A Report On The Translation Of Locking Up Our Own:The Crime And Punishment In African America(Excerpt) From The Perspective Of Catford’s Theory Of Translation Shifts

This report is an English-Chinese translation practice project.The translated material comes from the second chapter of Locking Up Our Own: The Crime and Punishment in African America written by James Foreman Jr.The book is a non-fiction work about the American judicial system,telling the historical roots of the American judicial system and the damages black Americans suffered,when an era of mass incarceration came.Under the guidance of Catford’s translation shifts theory,the translator takes Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in African America as the source text and analyzes the guiding role of this theory in the translation.After analyzing the features of the source language and understanding the research status of Catford’s translation shifts theory and its application,the translator attempts to focus on the level shifts and category shifts which include the structural shifts,class shifts,unit shifts and intra-system shifts,to study the significant practical guidance of Catford’s translation theory.The translator detailedly summarizes the guiding significance of Catford’s translation theory about the translation of law-related text via case study,which proves the application of this theory.Through this translation practice,the translator has found that the guiding role of Catford’s translation theory in the translation of such text type is mainly reflected in the following aspects: the translation of plurals,passive voice,complex sentences,various parts of speech without losing the meaning of the source language,language unit;minor terms and metaphors,with the departure from formal correspondence.It is not difficult to see that Catford’s translation theory has practical guidance over language units,especially grammar,words,sentences,etc.,improving the accuracy and readability.During the course of translation,the translator mainly adopts the translation techniques of amplification and omission.