Studies On Ideographic Functions And Translation Of Attributive Clauses

Attributive clause,with a complicated structure,is widely used in English texts.Significant differences in attributive clause between English and Chinese bring enormous challenges for translators.Many Chinese scholars have proposed different translation methods for attributive clause,which have guiding significance for translation practices.However,in order to ensure the quality of the translation,translators should choose appropriate translation methods according to the specific translation project,rather than apply the methods automatically.Taking the translation of Southeast Asia Energy outlook 2015 as a case,the author explores the ideographic functions and translation methods of English attributive clauses.After analyzing the original text,the author concludes that the ideographic functions of English attributive clause fall into two categories: presentational function and adverbial function.Translators should thoroughly analyze the ideographic functions,logical relationships and idiomatic expressions of the original text before they choose the appropriate translation methods.On the basis of relevant literature and the translation practice,the author comes up with three kinds of translation methods – structural equivalence translation method,which turns the English attributive clause into Chinese adjective before the antecedent,content equivalence translation method,which turns the English attributive clause into Chinese compound sentences,and formal equivalence translation method,which puts the translation just behind the antecedent by using a bracket.This paper makes the following conclusion: the translator should make a thorough analysis of the ideographic functions,logical relationship and conventional expression of the attributive clauses,take accuracy,specialism and readability as translation criteria,and choose appropriate translation methods to ensure that the translation is not only faithful to the original text but also in accord with the Chinese conventional expression.It is hoped that this paper can provide reference for translation of attributive clauses in energy texts.