On C-E Translation Of Chinese Political Essays From The Perspective Of German Functionalism

With the rapid economic development and the rise of the international status of China, translation is playing an increasingly important role in the communication between China and the rest of the world. C-E translation of political essays is a medium and a window for the world to know China’s present situation. According to the studies conducted in this field, the researches on C-E translation of political essays are very loose, most of which are on translation principles and the analysis of easily-made errors based on translation practice. The studies on C-E translation of political essays often make up only one chapter of a book and no systematic studies in this regard are offered. Meanwhile, the author finds out that traditional linguistic translation theory takes translation as an easy process of linguistic transcoding and places much emphasis on source text and the equivalence between source text and target text and it ignores target text, target readers and target culture. As a break from the traditional equivalence-based linguistic approach, German functionalism views translation as a purposeful intercultural action and maintains that translation techniques are determined by translation Skopos, which offers the translation of practical texts a new view. Based on German functionalism, this thesis conducts a research on the English translation of Chinese political essays, probes into the guidance and application of German functionalism in the translation.This thesis analyzes and introduces the features of political essays, domestic studies on C-E translation of political essays and German functionalism by adopting three methods of literature research, content analysis and exemplification. What’s more, the thesis clarifies how applicable German functionalism to the English translation of political essays in light of text typology, translation Skopos, translation rules, translation action and loyalty. Furthermore, the author adopts a lot of examples to illustrate the seven translation techniques:Addition, Deletion, Substitution, Literal Translation, Liberal Translation, Transfer and Restructuring with the purpose of accurately conveying the political, economic and cultural situation and the present policies of China.The author hopes that this thesis may offer some help and enlightenment for the translation of political essays and makes a little contribution to translation studies.