A Study On The English Translation Of Shaanxi Museum Commentaries From The Perspective Of Translation Norms Theory

Toury, the representative of the Descriptive Translation, introduces Zohar’s polysystem theory into translation studies. He finds the cultural norms in process of translation after lots of case studies, from which he puts forward the Translation norms. Toury’s translation norms control the activity of the translator in terms of initial norms, preliminary norms and operational norms.The museum is an important window for a country to show the level of its political and economic development and its own culture. China, a country with long history, now experiences the rapid rise of development. Our museums can undoubtedly be used as important resources for cultural exchange between China and foreign nations. In the museum exhibitions, the museum commentaries are an important means to effectively convey cultural information. The museum commentaries are a unique writing style in the archaeological field, so its translation can be regarded as the translation of practical writing. The museum commentaries have their own national and cultural connotations, which make their translation different from the ordinary text translation. The translations of museum commentaries are an important means to introduce and disseminate a nation’s history and culture to foreign tourists. Thus, it is vital to perform the better translations of the museum commentaries.This thesis, based on the Translation Norms Theory, tries to analyze of the commentaries in Shaanxi Museums, such as Shaanxi History Museum, Xi’an Beilin Museum, Tang West Market Museum,etc. In terms of the initial norms, preliminary norms and operational norms. This thesis makes a comparative analysis of the contents, structure, culture and information density of Chinese and English translation texts, and then points out the problems in the translation of Shaanxi museum commentaries and offers four corresponding translation strategies to achieve the purpose of improving the quality of English translation commentaries. This thesis makes the efforts to combine Translation Norms with the translation of the museum commentaries with an aim to provide theoretical references for the translation studies of museum commentaries.