A Study On The English Translation Of The Work Report Of The State Council Based On Intertextuality

The work report of the State Council(hereafter referred to as The Report),one of political essays,is an official document of China.Distinctive in its expressions,language features and writing style,it has received extensive attention and research.And its English version,authoritative,is the result of joint discussions by senior translation experts.But from previous studies on The Report and its translation,it can be indicated that few ones are conducted from the perspective of intertextuality.Intertextuality theory,as a text theory,originates from the thought of western structuralism and post-structuralism culture,having been applied to literature,semiotics,translation studies and other fields.The term “intertextuality” and its concept are first put forward by Julia Kristeva,the French semiologist,inherited and improved by many scholars at home and abroad through their researches.In consideration of the various views on the classification of intertextuality,however,this thesis adopts the macro-intertextuality and micro-intertextuality proposed by many Chinese scholars,to analyze the intertextuality in The Report and its translation.In addition,the process of translating The Report,an intertext,is in fact an intertextual activity,and the objects translators deal with are intertextual signs,according to intertextuality theory and the illumination of the relationship between intertextuality and translation by Qin Wenhua,a Chinese scholar.Based on intertextuality theory,the thesis aims at a study on the English translations of The Reports,taking their Chinese and English versions of the past five years(2013-2017)as the research materials.It illustrates the macro and micro intertextuality in The Report and then points out the methods,techniques and strategy employed by translators for translating the macro and micro intertextual signs.With qualitative and quantitative research methods,the thesis applies EmEditor software to the data collection and analysis,and the contrastive analysis and induction methods are mainly put to use.The main findings are:(1)at the macro-intertextual level,there are mainly two types of intertextuality,namely structural intertextuality and rhetorical intertextuality;whereas,at the micro-intertextual level,there are mainly three types of intertextuality,namely quotation,allusion and untraceable codes;(2)itis literal translation,free translation and literal translation with free translation that are all applied to translating macro-intertextual and micro-intertextual signs,but the translation methods vary from one intertextual sign to another,so the translation strategy is also different;(3)different types of intertextual signs have an influence on the translation of The Report to varying degrees at both levels of macro and micro intertextuality,but in general,the micro-intertextuality has a greater influence on The Report and its translation than macro-intertextuality does.Furthermore,in terms of the research perspective and methods,this thesis can provide a reference for the translation study of The Report in the future.And the research results achieved through the data analysis also have certain reference for subsequent researchers.