On Translation Strategies At Lexical Level Report On My Lady Ludlow

The translation is part of the “Bilingual Project” of Foreign Language Teachingand Research Press (FLTRP), the source text of which is the last seven chapters of MyLady Ludlow, a long novel written by British novelist Gaskell. The translation will bepublished on the internet as e-books by FLTRP as learning and reading materials forEnglish and translation learners.The special time and social backgrounds make the source text largely differentfrom modern English in some expressions and diction, which brings difficulties totranslation. When two words are put together as set phrases and idioms, there may be anew meaning which is totally different from their original meanings. The translator mustrecognize them so as to avoid mistakes in translation. One English word may haveseveral Chinese equivalents. Among them, some common words may have uncommonmeanings in specific time or place background. The translator must take this kind ofbackground into consideration, and select the one that is most in line with thebackground. Otherwise, there may be difficulties in understanding the sentence or eventhe context for target text receivers, especially for English and translation learners. Insome special cases, some interrogatives can be used as modal particles and thus losetheir interrogative function. If they are translated as interrogatives, it will bringobstacles to reading and understanding for target text receivers.According to Nord’s “function plus loyalty” theory and the “text analysis” theory,translation-oriented text analysis determines the purpose of translation, which in turndetermines the translation strategy. The purpose of the translation is to provide practicematerials for the English and translation learners. Therefore, such methods as lexicalshift and paraphrase are adopted as translation method for the translation.A good translator should have a high sense of responsibility to the author, the source text sender and the target text receiver. What’s more, MTI education shouldinvolve translation theories and put the translation theories into large amount of practice.Only in doing so could the MTI students be well trained to improve their translationcompetence for a good professional accomplishment.