History of Translation Theories

History of Translation Theories

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1 李瑞洋 Translation Theories of Contemporary China--from 1949 to Present

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_1

2 陈心怡

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_2

3 张扬 A Brief Introduction of Contemporary American Translation Theory——Examplified mainly by Pound

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_3

4 曾俊霖 An Overview of the Development of Western Translation Theories

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_4

5 张怡然 History of Translation Theories from early Russia to the Soviet Union

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_5

Key words

Translation theories, Translation ideas

6 殷美达

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_6

7 尹媛 A Brief Introduction of Contemporary American Translation Theory——Examplified mainly by Nida

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_8

1 Abstract

The contemporary American translation theory mainly consists of American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, and social semiotics translation school. American structural school of translation theory is based on the thoughts of American structuralist school; Nida, as the representative of Communicative theory school, thinks that translating is the a manner of communication and must regard the readers as the service object from the view of Social linguistics and communicative function of language; social semiotics translation school views language as a symbol phenomenon that cannot be ignored when it is explained and translated. Nida is the theorist who experienced these three periods and its theory and ideas saturate with a strong sense of their influence, therefore, this paper gives a brief introduction of the history of the contemporary American translation theory as exemplified by Nida's theory and other translators' theory.

2 Key words

History of American Translation Theories, Nida, American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, a social semiotics translation school

3 Introduction

The contemporary American translation theory mainly consists of American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, and social semiotics translation school. American structural school of translation theory is based on the thoughts of American structuralist school; Nida, as the representative of Communicative theory school, thinks that translating is the a manner of communication and must regard the readers as the service object from the view of Social linguistics and communicative function of language; social semiotics translation school views language as a symbol phenomenon that cannot be ignored when it is explained and translated. As is known to all, in China, Nida's translation theory is the most widely known and deeply impressed among contemporary Western translation theories. Professor Tan Jinxi rightly classifies Nida's translation thought into three different stages: first, descriptive linguistics. Second, the stage of communication theory. Third, the stage of social semiotics (Tan,132). Generally speaking, we can summarize Nida's linguistic thoughts and translation thoughts as follows :(1) Nida is a universalist of language, who insists that all languages are equally expressive. What is expressed in one language can be said in another. (2) Nida's translation theory has undergone a transition from the tendency that translation is science to that translation is art. (3) Nida's basic translation thoughts can be summed up in the following three sentences: Translation is a communicative activity. Translation is to translate connotation. In order to translate meaning, it is necessary to change the form of language expression. (4) When it coms to the nature of translation, Nida proposed the famous concept of "dynamic equivalence", which was later renamed as "functional equivalence". Nida is the theorist who experienced these three periods and its theory and ideas saturate with a strong sense of their influence, therefore, this paper gives a brief introduction of the history of the contemporary American translation theory as exemplified by Nida's theory and other translators' theory.

4 The Characteristics of American translation theory

There are some mainly characteristics in the contemporary American translation theory. First of all, serialization and systematization of literary translation is the distinct feature of theory. After the World War II, lots of books of translation emerged in many countries. In terms of the whole western translation industry, the scope, forms, scale and achievements of translation after the Second World War are unmatched in any period in the history of western translation. German translation theorist P. W. Jumpelt called the 20th century "The Age of Translation"(Tan Zaixi, 113). Research institutions and publishing houses vigorously made full use of human and material resources to translate, edit and publish various series of books, so as to compile and systematize the translation and publishing of western classics. Secondly, the scale of professional translation is unprecedented. Although western literary translation continued to flourish in the decades after the second World War, the 20th century has come to be known as the "Age of Translation" mainly because of its expansion into other fields. Thirdly, the translation organizations are everywhere. After the end of world War II, translators in western countries had mushroomed to establish various translation associations and set up various translation publications. Each association had its own purpose and purpose to carry out its work effectively. There were more translators' organizations in the United States than in any other western country. There were thirty organizations of translators of all sizes, among which the most well-known are the American Society of Translators, the American Federation of Linguists and the American Association of Literary Translators. Besides, machine translation developed rapidly during these years. The advent and development of machine translation is a remarkable event in the field of modern translation. The last one is that the translation works appeared one by one endlessly. American translators' works include

9 李双 History of translation theory of France from 20th century to the present

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_9

Abstract

 Translation activities have a long history in France and its theories occupy an important position in the West. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the emancipation of the mind, the progress of science and technology and the transformation of society have reinvigorated the study of French translation theory and entered its heyday. This paper first summarizes the development of French translation studies from the 20th century to the present, then discusses the main translation theories of this period from the perspectives of translation and interpretation, and analyzes the influence of the society and other disciplines on the formation of the theories. Finally, it aims to have a clearer and comprehensive understanding of the development of contemporary French translation theories.

10 杨堃 Translation Theories of modern China---from 1840 to 1949

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_10

Key words

Translation theories;the Westernization Group;the Reformation Group;the Revolution of 1911;the May fourth Movement

11 刘运心= History of Translation Theories in Ancient Rome

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_11

12 魏兆妍 The Development of Humanism Trend in Western Translation Theory

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_12

Abstract

(I'd like to write this when I finished the whole writing.)

