A Report On The Translation Of Good Arguments (Excerpts) In Light Of Chesterman’s Theory Of Translation Norms

Debate is an art that permeates all aspects of life.Whether it is an argument in daily communication or a professional debate,the corresponding debating methods and skills are indispensable.Only by understanding the appropriate techniques of debates can one become a good debater.Therefore,the translation of books related to debate is of high research value.This translation report selects the practice of English to Chinese translation of Good Arguments by Bo Seo,former coach of the Australian National Debate Team and Harvard University Debate Union,as the research object and summarizes how the author follows the expectancy norms and professional norms and adopts corresponding general and specific strategies to produce the best version of the translation that meets the publication requirements under the guidance of Chesterman’s theory of translation norms.Chesterman divides translation norms into expectancy norms and professional norms,the latter of which is further divided into the accountability norms,communication norms and relation norms.The translator applies the norm theory to this translation practice.First,the translator follows expectancy norms,striving for vividness in the translation and adopting domestication as a general strategy to meet the reader’s expectation.Next,the translator realizes the accountability norms by adding annotation and review and proofreading before forming the final version of translation.Third,the translator realizes the communication norms by understanding the source text accurately and eliminating the cultural lumps.Finally,the translator adopts different translation strategies to realize the relation norms and produces a satisfying translation that is syntactically,semantically and pragmatically compliant with publication requirements.