A Study Of Translation Strategies Of News Reports On COVID-19 Pandemic Under The Guidance Of Skopos Theory

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic can be regarded as the longest,most widespread,and most influential public health event in recent years.It has had a huge impact on global politics,economy,education,and social interaction.Governments and people all over the world today attach great importance to it.To win the battle against the pandemic,domestic readers need to know the pandemic situation at home and abroad as well as the relevant data and information in time.Therefore,accurate translation and timely dissemination of news reports on COVID-19 pandemic is particularly important.In 2020,The Atlantic published a series of news reports on COVID-19 pandemic written by Ed Yong,which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.Therefore,this thesis selects two news reports on COVID-19 pandemic from Ed Yong’s award-winning news series as translation texts so as to provide reference and experience for the domestic fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.Skopos theory advocates that different translation strategies should be adopted according to specific translation purposes,and the skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule should be conformed to at the same time.On the basis of fully understanding the theoretical connotation and rules of Skopos theory,and systematically analyzing the textual features of the original text,the author decided to explore effective translation strategies of news reports on COVID-19 pandemic under the guidance of Skopos theory,through which the translated text can faithfully reproduce the style and features of the original text,conform to the expression habits of the target language,and convey the information of COVID-19 pandemic to the target readers accurately,smoothly and naturally,thus realizing the purpose of this translation.In the process of translating two news reports on COVID-19 pandemic,the author finds that under the guidance of Skopos theory,different translation strategies,methods and techniques can be flexibly used to effectively achieve the translation purpose,so that the translated text can faithfully convey the original information and reflect the textual style.Under the guidance of skopos rule,domestication strategy is flexibly adopted.The specific methods and techniques include: using amplification to deal with some abbreviations and proper nouns,flexibly using four-character phrases,and adopting repetition properly to emphasize some key words,phrases or sentences.Under the guidance of coherence rule,domestication strategy is adopted,including division of compound sentences,modification of long difficult sentences and conversion of passive sentences.Under the guidance of fidelity rule,foreignization strategy is adopted flexibly,including zero translation of some abbreviations,transliteration of some people’s names and some proper names about viruses,and copying the tree structure in some parts of the news report.It is hoped that this thesis can provide some new samples and ideas for the application of Skopos theory and related research,and at the same time,provide reference for the translation practice of news reports on COVID-19 pandemic and related research.