readers’ schemata;(2)to establish new schemata for target readers that can be understood through inference by means of explanation and condensation,so as to activate target readers’ schemata.This project provides solutions for the translation of professional texts,effectively dealing with the differences in knowledge systems between different languages and ensuring the professionalism and authenticity of the translation.The author hopes that this report can provide useful guidance and reference for other translators in dealing with similar difficulties.