A Report On The E-C Translation Of Complex Sentences In The Language Of The Inuit From The Perspective Of Communicative Translation Theory

The Language of the Inuit is a work on Inuit anthropology.The book describes in detail the language features of the Eskimo-Aleut and the types,regional distribution,and usage of dialects within it.The translation of this book can help domestic general readers to better understand the history,current situation and future development of Inuit languages in the Arctic region.As there is no official translation of the book,the author has made it the task of this translation and chose chapter 9 as the translation content of this report for analysis and discussion.Chapter 9 of the book is full of long complex sentences.Long complex sentences,if not translated correctly,can easily create obstacles to readers’ understanding.Thus,the thesis focuses on the translation of long complex sentences in Chapter 9 of The Language of the Inuit.There are too many English modifiers in long and complex sentences,and there are too many related words and clauses,which are easy to be misunderstood by readers.In the translation of such sentences,it is easy to fail to take into account the differences in Chinese and English word order,leading to illogical translation.Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory emphasizes that the translation attempts to make the target readers to obtain the similar reading experience as the source language readers.Thus,communicative translation can help readers overcome the difficulty of understanding long sentences,make the translation more fluent,concise and clear,and eliminate the reading obstacles of the translation.Guided by the communicative translation theory,the author mainly adopts six translation techniques: sequencing,cutting,embedding,inserting,reversing and splitting.The author primarily employs the sequencing and cutting techniques when translating long complex sentences with noun clauses to prevent translation inaccuracies caused by sentence-cutting errors and to use short sentences that are more in line with the reading habits of the target language readers.The author predominantly uses the embedding and inserting techniques when translating long complex sentences with attributive clauses to make the translation compact and logical.By adopting reversing and splitting techniques when translating long complex sentences with adverbial clauses,the word order is more in line with Chinese expression habits,and the readability is greatly improved.When translating the above types of long complex sentences,the translator uses appropriate translation techniques to make the translation more accurate,logical,readable,and acceptable to the general Chinese readers.The research shows that Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory plays a strong guiding role in the translation of long complex sentences in informative texts,and this study can serve reference for the future translation of long complex sentences in similar texts.