A Report On English-Chinese Translation Of Long Sentences In The Verdict Of Whole Woman’s Health V.Jackson

Taking Skopos Theory as the theoretical framework,this report provides a Chinese translation of the Whole Woman’s Health v.Jackson verdict,which was written by the U.S.Federal Supreme Court.The verdict consists of three main parts: a summary of the case,the court’s opinion,and the judge’s dissenting opinion,and discusses whether the plaintiff abortion provider can challenge the defendant Texas court judge’s enforcement of the law.In addition to the strict and authoritative characteristics,the verdict includes a large number of long sentences.According to the characteristics of the verdict and the function of the translated text in the context,this report follows Vermeer’s three rules of Skopos Theory to find the translation strategies and methods suitable for each kind of legal long sentences,i.e.,attributive clause,adverbial clause,passive clause,and sentences with inanimate subjects are found out.According to the Skopos Theory,the purpose of translation determines the whole translation behavior.Therefore,this paper takes “skopos rule” as the primary principle,and integrates various translation methods and strategies,such as reorganization and conversion method,to realize the communicative function of the translated text.Meanwhile,to convey the mandatory and normative contents of the original judgment,“fidelity rule” is followed in the process of translation.Methods of direct translation and translating without changing the structure of the original text as much as possible are used to realize the unity of the content and style of the translation and the original text.Moreover,taking into account the “coherence rule”,the translation strategies such as sub-translation and comprehensive method are adopted to achieve intra-linguistic coherence and make the translation readable and acceptable.This translation practice proves the applicability of the Skopos Theory to the translation of legal texts,and aims to explore the translation methods and translation strategies of long sentences in legal texts,so as to provide reference meaning for the translation of similar texts.