A Translation Report For Explorations In Empirical Translation Process Research (Chapter 14)

This is a translation project report for Explorations in Empirical Translation Process Research,a collection of essays compiled by Michael Carl,a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies at Kent State University,USA.The translator selected chapter 14,“Translation Norms,Translation Behavior,and Continuous Vector Space Models” as its source text.The ST mainly introduces “word embeddings model--independent and continuous vector space” into translation studies and analyzing translation processes with the support of word embedding models.As an original collection of essays on translation process,it was published by Springer Natural Switzerland AG in 2021.The source text is logical,clear in structure,accurate and concise in language,containing a large number of technical terms such as “word embedding” and “similarity measures”.In the process of translation,the translator encountered some problems mainly at the lexical and syntactical levels.This paper applies Catford’s translation shift theory which can be divided into two types: level shifts and category shifts,of which the latter includes class shifts,unit shifts,structure shifts and intra-system shifts.Firstly,this report introduces the background of this translation practice and the main structure.Then it introduces the materials and the difficulties during translation in detail.On this basis,considering the great differences in lexis,syntax and expression between English and Chinese,this paper discusses the level shifts,structure shits and category shifts in the translation,analyzes the examples with translation shift theory and summarizes translation experience and lessons.