A Report On E-C Translation Of Encyclopedia Of Movie Special Effects(excerpts)from The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

This paper is a report on E-C translation practice.The source text is excerpted from the book,Encyclopedia of Movie Special Effects,written by Patricia D.Netzley.This report majorly introduces the information in the special effects industry,in terms of technology,characters,films and other respects.The original text is an informative text,which requires that the translator should convey the information accurately and clearly.Proper nouns,technical words,and terminology appear frequently and they are difficult to understand,bringing obstacles to the whole practice.The translator selects Skopos theory as the main theoretical basis with the assistance of skopos rule,fidelity rule and coherence rule,to refine the Chinese translation,so as to ensure that the target text is faithful,idiomatic and concise.Based on the translation practice,this report takes Skopos theory as the guidance to solve those encountered problems at lexical,syntactic and textual levels.At lexical level,it concentrates on the translation of proper nouns,technical words,terminology and numerals.In this part,literal translation,free translation and annotation are employed to cope with difficulties.At syntactic level,passive sentences and long difficult sentences are properly rendered with the aid of certain techniques like conversion,division,amplification,and omission.At textual level,personal reference and substitution are adopted to clarify the internal logic of the text and polish a natural Chinese version.For the translator,the practice is beneficial to deepen the comprehension of Skopos theory,informative text and knowledge of movie special effects,with further efforts taken to accumulate the experience of such translation activity.