Translation Strategies For Inanimate Subjects In Social Science Texts From The Perspective Of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory

The translation material for this report is selected from Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test(hereinafter referred to as Deceitful Media)by Simone Natale.Drawing on research from the fields like communication,computer science and social psychology,Natale examines the development of Artificial Intelligence(AI)since the Turing Test,and explores the mechanisms of deception embedded in communicative AI systems and how they exert a subtle but everlasting influence on the development of human society.The book is written to call on people not to indulge in fantasies about the promise of AI,but to focus on the impact of AI technology on social life today.The book is a social science text whose language is plain and objective with a strong sense of logic.The translated excerpt in this report shows that there are a large number of sentences that are started by inanimate subjects.The inanimate subject,also known as the impersonal subject,is frequently used in English social science texts,thus making it one of the most prominent linguistic phenomena in such kind of text.In the same type of text in Chinese,however,it is much less used.In this case,how to deal appropriately with the translation of inanimate subjects in English-Chinese(E-C)translation poses a major challenge for the translator.Laying emphasis on readers’ responses,Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory is of guiding significance for the translation of social science texts,as it advocates that translators should not stick to the forms of the source text and should aim at the readability and fidelity of the target text.Therefore,the translator,under the guidance of this theory,examines the translation strategies for three types of inanimate subjects that appear frequently in the translation material,with a view to achieving a smooth and natural translation and helping readers of the translated text to understand the thoughts and ideas of the author.The translation practice report is divided into five chapters.The first chapter introduces the translation practice task,and the second chapter is a brief description of the translation process.In the third chapter,the translator elaborates on the theoretical framework of Functional Equivalence Theory and the linguistic phenomenon of the inanimate subject.In the fourth chapter,the translator classifies the typical inanimate subjects in the original text into three types,and analyzes from the perspective of functional equivalence the translation strategies for these different types of inanimate subjects,including cutting,conversion,inserting,embedding,amplification,synthesis,omission and inversion.And the final chapter draws a conclusion of this translation practice report from angles of findings and limitations.