On The Translation Strategies Of Informative Text From The Perspective Of Catford’s Translation Shift Theory

Informative texts,social science texts in particular,attach great attention to the information’s authenticity and readability by frequently using terms and are meant to convey the content rather than the form of source texts.Meanwhile,the English language is unlike the Chinese in terms of logic thinking and culture and,therefore,various differences can be found in such aspects as grammar,language rank scale,and nouns’ singular and plural forms.All these factors may pose challenges to translators while understanding and translating source texts,especially informative texts.Translation shift theory,put forward by J.Catford in the 1960s,features level shifts and category shifts,with words and sentences as basic units of translation.Through the analysis of words,grammar,and short-and long-sentences,it provides translators with translation strategies in a micro-perspective way.This thesis makes the hypothesis that Catford’s translation shift theory will help translators succeed in rendering contents.Therefore,this thesis,taking typical examples from Chapter 2 in The Idea Brokers,endeavors to examine this theory and its applicability.Translation project and translation commentary are two major parts of this thesis.In the translation commentary,this thesis,firstly,introduces the translation shift theory,Catford’s translation shift theory and characteristics of informative texts.In the second part,the author does an experiment on the applicability of Catford’s translation shift theory by analyzing examples from four perspectives including level shifts,structural shifts,class shifts and unit shifts.According to the translation practice,the author concludes that Catford’s translation shift theory can help translators surpass obstacles formed by source texts’ forms and focus on translating their contents.