A Study On The Ethics Of Communication In Translation

More and more Chinese and western scholars begin to focus their attention on translation problems in terms of ethical dimensions in recent years."Ethics"refers to norms and rules that should be observed by human beings in intercultural communication. Translation is a cross-cultural communication that deals with the relations between source text and translated text, as well as the relations among authors, translators and receptors. Thus, it also belongs to an ethical problem. The thesis is mainly discusses the ethics of communication on the basis of Chesterman's five translation ethics from the following aspects, the etymon of"ethics", the premise and purpose in the ethics of communication, the strategies to fulfill the ethics of communication and the like, in order to find a proper translation strategy to realize or optimize the ethics of communication.The thesis is divided into four parts. Details are as follows:Chapter one mainly describes the research status of translation ethics at home and abroad. Compared with international research status, the domestic research situation has two characteristics. Firstly, the former is later than the latter. Secondly, domestic works and articles are relatively dispersed and fragmented.Chapter two firstly discusses the different etymons of the term"ethics"in Chinese and western culture. The ethics of communication in translation refers to a translation ethics that during which the emphasis is placed on communication with the Other rather than representing the Other, transcending linguistic and cultural boundaries and barriers. Then, the ethics of communication is studied from the following aspects: the premise of the ethics of communication in translation, different elements in the ethics of communication in translation and the purpose in the ethics of communication in translation at the macroscopic level. The purpose in the ethics of communication in translation means that translators should achieve a mutual understanding between different cultures during translation, in order to optimize cross-cultural communication. That is to say, translated texts should be readable and understandable in order that they could be understood and accepted by readers.Chapter three firstly defines two translation strategies: foreignization as well as domestication. Then, the translation strategy that could be adopted in the ethics of communication at the microscopic level is discussed. At the present stage, domesticating strategy could be used in the translation of Chinese literature, supplemented by foreignizing strategy, because of the different backgrounds of Chinese and western economy and culture (the dominant position of western economy and culture), as well as the expectations and interests of western receptors (they always in favor of works of their own language instead of translations that come from other countries).The last chapter is a brief summary to the full thesis. Besides this, a reflection on the ethics of communication in translation is made. Translators should shoulder certain ethical responsibilities during the process of translation, respecting not only the source culture, but also the target culture as well as the needs of target readers.