A Report On The E-C Translation Of Customs Act Of Niue From The Perspective Of Functional Translation Theory

As China works closely with the Pacific island countries today,it is important to understand the customs acts of these countries to promote international cooperation and trade with them.Therefore,translating the customs acts of these Pacific island countries is of great value.The source text for this translation practice is the legal documents retrieved from the official website of the Government of Niue.The focus of this English-Chinese translation practice is the Customs Act of Niue.The translator worked under the guidance of functional translation theory,and wrote the translation report by discussing how to translate the customs terms and specific customs regulations peculiar to the Customs Act of Niue.The purpose is to find sound translation methods for translating customs legal texts that define the customs issues of a country.To be specific,this translation practice mainly focuses on the translation at the lexical and syntactical level: including customs terms,modal verbs,and complex prepositional phrases at the lexical level,and attributive clauses,passive-voice sentences and adverbial clauses at the syntactical level.Through the specific case analysis,the translators of this kind of texts need to accurately translate the specific connotations of the words and phrases that fit the context.For the translation at the syntactical level,structural adjustment can be used to make sure that the target text observes the language habits of Chinese legal texts.The translation should be in line with the coherence rule and the fidelity rule by referring to the functional translation theory.This report consists of five parts: Chapter One is the introduction to Customs Act of Niue;Chapter Two is about the translation theory;Chapter Three is the translation process;Chapter Four is the case analysis;Chapter Five is the summary.This report is intended to contribute to improving the quality of translating Customs Act of Niue and the same kind of legal texts in general from English to Chinese,and contribute to Chinese scholars' studies of foreign customs legal texts.