A Report On The Translation Of Hubei Jingdian Daoyouci(Excerpts) Under The Guidance Of Newmark's Text-type Theory

Known as "the province of a thousand lakes",Hubei has abundant tourism resources.The beautiful scenery and profound culture in Hubei attract tourists all over the world.It is sure that the English versions of tourism texts of Hubei are important for foreign tourists to know the tourism resources in Hubei.The quality of the English versions directly influences the development of tourism in Hubei.However,only a few tourism texts of Hubei have been translated into English and the present English versions are also spotty.Therefore,it is of necessity to conduct a study on the translation of tourism texts of Hubei.The author takes the excerpts of Hubei Jingdian Daoyouci(2009)as the translation material.The tour commentaries in this book cover most scenic spots and tourist routes of Hubei Province,which have detailed content and beautiful words.Besides,these tour commentaries vividly present the features of the scenic spots in Hubei as well as the local culture.Thus the English translation of the book can help foreign tourists know the charm of Hubei.Meanwhile,the study will apply Newmark's text-type theory to guide the translation practice.Newmark divides the text into three main types:expressive text,informative text and vocative text.The author's translation material is both informative and vocative,thus under the guidance of the text-type theory,the author can convey the original information and also tries to make the target text produce the same effect as the source text so as to realize the informative function and the vocative function.Therefore,under the guidance of Newmark's text-type theory,the report,taking the translation practice of seven tour commentaries extracted from Hubei Jingdian Daoyouci(2009)as a case study,analyzes the text types and text functions of the source text.From the lexical,syntactic and textual levels,the report concludes the feasible translation methods and techniques as well as the cohesive devices that can be applied to realize the text functions,focusing on the translation of words with Hubei local features and parallel sentences.It is expected to provide meaningful reference for the later C-E translation practice of tourism texts of Hubei.The report is composed of five parts.Chapter one is task introduction,which gives a brief introduction to the background,discusses the significance of the study,and presents the structure of the report.Chapter two focuses on the process of the task including pre-translation,while-translating,and after-translation phase.The author conducts a comparative analysis of the English tour commentary and the Chinese one.The linguistic features and text types of the source text are also analyzed in this chapter.Chapter three is theoretical basis,which introduces Newmark's text-type theory and concludes the points that should be paid attention to in the translation of tourism texts guided by this theory.Chapter four,based on the author's translation practice,conducts a case study from the lexical,syntactic and textual level,focusing on the translation of words with Hubei local features,the translation of parallel sentences as well as the adjustment of cohesive devices.Analyses of the examples are made to summarize the feasible translation methods and techniques as well as the cohesive devices so as to realize similar text functions.Chapter five makes a conclusion of the experience of the translation practice.It points out that in the translation of words with local features,the translators should use the expressions which can be understood and accepted by the target readers.Literal translation,free translation and transliteration plus literal translation can be applied to reflect the local features and cultural information in the target text.In the translation of parallel sentences,it is of necessity to consider the differences in sentence structure between English and Chinese as well as the differences in aesthetic taste between the source text readers and the target ones.Omission,restructuring and shift of voice can be used to make the target text conform to the expressions of English and also adjust to the target readers' aesthetic taste.When dealing with the cohesive devices,reference and substitution can be adopted flexibly so that the target text can be cohesive,smooth and natural.These adjustments in lexical,syntactic and textual levels can help the target text realize similar text functions to the source text.