A Translation Project Report On The First US Presidential Debate2012

This is a translation report on the First presidential debate of the United States2012. Thisdebate is the first confrontation between President Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee,and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee. It was describedby the American press as a “Do-or-Die” duel. The theme of the debate is about domesticpolicies which include the economy, Medicare and immigration.This thesis is the translation and translation report for the excerpt of the first USpresidential debate2012and categorized to the translation of practical writings. Thetranslation of practical writings requires lucid and plain language of the translation, notdeliberately seeking literary statement. Logic of the expression and coherence of the wholetext should be pursued. Numbers, views, and reasoning should not self-contradict. Whenevaluating the translation of non-literary works, the readers will put more emphasis on thescientificity, authenticity and practicability. Little attention will be paid on the artistry oflanguage. Therefore, translation of this type of works should reflect the objective fact andrealize its practicability.Research has found that the language, style, and pragmatic style of this is thesisunique:(1) The sentences are loose,colloquial. There are short sentences consist of severalphrases and complicated long sentences.(2) In terms of choice of words, we seek thepreciseness and accuracy of expression and use abundant economic and political terms.(3)Interms of features of the text, the logic is rigid. In order to avoid ambiguity andmisunderstanding, the speaker redresses himself, adds something or explains; In order to getan upper hand in the debate, interruptions occur from time to time.(4) In terms of stylistics,the language is plain and lucid. We focus on expressing the meaning and conveyinginformation, not purposely pursuing artistry of language.As a text of debate, the difficult points of this thesis are mainly in the translation ofeconomic and political terms, coping with long sentences and the coherence of the text of thedebate. Based on the theory of dynamic equivalence, the translator adopts flexible translation methods such as literal translation, liberal translation, conversion, supplying and divisionaccording to different types of paragraphs, sentences and words in order to achieve dynamicequivalence with the practical function of the original.This thesis points out in the conclusion that texts of political debates have their uniquestylistic features and the theory of dynamic equivalence provides some guidance for thesekinds of texts. Translation of these kinds of texts should focus on conveying information andchoose suitable translation strategies according to the expected function and effect of thetranslation.