On C-E Translation Of Official Website Profiles Of China’s Provinces, Municipalities And Autonomous Regions Based On Adaptation Theory

The trend of globalization has dramatically facilitated the communication between China and the rest of theworld. On the one hand, the cooperation and exchange between China and other countries is getting closer andcloser; On the other hand, people in the other countries are eager to have a thorough and better understanding ofChina. The English versions of official websites of China’s provinces, municipalities and autonomous regionsserve as a window through which people in other countries may know various aspects of China, such as politics,economy, culture, education and people’s life, etc. Those official websites will surely present the mostauthoritative and important source of information to foreign readers with their unique language characteristicssuch as formal diction, using Chinese culture-loaded terms and intense vocative function. Therefore, the qualityof the translated versions of official websites plays an unusually important role in building China’s image andstrengthening international exchange and cooperation.Given the significance of the translation quality of official websites, the present thesis conducts a thoroughstudy on the C-E translation of official website profiles of China’s18provinces, municipalities and autonomousregions which have launched their English websites among China’s34provincial-level administrative units fromthe perspective of Adaptation Theory. Besides, a model about C-E translation of official website profiles isproposed. At first, the research background and significance is introduced in chapter one; Chapter two introducesthe features and function of official websites, then literature review about study of official websites is made;Chapter three makes a brief introduction of Jef Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory; Chapter four is the body of thethesis in which the research questions and methodology(descriptive study, qualitative research and comparativemethod) is raised, the process of data collection and analysis is showed, then the three research aspects oflanguage communication carried out in the theory are applied to examine the translation operation. The aim is tofind out the impact of communicative context factors, structural objects and salience of adaptation onchoice-making and dynamic adaptation in the translation process of official website profiles. Meanwhile, thereasons for errors of C-E translation of official website profiles are analyzed and approaches and suggestionsabout how to better the translated versions put forward. In last chapter, the following conclusions are drawn:First of all, the translator has to take the mental, social and physical world of the source writer and the targetreader into consideration in the process of C-E translation of official website profiles. Meanwhile, he/she has tochoose the appropriate words and syntactic patterns according to different contexts.In the next place, communicative contextual adaptation, structural objects adaptation and salience of the translator run through the whole process of C-E translation of official website profiles which have been anorganic whole.Thirdly, as for words and expressions which are closely related to China’s history, culture and politicalsettings, the translator can adopt such translation strategies as addition, annotation, etc.Finally, a model about C-E translation of official website profiles based on Adaptation Theory is proposed.