Explicitation In Translating Historical Text

Although universally exists in translation,explicitation was first put forward as an academic theory by Vinay and Darbelnet in 1958,defined as the phenomenon of making the obscure information in the source text more explicit in the target text.In the past several decades,explicitation has already drawn the interest of many scholars around the world.Before the emergence of corpus,scholars mainly focused on the definition and classification of explicitation.After the emergence of corpus,many scholars started to testify the strategy of explicitation with the help of it.This report discussed explicitation in translating historical texts,taking the translation of Chapter Nine of These Truths:A History of the United States,a political history book written by Jill Lepore,to do a case study.The text is informative,aiming at conveying information.Therefore,the translator needs to attach much significance to accuracy and coherence,helping target language readers accept the information that the writer wants to convey and understand the text as thoroughly as possible.In this process,explicitation is a very useful strategy.This report adopts case study as the main method.All the samples are selected from Chapter Nine of These Truths,falling into three categories put forward by Klaudy:obligatory explicitation,optional explicitation and pragmatic explicitation(2004:82-83).After the translation and analysis,this report tries to conclude the methods of explicitation in translating historical texts,including adding words or notes,and adjusting the order of words.However,there is no strategy or method that is universally correct.Translator should adapt different methods depending on different texts.