A Report On The C-E Translation Of A Research On The Birth Culture Of Ethnic Groups In Southwest China (Excerpts)

This translation report is formed based on the C-E translation of the fourth chapter of A Research on the Birth Culture of Ethnic Groups in Southwest China which is written by Dr.Yangzhuhui,a professor from Minzu University of China.The fourth chapter mainly introduces how much knowledge of pregnancy people from ethnic groups in Southwest China know about,where the new life comes from and what the customs of pregnancy and birth are for more than twenty ethnic groups including Dong,Yao,and Yi in Southwest China.The source text is plain in language,clear and general in wording,At lexical level,there are culture-loaded expressions and four-character expressions;at syntactic level,Chinese hypothetical sentences enrich the source text;at discourse level,cohesion and coherence are achieved through reiteration,discourse markers and transitional sentences;at rhetorical level,parallelism and quotation make the source language more vivid,expressive and convincing.Based on the analysis of the features of the source text,Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory is adopted by the translator as the guiding theory.Under the guidance,the translator focuses on the analysis of the difficulties in Chinese-English translation from four aspects: lexis,syntax,discourse and rhetoric.Meanwhile,these difficulties are mainly solved through free translation,literal translation,transliteration,addition,omission,splitting,annotation and footnote.Under the guidance of Newmarks’ communicative translation theory,the translator focuses on the readability,acceptability and communicability in the translation process.The translator expects this translation practice to be: a new reading material for the target readers to know more about the customs of pregnancy and birth of ethnic groups in Southwest China;a new reference to relevant translation of the birth culture;a new perspective for the research on the birth culture of ethnic groups in Southwest China.