Translation Quality Assessment Of The Railway Children Based On PACTE Translation Competence Model

The Railway Children,as a classic children’s novel by Edith Nesbit,a famous writer of children’s literature in England,has been translated into dozens of languages for more than 100 years and is loved by people all over the world.According to incomplete statistics,there are more than 20 translated versions in China.However,there is a lack of research on the translation of The Railway Children.This thesis takes the PACTE translation competence model as the theoretical framework,combines it with the regulation of “child-orientation” that ought to be followed in the translation of children’s literature,and explores the translation errors in the four Chinese versions of The Railway Children cased by the lack of translators’ sub-competences.The Chinese versions in this thesis are Cui Meng’s translation（2016）,Dai Guangnian’s translation（2016）,Ren Rongrong’s translation（2018）,and Yu Qing’s translation（2015）.These four versions are recently published and representative.Chapter One introduces the research background,research questions and significance,research methodology,and structure of the thesis.Chapter Two reviews studies on the translation of children’s literature,the translation of The Railway Children,and translation quality assessment.Chapter Three provides the theoretical basis of this research and details the PACTE translation competence model and its application.Chapter Four begins with a brief introduction to The Railway Children and the four Chinese versions,and applies the PACTE translation competence model as a theoretical framework to compare and analyze the translation errors and the lack of relevant sub-competences of the translators in the four Chinese versions of The Railway Children.Chapter Five contains the conclusion.The result reflects that Ren Rongrong’s version has the fewest translation errors and a higher quality compared to the other three,and he has a relatively stronger bilingual competence and knowledge of translation competence.The errors in Cui Meng’s and Yu Qing’s versions mainly stem from the failure to recognize the meaning and the choice of inappropriate methods in translation.In addition,Yu Qing’s translation even exaggerates or deepens the meaning expressed in the original.Dai Guangnian’s errors mainly come from the change in the sentence structure of the original and the addition of meaning,which affect the fidelity of the translation and cause misinterpretation by the reader.At the same time,the translation of the original by Dai Guangnian is not meticulous,and there are a lot of omissions in the translation,which affect the reader’s understanding.This reflects the three translators’ lack in bilingual sub-competence and knowledge of translation sub-competence.What’s more,extra-linguistic sub-competence and instrumental sub-competence need to be strengthened by all these four translators.