A Report On E-C Translation Of The Cambridge Companion To Modern American Culture (Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Translation Shifts

With the development of globalization,foreign exchanges have become more and more significant.Understanding history will help us know more about a country and its culture.Seeking common ground while shelving differences we can reflect upon the past and look forward to the future.In this report,The Cambridge Companion to Modern American Culture(2008)is selected as the translation material.With each chapter written by specific experts in the field,it presents many aspects of American history.This book is an informative text written in logical and plain language with focus on facts.The purpose of historical texts is to convey real information.Translation requires fidelity,faithfulness and accuracy to the original text.This report is based on the analysis of the translation of the book.From perspective of Catford’s translation shifts theory,this report analyzes the differences in grammatical structure and expression habits between English and Chinese from lexical and syntactic levels and discusses the corresponding shifts strategies and skills.The translation shifts theory introduces level shifts and category shifts.Level shifts refer to the elements that are at the same language level,but their counterparts are at a different level.Category shifts depart from formal correspondence,which can be regarded as the shifts at the same language level.It can be further divided to structure shifts,class shifts,unit shifts and intra-system shifts.Among them,structure shifts are the most common form,which help translators better deal with the differences in sentence structure and logical sequence between Chinese and English.Class shifts occur when there are differences in the usage of vocabulary between English and Chinese.The use of unit shifts can break the structural constraint of long and complex English sentences,simplify the structure of the original text,and make it easier for Chinese readers to understand.Intra-system shifts refer to choosing a non-corresponding term in the target language system.If the corresponding words cannot be found in Chinese,it is necessary to find the most appropriate words to express the lexical meaning of the original text.Translation shifts theory provides theoretical support for translators in the process of translation and makes the translation more in line with Chinese expression habits.It is hoped that this report will provide references for E-C translation of historical texts and the study of translation shifts theory in the future.