On Clipping Trans-editing From The Perspective Of Functionalist Translation Theory

As economic globalization goes deeper, China is having closer and stronger economicexchanges with countries around the world, and more and more multinationals come to Chinafor new development opportunities. As strangers in China, multinationals are very eager toobtain the overall information resources to stipulate operation strategies, while clippingtrans-editing meet their ends. Based on the features of clippings, translators should carry oncross-cultural trans-editing of text contents, that is to say, editing and then translating beforetranslation to meet acceptance of target readers. The target readers of clipping trans-editingare English-speaking people. Thus, in clipping trans-editing, translators should not only bearthe ability to edit and transform English and Chinese, but also have the professionalknowledge of propaganda. Then, translators edit texts according to the requirements of targetreaders.There is hardly any study on clipping trans-editing yet in China and no systematicaltheoretical guidance during the actual practice. In view of this, this thesis introduces thefunctionalist translation theory from text typology, translational action, translating as apurposeful activity and “function plus loyalty” and applies the theory to guide thetrans-editing practice of clipping. The text typology has divided clippings into three types:informative, operative and expressive. In translation action of clipping, the participantsinclude translation brief, translation notes, the corporate client, the clipping company and thetranslator. In clipping trans-editing, the translator should follow Vermeer’s three rules ofSkopos theory: skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule and Nord’“Function plusLoyalty” principle.It is concluded that, through analysis of text functions, firstly, most of clippings areinformative and a few vocative, while the expressive function isn’t very common. Secondly,the translator plays the most important role in the translational action of clipping. He/She isresponsible for the corporate client and clipping company. Translational action focuses on providing a functional communicative text for target readers. Thus, in the process of‘translational text operations’, analyzing the ST is to analyze the relationship between contentand form. Clipping has abundant contents and diverse forms. In general, there exists arelationship of dialectical unity between content and form. In clipping trans-editing, contentcan’t depart from form, while form is the supplement to content. In addition, through studieson some representative cases, the thesis concludes the common principles and strategies usedin clipping trans-editing.It is of certain theoretical and practical significance for this thesis to analyze clippingtrans-editing from the perspective of functionalist translation theory. Since the establishmentin1970s, this theory has provided a new perspective for translation studies. Traditionaltranslation theories regard translation as a static one-to-one equivalence, while functionalisttranslation theory allows translators to employ different translation strategies according todifferent purposes and the differences of cultures and languages. For clipping, its trans-editingneeds theoretical support and apply certain illustrations of trans-editing strategies.Functionalist translation theory has been widely used in the practice of clipping trans-editingand proves to be effective. Therefore, it is feasible and scientific to employ the theory to guideclipping trans-editing.