A Study On The English Version Of The 2014 Report On The Work Of Government From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

With the speedy development of China’s social economy and noticeable enhancement of comprehensive national power in recent years, now China is playing an increasingly important role in international communication. The annual Report on the Work of Government(RWG) shows the latest situation and recent development of China, it is the most authoritative political document for the international community to know about China correctly. Thus, the accuracy of RWG translation has a far-reaching influence on China’s image and on the evaluation of China by international community.According to the famous Belgian linguist Verschueren, due to the properties of language, that is, variability, negotiability and adaptability, the use of language is a process of making choice constantly. Since translation is also proved to be a process of making choices constantly, this provides a reasonable basis and possibility for applying the Adaptation Theory to guide the study on the English translation of the RWG. Under the guidance of Adaptation Theory, this thesis mainly probes into the adaptation phenomena during the English translation process of the 2014 RWG from the perspective of context adaptation, structural adaptation, dynamic adaptation and salience adaptation. Then, the thesis further analyzes the feasibility of applying the Adaptation Theory to the translation of political documents, aiming to put forward some instructive suggestions and provide a new perspective for the translation of political documents.Through the guidance of Adaptation Theory and detailed analysis of examples, two major findings can be got:Firstly, this study expands the research scope of Adaptation Theory and provides a feasible theoretical framework for the translation of political documents. Secondly, this study has certain enlightenment on translation. During the translation process, the translator should take into consideration the linguistic and communicative context where the writer of the source text and the reader of the target text are involved, and make choices consciously so as to achieve adaptability.