The Treatment Of Punctuations In E-C Translation

The Age of Shakespeare is a collection of critical essays by Algernon Charles Swinburne,a well-known English poet.The book discusses the respective features and achievements of nine poets who lived during the same time as William Shakespeare and makes a stimulating and profound survey on the development of drama during the Elizabethan and Jacobean England.The book is of great literary and academic value and is well worth translating into Chinese.This text is one of literary criticism.The sentences are complex,subtle,and quite difficult to understand.The punctuations in text often presents difficulty and make interesting issues for discussion in terms of their treatment in translation.For those dashes,colons and semicolons,as well more commonly used commas and full stops,not only play a role in connecting sentences,but also imply specific tones and emotions.So far,serious studies on how to deal with punctuations in English-Chinese translation,at home and abroad,have still been inadequate.Therefore,the present report aims to cope with the problem,using Skopos theory as the analytical framework,on the basis of the above-said translation project.Skopos theory,as the core of functionalist translation theory,underlines the aim of text translation and lays stress on the communicative function of translation.According to the classification suggested by Kathatine Reiss,a scholar of Skopos theory,the text belongs to the expressive type,whose function in translation is to convey information and the artistic form of the original text.Thus,based on the usage of Chinese and English punctuations,the author tries to analyze the treatment of the three kinds of punctuations—dashes,colons and semicolons—in the text from the perspective of Skopos theory,which is intended to improve the overall quality of the translation.Based on analysis of translation project,the author sorts out three methods of dealing with dashes,colons,and semicolons: retention,transformation,and addition plus transformation.This report consists of six chapters.Chapter One presents an overview,the main content and the significance of the translation project.Chapter Two describes the three stages of the translation project.Chapter Three is the theoretical part,which mainly presents the development and the basic ideas of Skopos theory.Chapter Four compares the usage of English and Chinese punctuations.Chapter Five provides case studies.The author attempts to use the three rules drawing from Skopos theory to deal with dashes,colons and semicolons in the text.The last chapter summarizes the gains and shortcomings of the project.