A Report On The Translation Of American Massachusetts’ Jury Duty:You Make A Difference(Episodes 7,8,and 9 Of Season 2)

The jury system serves an important part of American legal system,showing the pursuit of justice and democracy in the United States.Jury Duty:You Make a Difference is an interview program introducing the jury system.An English-Chinese translation of this program will help people have a deeper understanding of the jury system.This thesis translates the transcript of the program into Chinese and makes a report on the English-Chinese translation practice.Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach is adopted to analyze the types of the original text and translation strategy.Snell Hornby’s integrated approach replaces sharp divisions between text types with the notion of gradual transition.From general language text to special language text,the communicative function of translation is gradually weakened while information function is gradually enhanced,which means the accuracy of translation is gradually improved while the space for re-creation of translation is gradually narrowed.The original text containing a large number of legal terms and the introduction and explanation of the jury system aims at conveying relevant legal information to the public.Therefore,the information function is the main function of the text,and the accuracy is the primary criterion for the translation.At the same time,as the language of the original text is plain with colloquial features,the translation should take its communicative function into consideration and should be properly recreated.As a consequence,this thesis concludes that the translation of this type of text should be based on semantic translation,supplemented by communicative translation.Under the guidance of semantic translation,such methods as syntactic linearity,terminology normalization and keeping the oral words are used to make the translation convey the legal information of the original faithfully and reproduce the style of the original.Under the guidance of communicative translation,methods like adjusting syntactic structure,adding cultural knowledge,omitting slips of the tongue,etal.are used to facilitate the understanding of the target language readers.It is hoped that the translation practice can provide reference for the translation of this type of text.This thesis approves and adopts the translation of a series of terms related to the jury system created or advocated by Hu Zhaoyun,hoping to popularize them,help domestic readers better understand the system,and provide reference for the reform of democracy and rule of law in China.