A Study Of The Translation Of Chinese And Western University Mottos

In recent years, there have been more and more researches concerning university mottos, which is not merely represented by the number of the articles with regard to the research of language, function and the value orientation of university mottos but also embodied by the quantity of the researchers and scholars devoting themselves to this topic and the quality of the articles with reference to the research. However, the research on the translation of the university mottos still stays on the stage of exploration, let alone the translation studies of the university mottos of Chinese and Western universities on the basis of the translation theory.From the articles on the research of university mottos, the article concerning the university motto translation is hardly any and the article on the Chinese-English or English-Chinese translation study of the university mottos is also few and far between. Distinct from the research that has been done previously, this thesis aims at the research on the study of the translation of the university mottos of Chinese and Western universities based on the equivalence translation theory. The research will be accomplished and will be most manifest in the following aspects:This thesis includes five chapters. In Chapter One, a brief introduction of the background information and the definition of the university motto is described in accompany with the definition of the university motto translation and its significance. The significance, the aim and the methods, organization of the thesis were also made clear in this chapter. Chapter Two goes over the previous studies on university mottos and university motto translation accompanying with the literature review of the equivalence translation theory. The impact of equivalence translation theory in translation studies is also mentioned. In this chapter Nida's equivalent translation theory and Jin Di's equivalent effect translation are mentioned. For the sake of the analysis in Chapter Four, some other people's views on equivalence are undoubtedly under mention. Chapter Three mainly probes into the problems existing in the present university motto translations, Chinglish, misinterpretation, loss of values and some other problems. Before talking about the problems, the way of data collecting is introduced. Chapter Four is the core parts of the thesis which is just on the analysis of university motto translations from the perspective of equivalence translation theory. It is explained in the following points of view:formal correspondence, the dynamic equivalence and functional equivalence, equivalent effect translation, semantic equivalence, textual equivalence and cultural equivalence. The dynamic equivalence will be discussed in light of Tan Zaixi's standards:lexical, syntactic, contextual, and stylistic. In this chapter there are also some adaptations about the translations which have some problems explained in Chapter Three according to the principle of equivalence theory and on the basis of my understanding. The last chapter of the thesis is the conclusion, in which a basic conclusion is made. The major findings are revealed and limitations are addressed. The suggestions about the further study are also put forward.This research mainly serves the purpose of analyzing the translation of the Chinese university mottos from the perspective of equivalence translation theory. After research it is found out that most of the translations of the Chinese university mottos are acceptable but can be adapted from one aspect or another on the basis of the equivalence theory. This research mainly wants to arouse people's awareness of the importance of the university motto translation. It is also found out that the equivalence translation theory is appropriate in translating university motto because of the profound and divergent meaning of it. It is proposed that scholars can probe into the translation of university motto deeply from the perspective of the equivalence theory.