英语毕业论文 基于文本类型理论的高校简介英译策略研究概要

1、 AbstractSince China has made rapid advances in strengthening its cooperation with overseas universities, golden opportunities are offered for students both in and outside China to pursue their further education as exchange students, which in turn indicates Chinas aspiration of making its universiti

2、es more competitive and involving in more international co-operations. Thus, university profile, as a window to the outside world, plays a vital role in strengthening a universitys international prestige. Peter Newmark, the distinguished translation theorist in England, mainly divides text into thre

3、e types in terms of the language functions of the source text, they are: informative, expressive and vocative texts. This paper, by resorting to comparative analyses, discusses the stylistic distinctions among three representative university profiles on their official websites in Gansu Province and

4、two university profiles parallel texts in English-speaking countries. Through this research, it can be found that most texts of the university profiles belong to the informative text and vocative text, with moderate expressive text displayed. Thus, in translating university profile, translators must

5、 begin with confirming the text type from the source text and study target culture and then choose the proper functions to correspond with them. This paper tries to offer some translation strategies under guide of the text type theory in translating university profile.Key words: university profile;

6、text type theory; translation strategies摘要随着中国高校与国外大学合作的加强，越来越多的中国学生走出国门到海外留学。同时，国内的许多大学也纷纷迎来了外国留学生，这都表明中国的高校正在走向国际化。因此，作为高校对外宣传窗口的大学英文简介发挥了越来越重要的作用。英国当代著名翻译理论家彼特纽马克将文本类型划分为三大类，分别为信息型文本表达型文本和呼唤型文本。本文通过对三所代表性高校官方简介的英文译本和两所英语国家大学简介的平行文本进行对比分析，作者发现大多数高校简介属于信息型文本和呼唤型文本，而表达型文本较少。因此在翻译过程中，译者首先需要确定原文的文本类型，

7、然后考察目的语读者的文化，之后研究其对应的翻译策略，最后实现文本的交际功能。鉴于此，本文力求在纽马克文本类型理论指导下为高校简介的英译提供一些翻译策略。关键词：高校简介；文本类型理论；翻译策略ContentsTOC o 1-3 h z u HYPERLINK l _Toc419108897 Abstract PAGEREF _Toc419108897 h I PAGEREF _Toc419108897 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108898 摘要 PAGEREF _Toc419108898 h II PAGEREF _Toc419108898 h HYPERLINK l _To

8、c419108899 1 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc419108899 h 1 PAGEREF _Toc419108899 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108900 2 A Review of the Studies on the Translation of University Profile PAGEREF _Toc419108900 h 1 PAGEREF _Toc419108900 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108901 3 Peter Newmarks Text Type Theory PAGEREF _Toc419108901

9、 h 2 PAGEREF _Toc419108901 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108902 3.1 Informative Text PAGEREF _Toc419108902 h 2 PAGEREF _Toc419108902 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108903 3.2 Expressive Text PAGEREF _Toc419108903 h 3 PAGEREF _Toc419108903 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108904 3.3 Vocative Text PAGEREF _Toc419108904 h 4 PAGEREF

10、_Toc419108904 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108905 4 Strategies for Translating University Profile PAGEREF _Toc419108905 h 4 PAGEREF _Toc419108905 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108906 4.1 Translation of the Informative Text PAGEREF _Toc419108906 h 5 PAGEREF _Toc419108906 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108907 4.1.1 Free Transla

11、tion PAGEREF _Toc419108907 h 5 PAGEREF _Toc419108907 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108908 4.1.2 Cultural Equivalence PAGEREF _Toc419108908 h 6 PAGEREF _Toc419108908 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108909 4.1.3Addition PAGEREF _Toc419108909 h 9 PAGEREF _Toc419108909 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108910 4.2 Translation of the Voc

12、ative Text PAGEREF _Toc419108910 h 11 PAGEREF _Toc419108910 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108911 4.2.1 Deletion PAGEREF _Toc419108911 h 11 PAGEREF _Toc419108911 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108912 4.2.2 Rewriting PAGEREF _Toc419108912 h 13 PAGEREF _Toc419108912 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108913 4.2.3 Subordination PAGEREF

13、 _Toc419108913 h 14 PAGEREF _Toc419108913 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108914 5 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc419108914 h 14 PAGEREF _Toc419108914 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108915 Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc419108915 h 16 PAGEREF _Toc419108915 h HYPERLINK l _Toc419108916 Acknowledgments PAGEREF _Toc419108916 h 17 PAGEREF

14、 _Toc419108916 h 1 IntroductionWith the development of Chinas higher education, a large number of university websites in China have gradually become a window to present school images, offering useful information and providing a variety of online services. Generally, most Chinese university websites

15、are bilingual in both Chinese and English. In recent years, with the expansion of Chinese universities scope of exchanges and cooperation and the furtherance of internationalization and globalization, the English websites of Chinese university are drawing more and more attention from foreign visitor

