A Report On E-C Translation Of Contra Instrumentalism:a Translation Polemic(Excerpt)

The book of Contra Instrumentalism: A Translation Polemic by Venuti in2019 is an academic monograph.The length of academic monographs is generally relatively long,and they give in-depth and detailed discussions of complex issues.They are characterized by systematic discussion and mature views.This requires the translator to have basic knowledge of the content quoted in the article,and to infer the original author’s intention to bring a readable text to the target readers.Relevance theory regards translation as communication,introducing the ostensive-inferential communication model into translation studies and taking optimal relevance as the standard.According to relevance theory,language communication involves the speaker expressing their intentions to the hearer in a discourse based on their preferences,and the hearer selecting the most relevant known information on the basis of the given discourse and inferring the obtained information,thereby achieving the best contextual effect and success of communication.Therefore,under the guidance of relevance theory,this translator practices English Chinese translation of Contra Instrumentalism: A Translation Polemic.In this process,on the premise of recognizing that there are different social and cultural backgrounds between the source language and target language readers,the translation is adjusted according to the expression habits of the target language readers.The translator focuses on analyzing and summarizing the difficulties of the source text in terms of terms,literary allusions,figurative languages,long and complex sentences and using relevance theory to guide the translation practice,so that the translation can fully convey the original author’s information and communication intention,and enable the target language readers to obtain a reading experience similar to that of the original readers when reasoning and analyzing the translation.Specifically,in terms of terms,amplification is used.In terms of literary allusion,annotation is an ideal translation method to choose.As for figurative languages,free translation can be used to reproduce their essential information and give target reader an effect of optimal relevance.Last but not the least,conversion and reordering are conducive to solve the problems encountered in the translation of long and complex sentences.The English academic monograph has not yet been translated.The purpose of this paper is to spread Venuti’s thoughts in Contra Instrumentalism: A Translation Polemic,and to provide ideas for other translators to solve typical problems in the translation of academic monographs.