Translation Strategies Of Dashes In English-Chinese Translation

The dash is a commonly used punctuation in English and Chinese,functioning as an effective conjunctive device.Due to the different logico-semantic functions played by the dash in English and Chinese,as well as the syntactic differences and characteristics of the two languages,the translation of dashes is a challenging task.Simply reserving the dash in English-Chinese translation may lead to semantic losses and unpleasant reading experiences.Against such backgrounds,this report aims to explore the translation strategies of dashes based on a case study of The Anxious Mind:An Investigation into the Varieties and Virtues of Anxiety.The author of this book uses plenty of dashes in his arguments,which is a natural way to achieve cohesion in English academic writing,but poses great challenge to the translator.To accurately translate these dashes,the translator analyzes the conjunctive function of the dash in the source text first and then adopts proper translation strategies to reproduce the same semantic relation in Chinese.Halliday proposes three primary types and eight sub-types of logico-semantic relations in his conjunction system,which can be used as the analytical framework for classifying dashes in the source text.All of the 92 dashes in the source text are classified according to Halliday’s conjunction system and proper translation strategies are adopted based on the logico-semantic relation conveyed by each dash.This report selects 22 representative cases in the case analysis part to research on the major logico-semantic functions of dashes in this book and the proper strategies to translate them.The result shows that the majority of dashes in the source text convey the logico-semantic relation of elaboration,while cases of extension and enhancement are relatively limited.This report reveals the feasibility of using conjunction theory to guide the translation of dashes and may serve as a reference to similar translation practices.