A Report On The Translation Of Daily Life In Stuart England

It is a report based on the translation of Daily life in Stuart England which introduces a brief history of the seventeenth century,government,social customs,culture and other aspects of people' daily life.Although there are already some translated books related to the historical field,one of the subjects as daily life in Stuart England is quite rare,ones which have been ignored for a long time.The translation task is initiated by a press.The translator is supposed to convey the meaning with accuracy and make the target reader understand the target text easily.Due to the characteristics of the translation material,speech act theory is suitable to guide the translation process.According to J.L.Austin's theory,the text is composed of a series of speech acts.Indeed,the translation process is to transform the source text into the target text.The equivalent-effect principle is adopted to reach the goal,which includes locutionary equivalence,illocutionary equivalence and perlocutionary equivalence.This report is aimed at demonstrating how the speech act theory is applied to guide this translation practice.Locutionary equivalence emphasizes the conveyance of the ST information in the TT,which can apply to the translation of historical facts;Illocutionary equivalence concentrates on the reservation of ST intention in the TT,which can retain author's opinions.It is inevitable that history books contain the opinions and intentions of original writer;while perlocutionary equivalence makes the target reader resonant with the original reader.Due to the cultural differences between two countries,it is of necessity to supply background knowledge for the target reader to reach perlocutionary equivalence.Combining the speech act theory with the translation of history books,the translator hopes to enlarge the scope of application of the speech act theory as well as explore its notion and at the same time,the translation quality of history books and exchanges in the field of history are promoted and fresh ideas are injected into speech act theory in this way.