A Report On E-C Translation Of Collaborative Translation:From The Renaissance To The Digital Age(Excerpts)

This report is a case study on the E-C translation of the book — Collaborative Translation : From the Renaissance to the Digital Age which mainly introduces the collaborative translation practice during the period of Renaissance,and analyzes the complex relationship between the author and the translator as well as the influence of the evolution of technology and environment on the translator in the digital age.This book is an academic monograph with remarkable linguistic features: various nominalized structures,frequent use of passive structures,many long difficult compound sentences and so on.Based on systemic grammar of M.A.K.Halliday and his classification of levels of language,J.C.Catford put forward the translation shifts theory where he defined shifts as “the departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the source language to the target language”.Catford’s translation shifts theory highlights textual equivalence rather than formal equivalence with the characteristics of operability,comprehensiveness,and cleanness in classification.This report has examined various shifts occurring in the translation process under the guidance of translation shifts theory.The differences in linguistic features and thinking modes between English and Chinese have been taken into consideration,and specific patterns of each shift used by the translator in the practices have been elaborated.There are four types of shifts: level shifts,structure shifts,class shifts and unit shifts.In this E-C translation report,shifts occur from grammar to lexis level such as shifts of tenses and shifts of singular & plural forms.Structure shifts mainly involve the change of grammatical structure,which is commonly seen in the transformation between passive voices and active voices,postpositive attributives and prepositive attributives.Changes in part of speech are regarded as class shifts,for example,shifts from nouns or nominal phrases to verbs or verbal phrases,or from prepositions to verbs.Unit shifts usually occur between phrases and clauses,and between sentences and groups of sentences.With the features,functions,and applications of each shift discussed,the report provides the specific classification reference for the issues of translation shifts,aiming to help the translators to get rid of the constraints of forms and to improve the coherence and acceptability of translated texts on the basis of the precise transfer of message.