E-C Translation From The Perspective Of Information Focus

This paper focuses on marking devices, major types of mistakes in translating marks and corresponding coping strategies. These findings are significant for both translators and translation pedagogy.The structure of this paper is as follows. Chapter One introduces the background and objectives of the study. Examples given in this study come from a translation project participated by both students and teachers. Materials analyzed include source text, translation by students and that by teachers, thus cross comparison can be conducted. In Chapter Two, definitions of "information focus" by domestic and foreign scholars are discussed and the idea of the author is proposed:in written language, focus refers to the information that is highlighted through lexical, syntactical, textual or other marking devices. Based on previous studies and the author’s own thoughts, a research framework of focus marking devices is established, which includes lexical, syntactical, textual and other marking devices. In Chapter Three, the framework is applied in categorizing and analyzing students’ mistakes, and then different strategies are proposed targeting at different types of mistakes. Chapter Four Conclusion summarizes the structure of the paper and strategies proposed in the previous chapter.The significance of this paper lies in:1) A relatively systematic research framework of information focus is established, which includes four aspects--lexical, syntactical, textual and other marking devices. Specifically, lexical and syntactical marking devices are summarized based on previous studies; textual marking devices are inspired by Liu Danqing and Xu Liejiong’s research (1998:94-98) and supplemented by the author; other marking devices are summarized by the author based on translation practices;2) Unlike previous translation studies, which only include two parts—source text and target text, examples used in this paper include three parts—source text A, student’s translation B and teacher’s translation C. The author conducts cross comparison, which is relatively a new method in this kind of research;3) By comparing B and C, both major types of mistakes by students and teachers strategies of retaining information focus can be identified, which is relevant to translation and translation teaching.