A Multidimensional Approach To The Translation Of Current Political Terms In The Case Of Xi Jinping:The Governance Of China

National discourse is an external manifestation of a country’s ideology and knowledge system,and also a symbol of its soft power.Current political terms,a vital component of national discourse,represent some key concepts in political documents and embody the core ideas of state leaders in dealing with domestic and foreign affairs.Xi Jinping: The Governance of China(Volume Three)is an authoritative book for providing the outside world with a comprehensive understanding of the XiJinping on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.The book represents a collection of important concepts and novel ideas on state governance proposed by President Xi Jinping.Therefore,the translation of current Chinese political terms is critical for the international community to acquire an accurate understanding of China in general and its political ideas in particular and moreover plays an indispensable part in constructing a typically Chinese political discourse system.However,due to differences in culture,history,politics,and ideology between China and western countries,the meanings and connotations of current Chinese political terms,when translated into foreign languages,are likely to change to some extent.In fact,terminology translation is not simply a process of word transformation,but a process of knowledge communication across different languages.Therefore,when translating current Chinese political terms into the target language,translators should possess terminological awareness in the first place and interpret the terms from the perspective of terminology,and then conduct a comprehensive analysis of the terms,including their core connotations and communicative effects of their translations.Utilizing a range of methods such as literature research,contrastive analysis,and case studies,this thesis adopts a multidimensional approach(that is,cognitive,linguistic,and communicative)to study these particular aspects of the process involved in the translation of current Chinese political terms.On the cognitive front,the thesis starts with the concept of terms and analyzes the cognitive differences that may exist between current Chinese political terms and their English translations,finding that there are different degrees of equivalence between Chinese and foreign concepts,namely full equivalence,partial equivalence,and zero equivalence;on the linguistic front,it analyzes the differences in the designation of terms between the source language and the target language,and studies the linguistic problems of translating or reproducing current Chinese political terms;and on the communicative front,it studies the communicative process involved in the translation of current Chinese political terms through recourse to Jakobson’s communication model.It can be concluded that conceptual equivalence,terminological equivalence,and political equivalence can be simultaneously achieved by taking the three components into full consideration in real-world contexts of translation.Such findings may provide a useful frame of reference for further research into Chinese terminology translation and also for the construction of an international communicative system of Chinese political discourse.