An Overview Of Translator’s Subjectivity In Diplomatic Translation

Translator’s subjectivity, after many years development, from being ignored anddespised, now finally gains greater acknowledgement than ever in both China andWestern academic circles. But most researches on translator’s subjectivity are done inliterature translation, while little attention are paid to diplomatic translation. This thesisintends to show that translator’s subjectivity is indispensible in diplomatic translation,and the translator does enjoy some freedom in choosing how to translate and what kindof translation strategies to use. But this freedom is not unlimited; the translator needs tofind the balance between faithfulness and his/her subjectivity. With a case study ofReport on the Work of the Government---Delivered at the Fourth Session of theEleventh National People’s Congress on March5,2011, this thesis mainly highlights thetranslator’s subjectivity from different aspects. At translation strategy level,Domestication and Foreignization, Literal translation and free translation, Amplificationand omission, etc. used in different circumstances are good way to show translator’ssubjectivity in choosing the most appropriate way to achieve the best translation. Atlanguage level, detailed analysis lies in diction, positive&negative words interchange,and category words. At culture level, elaborations are given to the translation of therhetoric device, such as metaphor, and the expressions with Chinese characteristics,which could greatly reflect the discrepancies between Chinese and English culture.Based on the above analysis, this thesis emphasizes the importance of translator’ssubjectivity in diplomatic translation, and tries to set up a theoretical framework, withthe hope that it can impart some enlightenment on the future researchers.