Translation Evaluation

Translation quality has always been a heated topic. However, for quite a long period of time, the notion of translation quality itself remains quite nebulous. This paper first studies the nature, characteristics and border of translation evaluation and points out the prerequisites of objective translation evaluation. A three-fold typology for translation evaluation is also proposed.Since translation evaluation has long been in a do-it-yourself and subjective state, there is no unified assessment approach. With the development of translation theories and linguistics and theoretical breakthroughs that follows, translation evaluation embarks on the way toward an objective and theory-guided stage. Nida is the first to forward a objective evaluation standard based on linguistics theory and the notion of formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. After him, scholars of various schools have raised different criteria from different perspectives, ranging from functionalism to post-modernism and deconstructionism. However, there still remains disagreement on what criteria should be preferred. The author makes a brief introduction of the major schools in terms of their theoretical basis and nature and analyzes the merits and demerits of these approaches.A theoretical breakthrough was made by the German functionalistic scholar K. Reiss, who proposes a evaluation approach based on her functionalistic text typology. A more satisfactory approach is forwarded by J. House, whose differentiation of overt and covert translation incorporated in her three level analysis model based on text/register/ text function analysis provides an encompassing and practical assessment model. On the basis of the survey of the various approaches, the linguistics-oriented approach represented by K. Reiss and J. House is believed by the author to be the optimal one. After the introduction of thetheories of K. Reiss and J. House, two major functionalistic scholars, the author employs the functionalistic approach in the analysis and evaluation of the translation of Deng Xiaoping's selected works.On the basis of an analysis of the genre and text type of Deng Xiaoping's selected works, it is pointed out that the translation of Deng's selected works belongs to overt translation, in which functional equivalence between the original and the translation is not be aimed. Then, appropriate translation strategies and evaluation criteria are presented, with which the author studies the translation on semantic, lexical, stylistic levels. In the final place, a conclusion concerning the assessment of the translation of Deng Xiaoping's selected works is drawn.