An E-C Translation Report Of Ostrich Under Peter Newmark’s Translation Theory

This thesis is a translation report.The text translated is a British author Matt Greene’s Ostrich.In this thesis,the translator translates five whole chapters and several pieces of other chapters.Ostrich presents the daily life and psychological state of a teenager in the first person,and covers a lot of the same concerns that most of us do in growing up,such as exams,family,religion,science and sexuality.The framework of the novel is as following: Alex Graham is a charmingly witty 12-year-old who is trying to make sense of his parents’ increasingly suspicious conduct,which,he fears,might be linked to the recent changes he has observed in the behavior of his pet hamster.He is also trying to cope with the frequent seizures he has been suffering at particularly inopportune moments.Alex obsesses with languages,pets,science and so on,and he questions everything around him and finds out the answer for everything.The story is mostly about himself and his relationship between Chloe(his girlfriend)and his parents.In this thesis,how to translate the original text,the difficulties in the process of translation and translation strategies will be discussed.Based on Peter Newmark’s translation theory of text types,semantic and communicative translation,the original text is categorized as a text with three functions which are expressive function,informative function and vocative function.Difficulties in translation are mainly in three aspects,English puns,cultural connotations and sexuality.Then,solutions and strategies according to these translation difficulties will be put forward.The thesis will analyze these strategies by combining examples.Under the guidance of semantic translation and communicative translation,several strategies are adopted to address the three difficulties.Semantic explication and imitation are used in translating puns.When a pun has multiple meanings,the translator selects the appropriate meaning according tothe context and explicates humorous effect that the author intends to express in this pun.Sometimes,the translator even needs to imitate a similar one in Chinese when there is no appropriate corresponding Chinese pun.Annotation and replacement are adopted in translating cultural connotations.Owing to the gaps existing in different cultures and professions,annotation is helpful for target readers to know those culture-loaded words which are totally strange to the target readers.Some unique expressions in English such as children’s song can be replaced by similar ones in Chinese.In terms of sexuality,the translator believes that translator should respect the acceptability of target readers and translates it objectively,which put to use semantic explication.Through the translation,the translator comes to realize that a familiarity with background of writing and its readership is more important than an ability of language manipulation and the cognition of English culture.