A Report On The Translation Of Chapter Two Of The Language Instinct

The Language Instinct is a masterpiece of American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist, and popular science writer Steven Arthur Pinker. Published in1994, the book discusses almost all the language-related questions or myths. Pinker presents every example with humorous words. The Language Instinct was chosen by the magazine Scientific American in1999as one of the100books that have shaped the world. The book opens a window for all those who have curiosity in the nature of language and is indeed one of the best books in cognitive linguistics. As there are too many mistakes in the Chinese version of the book, the author of this report intend to re-translate it now.This report introduces the scarce of the text and the purpose of re-translating it, the original text and suggested translation, an analysis of the author’s translation including the translation process, guiding theories, translation techniques as well as mistakes in the previous Chinese translation. Also, what have been learned in this translation project as well as unresolved issues are discussed.