A Functionalist Approach To The Error Analysis Of News Translation

In the context of globalization, translating Chinese local news into English provides an opportunity for English-speaking readers to acquire more information on the economy, culture and policies in China. Good translation helps to build and maintain a positive international image of China by publicizing local natural and humanistic resources which in turn will help attract investment and to develop their economy. However, various errors in local news translation hinder this objective. Based on the original translation and the adapted version of the local news on china.org.cn, this thesis summarizes nine types of common errors in local news translation and cagegorizes them according to the functional classification of translation errors proposed by Nord based on the specific characteristics of local news translation. On the basis of the error analysis, the author puts forward three general translation strategies, i.e. the appropriate cognition of both Chinese and English cultures, the features of English news, and of the translation process, with the guidance of the theories on source-text analysis, text functions and the translation target audience. The author points out the advantages of using functional translation theories to research on local news translation in the hope that it will shed light on the local news C-E translation practice and that it might stimulate more researches on the local news translation studies.