Choice-Making And Adaptation From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

This thesis is the translation report based on the Chinese translation of Good Arguments(excerpts).Good Arguments is written by the Korean debater Bo Seo,who immigrated to Australia with his family at the age of eight.The book is guided by debate logic and mainly recalls his debate experience when he was the debater in school and the debate coach after graduation.In addition,the book contains comprehensive contents with environmental descriptions,psychologic portrayals and author’s reflection of life.With the prevailing quality-oriented education and the emphasis on cultivating students’ critical thinking in China,as an authoritative book in debate,the Chinese translation of Good Arguments is conducive for Chinese readers to cultivating interest in debate,understanding debate-related knowledge,enhancing critical thinking abilities and improving their debate skills.In addition,the book mentions a large number of historical figures and cultural background,which is helpful to improve cultural literacy for Chinese readers.This translation practice is carried out under the framework of “choice-making and adaptation” of Adaptation Theory.Adaptation Theory believes that language usage is a consistent and conscious process of choice-making and adaptation.Translation is the special language usage,and translators face many different levels of choices in the process of bilingual conversion.Such choices are made to achieve the effect of adaptation,thus realizing the whole translation purpose.According to five levels of choice-making and adaptation in translation,I analyze the text from five aspects with cases: selection of the text,cultural standpoint,comprehension of textual meanings,reexpression of textual meanings and information processing.To achieve the effect of adaptation,translation strategies such as annotation,domestication,omission,amplification,voice conversation and sentence reconstruction are applied throughout translation procedures.Through the concrete translation practice,it is proved that the “choice and adaptation” framework can guide this translation project with feasibility and the expected translation purpose is basically achieved.I hope this report can provide some reference for the similar translation project.