A Report On The E-C Translation Of Amish Society (Chapters 7-8) From The Perspective Of Translation Compensation Theory

Amish Society is a book about the history,culture,and education of the ethnic group Amish in America.Sociologists predicted that once the peculiar Amish traditions lost their vitality,they would be quickly assimilated by the popular culture.Unexpectedly,the Amish population has been much larger than it in 1950,while the rate of assimilation has not changed significantly.Their survival wisdom is inspiring for China which is striving to build cultural confidence.Only by cherishing and inheriting traditional culture and maintaining the vitality of it can Chinese truly achieve cultural confidence.The source text of this translation report is selected from the seventh and eighth chapters of the book concerning the family and education of the Amish people.Due to the cultural and language differences between Chinese and English,translation losses are inevitable.In order to make up for these losses and bring a better reading experience to Chinese readers,this report demonstrates the translation compensation theory and adopts various techniques under the guidance of three compensation principles proposed by Xia Tingde as the theoretical framework,namely,the principle of demand,the principle of the same function and the principle of relation,and analyzes the application of translation compensation with specific examples.Through analysis,this paper draws the following conclusions: firstly,the principle of demand takes into account losses of the original text,readers in target language and norms of target language.Under this principle,the translator(also the author)of the report makes use of techniques such as shift of perspective,amplification,paraphrase,and explicitation to add extra information and help readers in target language correctly understand the original text.Secondly,the principle of the same function allows the translator to use a language form or rhetorical device which is different from that in the original text in order to achieve the same function as the original.Adaptation,explicitation and in-text annotation are used to reach the same or similar functions as those in the original text.Thirdly,the principle of relation ensures the relevance of the compensation content.The translator of this report applies two methods of footnote and in-text annotation to provide further information for readers in target language and assist them in comprehending the original text and Amish culture more deeply.