A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Understanding Media Semiotics(Excerpt)

In this project,the book Understanding Media Semiotics(second edition)by Marcel Danesi,a Canadian semiotician,was selected for translation.It is also the first time that the series of Understanding Media Semiotics has been rendered into Chinese.The translation of this book into Chinese adds to the field of media semiotics a generally detailed academic book covering almost all existing media today.Quotations and examples abound in the original text,with an approach to semiotics and media phenomena in a chronological manner,and thus echoes throughout texts are frequently identified and the use of articulation is essential.In view of this,the use of cohesion theory analyzes the differences between languages at a more microscopic level and presents a more direct picture of the language shift process.This report analyzes how cohesive devices can affect the output of translation during the process,and how they can be appropriately restored from English to Chinese,starting from the devices of conjunction,reference,ellipsis and substitution,as proposed by Halliday and Hassan.Through case analysis,this report draws a conclusion of desirable methods and steps to approach translation from the perspective of cohesion theory and summarizes translation strategies including integration,restoration and omission.Finally,this report also summarizes the limitations of this translation project and proposes corresponding solutions,hoping to provide inspiration for translators in their future practice and work,and improve the quality of translation,with expectations that the application of cohesion theory to the translation practice of academic books on semiotics can provide some reference for similar studies in the future.