A Practice Report On The Translation Of Engineering Text Under The Guidance Of Translation Shift Theory

The Belt and Road Initiative has encouraged more and more Chinese companies,which are expected to contract more international projects along with the development of engineering technologies in China,to throw themselves into the infrastructure construction of countries along the Belt and Road routes.International projects involve translation of documents like engineering contracts and construction specifications and the translation of engineering text enhances exchanges and cooperation between China and countries along the belt and road.The bilingual texts brought by translation enrich the linguistic studies on engineering text and attribute to the translation of construction specifications issued by Chinese governments and companies.The translation practice report discusses the application of Catford's translation shift theory into the translation of engineering text based on the translation practice carried out to translate the excerpted text from General Specification for Civil Engineering Works which is currently implemented in the construction of Kuala Lumpur Mass Rapid Transit Route 2.The source text is excerpted from the twentieth section of the specification and mainly about the selection of tunneling methods,ground survey,risk assessment and tunnel boring machines.This report includes five chapters.Chapter One introduces the background,objectives and significance of the translation practice and the report.Chapter Two gives detailed introduction to the general translation process,including the pre-translation preparation,translation procedure and post-translation quality control.Chapter Three analyzes the features of the source text from lexical,syntactical and stylistic aspects.Chapter Four studies cases and selects examples to show the application of level shifts and category shifts in this translation practice.Chapter Five draws conclusion,reviews all the chapters and points out the deficiencies of the practice and the report and presents related suggestions.As one branch of scientific and technical translation,the translation of engineering text is characterized by its aim to convey information.Newmark's text typology divides texts into three categories: expressive text,informative text and vocative text.Expressive text,mainly about literature works and personal talking,stresses on the expression of the feelings of authors.Informative text focuses on the convey of information and its authenticity.Vocative text puts readers in its core and aims to appeal readers to think and act according to the aim of authors.The source text of this translation practice is about construction specification which underlines the authenticity of information and its full convey.The source text is classified as informative text according to Newmark's text theory.Based on this,the writer chose Catford's translation shift theory to guide this translation practice.Catford suggested that certain shifts should be employed to achieve the equivalence due to the linguistic differences existing inlanguages.He defined shifts as departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from source language to target language.Supported by the research results of linguistics,he divided shifts into level shifts and category shifts.Level shifts deal with shifts between grammar and lexis,while category shifts involve shifts departure from form and include structure shifts,class shifts,unit shifts and intra-system shifts.Catford's translation shift theory,systematic and applicable,is suitable to guide the translation of informative text.In this translation practice,the writer applied the translation method of shift and paid attention to shifts in lexis and grammar,sentence structures,parts of speech and shifts among words,phrases and sentences.This report finds that(1)translation shifts are unavoidable and necessary so as to adapt to the habits of target readers due to the comparatively huge differences between Chinese and English;(2)in the translation of specifications in engineering text,category shifts are more frequently used than level shifts due to the inner features of specifications and category shifts have proved to be very instructive in translating noun phrases and complicated sentences that are intertwined by plenty of information and it helps translators deliver more fluent and faithful target text after translators know linguistic differences between the source language and target language;(3)translators should know more knowledge about engineering and make sufficient preparations before translation since the translation of engineering text has a higher requirement on translators' competency.Through this translation practice,the writer concludes that Catford's translation shift theory is instrumental in guiding the translation of engineering text.However,the theory limits to the shifts in lexis and sentences,with shifts in paragraphs and discourses being ignored,which needs to be improved.This report has many deficiencies.As for the translation practice,the target text still needs to be polished and improved due to the limited capacity of the translator.The guiding theory,Catford's translation shift theory,limits its study to the level of sentences and ignores the shift of discourse,focusing on micro aspects but ignoring researches on macro aspects.In case study part,the writer just studied the typical examples and related analyses bear the subjectivity of the writer.Moreover,most of the references of the report were downloaded from CNKI,which means the writer needs to improve searching ability to find more quality articles and improve research level.Although this report has many deficiencies,the writer still hopes it can serve as reference for others and contribute to the development of translation research of China.