Application Of Translation Shift Theory In The Translation Of Long And Complicated Sentences

Long sentences in English academic texts are one of the difficult problems in English-Chinese translation practice.Human Rights,Culture,and the Rule of Law is an academic work that frequently uses long and complicated sentences.In the translation process,the author finds that Catford’s translation shift theory can provide effective help for translating these long and difficult sentences.The translation methods referred to in the translation shift theory can be summarized as level shifts and category shifts,and the latter can be subdivided into structural shifts,class shifts,unit shifts and intra-system shifts.Therefore,the author tries to use translation shift theory to guide the translation of long and complicated sentences.Firstly,the author studies the translation of long and complicated sentences and Catford’s translation theory.Secondly,according to Catford’s translation shift theory,the author uses translation methods such as structural shifts,unit shifts and comprehensive shifts to deal with long and complicated sentences,and effectively solves problems such as the division of composition and integration of long and complicated sentences.For long and complicated sentences which can be translated from English to Chinese only by adjusting the word order,the author adopts structural shifts.For those with complicated components and many clauses,the author adopts unit shifts.For those that cannot be effectively translated with a single method,the author adopts a variety of translation methods to ensure the quality of the translation.Finally,based on the practice,the author finds that in order to achieve the maximum possible equivalence between the source text and the target language,the translator should not only flexibly apply the translation shift theory for translating long and complicated sentences,but also need to consider textual influence on the translation.