16、s and their importance is growing with great momentum.By reviewing university profiles on the basis of text type theory, this paper is a study that adopts parallel and contrastive textual analysis, which covers the profiles of outstanding universities in Gansu Province and in the English-speaking co

17、untries. The author tries to classify texts into different categories according to text type theory. And with different text type, their corresponding translation strategies are different from each other. 2 A Review of the Studies on the Translation of University ProfileFor quite a long period of ti

18、me, studies of literature translation have been dominating in translation field and many scholars did not pay much attention to the study of Chinese-English translation of publicity materials. It is not until the early 1980s that translational scholars attached importance to the translation of publi

19、city materials, so did the translation of university profile. Since Zhong Weihe and Zhong Yu (1999) firstly introduced the German functionalist approach to China, there were numerous scholars who have been attempting to study translation in this field.Zhang Xinjun and Yang Hui（2003）designed a questi

20、onnaire on the premise that the target reader holds the right of deciding the effectiveness and validity of information. The aim of their study was to find out how the target reader would respond to the translated versions of Chinese university profiles in 2003. They further dug out translation defi

21、ciencies that existed in this type of translation and they offered some strategies to deal with those problems. Though they made a conclusion that these translation versions faced some problems including the unsuitable length of the text and some improper information selection, redundancy, Chinglish

22、, and grammatical mistakes etc, their research scope was not expanded enough.Lu Ning (2007) , in her paper Skopos Theory and Translation Errors in the English-version Webage Profiles of Chinese Universities and the Underlying Problems, conducted a quantitative study of the Chinese -English translati

23、on versions of university profiles by calculating linguistic and cultural translation errors that existed in those websites. Then she put forward some corresponding translation strategies. However, her study still has some drawbacks, for instance, she did not give an integrated investigation on the

24、characteristics of the university profiles in English speaking countries. Han Mengqi (2008), pointed out in On the Translation Mistakes in English Webpages of Institutions of Higher Learning, that translation errors in terms of linguistic, culture and so on are very common in the English version of

25、the university of higher education in China, and this has caused negative effects on their publicity and even may damage their images in the long run.After the discussion on the relevant studies done in the field of Chinese-English translation of university profiles, pointing out the limitations of

26、the previous studies, which partially restates the necessity of the present study.3 Peter Newmarks Text Type Theory Peter Newmark was one of the main figures in the founding of HYPERLINK /wiki/Translation_Studies translation studies in the English-speaking world in twentieth century. He illustrated

27、his translation theories in a series of works, such as A Textbook of Translation (1988), Paragraphs on Translation (1989), About Translation (1991), More Paragraphs on Translation (1998).In Newmarks published book A Textbook of Translation, he clarifies text based on a new model. Newmark mainly divi

28、des source text into three types in terms of the language functions of the source text, they are: informative, expressive, vocative texts. In his book A Textbook of Translation, the major characteristics of each text type are summarized as follows: (1)Informative text: information-oriented, mainly c

29、onveying knowledge and opinions, the language employed to transmit the information is logical or referential, the content is the main focus of the communication. (2)Expressive text: source text writer-oriented text, with the focused aesthetic aspect of language is focused and the form of the message

30、 is important. (3)Vocative text: focusing on the equivalent function of the text in order to appeal or persuade the reader or “receiver” of the text to act in a certain way.3.1 Informative TextIn Newmarks point of view, informative text covers a wide range of text types, such as news reports, press

31、comments, inventories of merchandise, instructions, educational works, patent specifications, treaties, official documents, non-fiction books of all sorts, and other technical fields.The main function of informative text is to inform the reader about objects and phenomena in reality. For example, co

32、mmentaries are usually distinctive in their literary styles which may show individualistic styles. However, they still belong to the informative type as they are written for a particular situation or event in which the content goes beyond the form. If a translator identifies the text as an informati

33、ve type, he will adopt proper translation methods to transplant the source language information into the target language text. Therefore, in translating informative texts, translators should bear in mind that (1) The translation of an informative text focuses on the conveyance of information, with a

34、n emphasis laid on the effectiveness and accuracy of the communication. (2) The choice of language styles and form is thus subordinate to its main function, and they should be guided by the leading norms of linguistic culture from the target language. (Newmark 2001) In conclusion, translating the in

35、formative texts requires adequacy in transferring of the content of the source language text. This requires that the linguistic forms of the translation be adapted without reservation to the form of the target language.3.2 Expressive TextGenerally speaking, compared with the informative text, the ex

36、pressive text is mainly concerned with not only “what” the author says but “how” he says it. Specifically, expressive texts include prose, serious imaginative literature, autobiography, essays and personal correspondence. Thus the translator of an expressive text will inevitably pay attention to the

37、 source language text. In rendering these texts, the translator will attach importance to the form of text. Thus, when translating the expressive text, the translator should find an effective form in translating so as to create an equivalent effect. The tempo of the style, as well as stylistic forms

