On The Applicability And Limitation Of Peter Newmark 's New Words Translation In English - Chinese Translation

How neologism should be rendered has been a major concern during the author’s translation process, which posed a significant challenge to contemporary translators. As the most dynamic component in the evolution of language, vocabulary has undergone a rapid growth in the new era, resulting in overflowing emergency of neologism. Neologism represents newly occurred gadgets, concepts, thoughts, issues, etc. In such a way, neologism has bore witness to the ever-changing society. As the basic unit of translation, vocabulary stands at the very core of translation. It is sensible to conclude that neologism translation constitute a vital part in contemporary translation.Peter Newmark, the British professor of translation theories and practice, had dedicated his whole life to the combined study of translation theories, practice and education. So do his thoughts on neologism translation. With previous theories as its references, Professor Newmark categorizes newly emerged words and expressions in his time, mainly in accordance with its origins and forming strategies, and put forward systematic translation methods. Much as his thoughts have been widely accepted in the translation practice of English-German and English-French, how well such methods should apply to English-Chinese translation remains unexplored. In the context of cross-cultural translation, ways of expressions, grammar, vocabulary, diverge between English and Chinese, as well as its cultures, histories, readers’prior experience, which makes such topic meaningful both in theory and in practice.This paper uses linguistic materials from two Chinese translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to investigate into the acceptance and limitations in applying Peter Newmark’s thoughts on neologism translation, with an intend to expand translator’s repertoire on concerned area.This paper is divided into5parts. The Introduction presents the significance of the topic and offers a general review on neologism and its translation in China.Part2introduces the concept of neologism and its translation. This first discuss the definition of neologism, as well as its features and the significance of the topic, and then review and makes a comparison on the study of neologism translation home and abroad.Part3elaborates on neologism translation after giving a brief introduction to Peter Newmark. This part first overviews the academic achievements of Professor Newmark, together with his main thoughts on translation strategies, and his thoughts on neologism translation, and then proceeds to review previous studies on neologism translation home and abroad.Part4uses two Chinese translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as an example,and explores the feasibility and limitations in Newmark’s neologism translation thoughts. It isconcluded that, some translating method is still of widely use, while some limitations existamong those time-proven methods.The Conclusion highlights the practical significance of the topic.