Key words

Western translation theory, Humanism trend, Poetics of translation

1. Introduction

From the 14th century, Europe began to enter the Renaissance. Dante, the last poet in the middle ages, completed The Divine Comedy in 1321. In Dante's mind, all human life experience, including life and death, must be explained by Christian faith in order to show its meaning and significance. This Christian worldview gradually degenerated with the emergence of individualism-centered humanism. All beings who submit to God are regarded as rational, unique and creative individuals. In the past years, translators were servants attached to God. Now they have shifted from God to focusing on the translator. Personal development has become the goal and value of life. Although humanist thinkers, writers and translators still maintain the Christian faith, they put more emphasis on personal creative potential and give full play to people's strengths. The focus of translation activities in this period also shifted from the classics of the Christian Church to the translation of more secular humanistic works.

With the invention of printing in the 15th century, education and schools began to be open to the public. Reading translated works from different countries is no longer a noble enjoyment. Through the wings of translation, words and information are transmitted in all directions and more quickly. For example, Marco Polo (1254-1324) told the story of his travels in China, which spread all over the European continent through printed words. The invention of printing not only brought about a cultural revolution, but also a sharp increase in the number of translations. With the emergence of new disciplines, great changes have taken place in the function of translation. Translation is known as the forerunner of the Renaissance. It can be said that without translation, there would be no European Renaissance and humanistic thought. Take the role of translation in English literature for example: "Translation played a great role in the British Renaissance: first, as a pioneer, it was countless translated works that first caused the mental climate of humanism. Second, translation was still active in the era of the restoration of the king's government, but attention has turned to French works. In the intervening years, that is, in the half century from 1558 to 1603 when Queen Elizabeth was in office, translation activities were more frequent, and famous translations also appeared the most frequently, which constituted a translation climax in the whole history of English literature. " （王佐良、何其莘。英国文艺复兴时期文学史。北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1996年，第72页）In the Queen Elizabeth era, translation reached an unprecedented prosperity, and good translations of famous works continued to emerge. In the following 17th to 18th centuries, neoclassical literary translation surpassed the previous stage. Translation is particularly important to the development of modern English language, literature and culture.

In Europe, the writers, thinkers and scholars in this period were translators who knew several languages, translation and creation were closely linked. A large number of scholars and poets have expressed their opinions on translation. From the 14th to the 16th century, the most representative was Dante's "untranslatability of literature" in Italy (1265-1321); Erasmus of the Netherlands (1466 - 1536) relied on the translator's language knowledge in the translation of The Bible; The translation of German Luther (1482 - 1546) must adopt the language of the people; The translators in Dore’s mind (1509-1546) in France must understand the original content, be proficient in two languages, avoid word for word translation, adopt popular form and pay attention to the "five translation principles" of beautiful style; Poetry translation in English Chapman's(1559-1634) mind can not be stiff translation, and the poetry translation method of "rebuilding a new image" can be used.

From the 17th to the 19th century, the representative figures were as follows. Abranco of France: the translation method of “the beautiful unfaithful ones” which emphasized literariness and readability; Bartow (1731-1780) : accurate translation view of "the author is the master and the translator is the servant"; Dryden (1747-1841) of England: three translation principles of "literal translation, free translation and imitation translation"; Tytler (1747-1814): three translation principles of "the translation must completely reproduce the thought of the original work: the style and tone of the translation must be consistent with the characteristics of the original; the translation must be as smooth as the original." ; Humanistic thinker Herder (1744-1830) of German Romanticism: made a pioneering thinking on the language, nationality and the characteristics of relativism in translation. Goethe (1749-1832) of German: called the translator as "the prophet of the people"; Humboldt (1767-1835): expressed the views on translatability and untranslatability which had a great impact on the 20th century. The foreignization translation method of Schleiermacher (1768-1834) in the later stage has influenced the deconstructive translation theory of the 20th century. For the above representative figures and different translation views, due to the limitation of the length of the article, this paper will discuss some of the representatives according to the development sequence of the history of translation theory.

13 吴婧悦 History of Translation Theories in the Soviet Union

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_13

Key words

Translation theories, Western translation theories, Soviet Translation theories

14 杨爱江 History of Chinese Translation Theories in the Republic of China

Hist_Trans_Theo_EN_14

Abstract

Before and after the May Fourth Movement, there is an unprecedented cultural revolution in the field of ideology and culture, the New Culture Movement. The main purpose of this movement is to enlighten the public and spread advanced idea and culture. They translate many books which are written in foreign countries. The translation theories are developed gradually in this process. The aim of this paper is to give a systematic description and analysis about the translation theories raised by those famous writers, such as Lu Xun and Hu Shi. Then we will have a comprehensive understanding about the translation theories from 1911 to 1949.

Key words

Translation theories, the Republic of China, Translators

1. Introduction

The New Culture Movement is also an important milestone in the history of Chinese literature. The literature changes greatly from form to content in this period, surpassing the literary changes of any past era.With the vigorous development of the New Literature Movement, literary translation has also entered the most glorious period in the history of translation. The journal “New Youth” which was founded by Chen Duxiu translated and introduced many foreign literature works, so did other associations and journals.

During this period, literary translation had two significant characteristics: First, the May Fourth New Literature translation was another translation climax following the climax of translating Western works. In Comparison with the climax of translating Western works, fundamental changes have taken place in the number of translation works as well as the quality of these works. The important sign is that the leading forces of translation in this period are revolutionary writers such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, who are first-rate literary translators. Under the active advocacy and hard work of these people, Chinese literary translation has achieved extensive and in-depth development, forming a positive translation style. At the same time, a large number of outstanding professional translators emerged, such as Zhu Shenghao and Fu Lei. Second, in comparison with translation of other foreign countries’ literature works, Russian literature works’ translation dominates in the society. In addition, translating works about Marxism is another important aspect in that period.