38、 and rhyme schemes, comparative and figurative manners of speaking, proverbs and metaphors should all be noticed during translating an expressive text. Sometimes, if it is too hard to imitate the original form and style, an alternative can be done by creating equivalents through new forms. That is t

39、o say, in translating a form-focused text, the translator can appreciate the form of the source language and be inspired by it to discover an analogous form in the target language, which can elicit a similar response in the reader.3.3 Vocative TextPeople often use language in order to arouse the sym

40、pathy of others or to inspire others to take any action by using the vocative features of language. According to Newmark, “The core of the vocative function of language is the readership, the addressee.” (2001). The core of this function lies in its concerns of readers or hearers feeling. Source tex

41、t writer may have hoped that the target reader would follow the texts intent to feel, think or act, that is, they can respond to the expression of text content. Newmark (2001) used the word “vocative” in the sense of “calling upon” the target language readership to act or think in order to “react” i

42、n the way intended by the text, so it is “reader-oriented”. The vocative texts cover a wide range of text types including publicity, advertising, preaching, propaganda, laws and regulations, tourist materials, notices as well as persuasive writing of all kinds. Equivalent effect is essential in voca

43、tive texts translation. Therefore, in translating vocative texts, translators should bear in mind that the linguistic form of any given informational content is subordinate to achieving the non-linguistic purpose of its message. 4 Strategies for Translating University ProfileIt is acknowledged that

44、a university webpage plays an indispensable role in enhancing a universitys image to the outside world. Because it is a kind of publicity material, a university webpage must speak its aim in one way or another so that the target reader can understand it well. In this process, whether the translator

45、can translate the source text smoothly and ensure the proper functioning of target text requires suitable translating strategies. Looking into the university profile translation from the perspective of text type theory, we know that it is the text type that decides the corresponding translation stra

46、tegies. And we can find out that what mainly concern the target reader about the university translation is its informative and vocative functions, with moderate expressive functions displayed. Meanwhile, after the analysis, the author finds that most texts in the university profiles belong to the in

47、formative and vocative text, therefore the author mainly focuses on the translating strategies of the informative and vocative texts on the basis of three university profiles in Gansu province. Text type theory serves as an insightful guidance for practical text translation. And text type theory wel

48、l provides many detailed translation methods for the text translation practice, such as addition, deletion, rewriting etc, if a translator is able to appropriately figure out the text type of a source text, he can make proper choices of the strategies.4.1 Translation of the Informative Text In unive

49、rsity profile, some facts and figures in the text belong to the informative text as discussed above. In this case, the content is more important than any other factors. Both the source text author and the translator are required to inform readers of certain facts. Therefore, the criterion for judgin

50、g the success of the informative part of a text is whether or not facts have been made clear enough to readers. Unlike literary works, the primary task of informative text translation is to convey the content. As for this type of information, the translator should properly deal with the information

51、included redundancy. The target texts are required to provide enough information as the source texts do. 4.1.1 Free TranslationFree translation is a means to mainly convey the meaning and spirit of the original without trying to reproduce its sentence patterns. This means the author does not emphasi

52、ze the original form, including syntax, structure, words and other rhetoric.Due to the different models of education, Western culture is characterized by the intention of logical reasoning, so this explains the fact that English profiles make a lot uses of figures. In comparison, due to the differen

53、ce in ideology and value, Chinese university profiles have the following featurea lot of Chinese universities lay stress on political and ideological overtones. This means that Chinese universities often include honors and titles which are awarded at provincial or national level.Example 1 Source Tex

54、t： Target Text：Parallel Text 1：For students who are excited to investigate the biggest issues of the 21st century, Harvard offers an unparalleled student experience and a generous financial aid program, with over $160 million awarded to more than 60% of our undergraduate students. The University has

55、 twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a truly global education. (Harvard University)From the example 1 and the parallel text 1, we can find out that the reward of a university is often presented in Chinese universities for the purpose of

56、showing their determinations, good organizations, authorities and achievements. This information might be useful to gain a better reputation of the university to the local readers. However, Western readers might be at loss and bored while reading the text if this information is literally translated

57、into English. Meanwhile, English universities prefer to be plain and frank by citing statistics which they review as the most convincing fact. As shown in parallel text 1, statistics are concerned with the number of the awards and its educational scope and output.4.1.2 Cultural EquivalenceUsually, i

58、n Chinese university profiles, the overall introduction of the university is often put at the top position of a webpage, so this section chooses to compare the textual differences between the domestic university profiles and those of foreign universities. First of all, Chinese university profiles of

59、ten take the format of one extended paragraph, which means that Chinese university profiles are inclined to be a single paragraph without sub-headings. This kind of textual structure may have its merit of being compact as against other text formats, but it may fail to attract readers attention as it

60、 hold so much information in such a highly condensed dull paragraph. By contrast, on the webpage of foreign university profiles, there are many entries to help the reader select the part which interests them by taking a brief look at the subheadings. Therefore, Chinese university profiles are writte