Application Of Functionalism And Thematic Progression In Translating Economics Literature

The material of translation project for graduation was chosen from a conference proceeding, Economic Pluralism, which was published by Routledge in2010. The twenty papers in it were submitted by the economists who were at the three-day conference sponsored by International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) in the University of Utah in early June2007. In these original papers, the economists stake out continuous positions on pluralism in economic theory, philosophy, institutions, policies and education. This volume provides a unique "second generation’" discussion of pluralism in economics and is a good supplementary text for both graduate and undergraduate courses. So far, there is no Chinese version available. So the translation and introduction of the ideas expressed in the papers will surely spur wider conversation about the scope and value of economic pluralism for the21st century in China.Paper16was chosen to be the source material. The author, KimMarie McGoldrick. is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Richmond. Her research investigates methods of making economics meaningful to undergraduates and the senior capstone course in economics. In this paper, she presented her ideas on pluralism in undergraduate economics education, which will be enlightening for Chinese economics educators.Before translating, the translator made a detailed analysis of the source text, under the guidance of German functionalism theory. In the translation action, the translator employed the analysis of thematic progression pattern (TP pattern) in modern linguistics, which helps to figure out the inner link in both the source text and the translation. In the critical commentary, the translator made a comparative study on the TP patterns in both the source text and the target text, trying to show the implications of applying TP analysis in translation.After finishing the translation project, the translator came to the following conclusions:1. Translation is not an easy job;2. a translation practice could not be independent from any of the theories concerning translation, or be completed with one single theory involved;3. German functional theories and ideas from functional linguistics are practical and effective in translating economics literature.Economics is not a familiar topic for the translator. Though efforts have been made on accumulating relevant information of the topic, there must be some points that are not satisfactory. Anyway, the translator experienced the difficulty of doing translation, and also learned a lot.