A Report On The E-C Translation Of The History Book América (Chapter12-20) From The Perspective Of Text Typology Theory

History books serve as the carrier of history and culture.Their E-C translation plays a crucial role in helping Chinese people gain a more profound understanding of western history.Therefore,it is vital to carry out E-C translation of history books to assist people in overcoming language obstacles and better understanding western history.The history book América narrates the colonizing history of the Spanish empire in North America between 1493 and 1898,from the establishment of colonies to their decline and loss.This book was characterized by the conveyance of objective historical facts and masses of terms and numerous long and complex sentences,which required the translator to effectively express the historical information and handle the terms and long and complex sentences properly.Peter Newmark classified texts into three major types: informative,expressive and vocative texts,and he proposed the two concepts of semantic translation and communicative translation.Numerous scholars have conducted translation studies in various fields by applying the Text Typology Theory.This study is conducted under the guidance of Peter Newmark’s Text Typology Theory,mainly his semantic translation and communicative translation,through literature research,case analysis,empirical summary and descriptive research.The present author aims to figure out what translation difficulties a translator may face when carrying out an E-C translation practice of a history book and what translation methods and techniques he or she may adopt to handle these problems.The author concluded that a translator might be faced with the following difficulties when carrying out an E-C translation of history books: a lot of terms,some culture-loaded words and polysemous words(words with multiple meanings)at the lexical level,inanimate subject sentences and plenty of long and complex sentences at the syntactical level and natural cohesion and coherence at the discoursal level.To approach these problems,the translator may utilize various dictionaries and online databases to render the terms and polysemous words considering the context.In terms of long and complex sentences,it is advised to mostly adopt the literal translation method and the division translation technique to handle them.However,free translation,including paraphrase and idiomatic translation,is preferred in situations where cultural differences exist to help readers to understand the sentence meaning and ensure good readability.Besides,the translator can use the shift translation technique to deal with inanimate subject sentences.Finally,such methods as reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjuncture and lexical cohesion can be used to achieve better cohesion.Adjusting the word order or supplementing necessary information can help to achieve coherence.This study is conducted hoping to provide references for translators carrying out similar E-C translation practices of history books.