translation investigation and that more and more scholars come into this field. The author is looking forward to the emergence of more mature and perfect studies of financial news translation.
Key Words: Skopostheorie, translation methods
financial news translation, translation principles, VI
Contents
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................I 摘要.................................................................................................................................II Abstract .......................................................................................................................... IV Chapter One Introduction.................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Necessity of Financial News Translation Study .......................................................... 1 1.2 The Aim of the Study of Financial News Translation ......................................................... 2 1.3 Structure of the Thesis................................................................................................... 3 Chapter Two Literature Review ........................................................................................... 5 2.1 An Overview on Skopostheorie ...................................................................................... 5
2.1.1 The Development of Skopostheorie ....................................................................... 5 2.1.2 Three Rules of Skopostheorie ............................................................................... 7
2.1.2.1 The Skopos Rule ....................................................................................... 7 2.1.2.2 The Intratexual Rule .................................................................................. 8 2.1.2.3 The Intertexual Rule .................................................................................. 8 2.1.2.4 The Relationship of the Three Rules ............................................................ 9 2.1.3 Comments on the Skopostheorie ........................................................................... 9 2.1.4 The Application of Skopostheorie to Financial News Translation ............................ 10 2.2 An Overview on News Translation.................................................................................11 2.3 An Overview on Financial News Translation .................................................................. 12 Chapter Three Features of English Financial News............................................................... 14 3.1 Features of Headlines ............................................................................................... 14
3.1.1 Omission ......................................................................................................... 15
3.1.2 Replacing Long Words with Short Words ............................................................ 16 3.1.3 Unique Use of Tenses........................................................................................ 17 3.1.4 Using of Rhetorical Devices ............................................................................... 18 3.2 Features of Bodies ................................................................................................... 20
3.2.1 Features of Vocabulary ................................................................................... 20
3.2.1.1 The Emerging of Neologism ..................................................................... 20 3.2.1.2 Using Proper Noun .................................................................................. 21 3.2.1.3 Terminologies and Jargons ....................................................................... 22 3.2.1.4 Using Vivid Verbs................................................................................... 23 3.2.1.5 Abbreviation........................................................................................... 23 3.2.2 Features of Sentences...................................................................................... 24
3.2.2.1 Using Extended Simple Sentences ............................................................. 24 3.2.2.2 Using Contrastive Sentences ..................................................................... 25 3.2.2.3 Using Quotations..................................................................................... 25 3.2.3 Features of Language ...................................................................................... 27
3.2.3.1 Serious and Humorous Language Features.................................................. 27
3.2.3.2 Concise and Complex Language Features ................................................... 29 3.2.3.3 Accurate and Vague Language Features ..................................................... 30
VII
Chapter Four Translation Principles of Financial News under the Guidance of Skopostheorie .... 32 4.1 The Principle of Loyalty .................................................................. 错误！未定义书签。 4.1.1 The Loyalty Principle Used in the Translation of Headlines.................................... 32
4.1.2 The Loyalty Principle Used in the Translation of Bodies ........................................ 35
4.1.2.1 Being Loyal to the Contents...................................................................... 35 4.1.2. 2 Being Loyal to the Tone………………………………………………………..36 4.2 The Principle of Accuracy............................................................................................ 37
4.2.1 The Accurate Principle Used in the Translation of Terminology.............................. 38 4.2.2 The Accurate Principle Used in the Translation of Numbers ................................... 39 4.2.3 The Accurate Principle Used in the Translation of Expressions ............................... 39 4.3 The Principle of Popularities ........................................................................................ 40
4.3.1 Popularity Principle for News by Using Some Devices .......................................... 41 4.3.2 Popularity Principle for News of Plain Language .................................................. 43 Chapter Five Basic Translation Methods of Financial News under Skopostheorie........................45 5.1 Translation Methods of Financial News Headlines .......................................................... 45
5.1.1 Omission of Redundant Words ........................................................................... 45
5.1.2 Addition of Necessary Words ............................................................................. 46 5.1.3 Adaption.......................................................................................................... 47 5.1.4 Using Rhetorical Devices ................................................................................... 49 5.2 Translation Methods of Financial News Bodies .............................................................. 50
5.2.1 Transference .................................................................................................... 50 5.2.2 Transliteration .................................................................................................. 52 5.2.3 Literal Translation............................................................................................. 52 5.2.4 Free Translation................................................................................................ 54 5.3 The Translation of Quotations ...................................................................................... 59 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 62 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 64
VIII
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 The Necessity of Financial News Translation Study
With the rapid development of technology and economy, news is becoming an important tool for mass-communication. It plays an irreplaceable part in our daily life. Nowadays, news does not just refer to paper news, it also includes TV news, radio news, and on-line news. The news media try to report the latest news in the world to satisfy the needs of various readers.
News can be divided into soft news (which tries to report something humorous, interesting, such as sport news) and hard news (which aims at informing readers of something serious, such as political news and financial news). Of all kinds of news, financial news occupies an outstanding position. A survey of China Daily shows the importance of financial news: 86 news articles are chosen at random, 46 of which are related to financial news. Chunfeng Zheng, a reporter from Nangfang Daily once said: in the next 15 years or further, financial news will take a more and more important position in both China and aboard. Financial news covers wide areas from governments‘ policies to citizens‘ daily life.
Financial news aims at transmitting economic information and covering financial events with rapidity and accuracy. Financial news is closely related to economy which concerns the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Simply speaking, financial news is the report of the latest issues linked directly or indirectly to economy.
Learning financial news, for persons, can help them closely follow the whole community and society rather than get isolated or lag behind. For countries, only when they are well-informed of the latest financial news in the world can they make good policies for developments, and can they become successful in the fierce world competitions.
Because there are many different languages in the world, it is very common for us to encounter language barriers which have bad influences on the transfer of
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financial news. Due to some historical reasons, most of the financial news is written in English, and it is very unequal for readers of non-English speaking countries. The only way to solve this problem is the translation of financial news. But financial news is different from soft news which is easy to raise people‘s interests. Financial news sometimes is uninteresting and even dull. Besides, people have not realized the significance of financial news translation. Because of the above reasons, few scholars engage in the study of this field.
Nevertheless, financial news translation is so important that it is time for us to do some research in this field.
1.2 The Aim of the Study of Financial News Translation
From the above arguments we realize the significance and the urgency of the study of financial news translation. This thesis intends to make an overall study of the English-Chinese financial news translation. As we all know, the main function of news, including financial news, is to inform readers of some information. However, it is very common for us to run into such a situation: something which is very easy for source language readers, may be unfamiliar to target language readers. The financial news which provides readers with economic information requires translators to reproduce as much information as possible. Only in this way can the target language readers get the same information as the source language readers do.
Furthermore, recently, the competitions between news media are very intense. For media, an urgent thing is to increase the number of readers. Financial news, which belongs to hard news, is very serious. It includes so many financial terms that sometimes readers may think it is too dull to read. In order to solve this problem and arouse the interests of common readers, the reporters of English financial news sometimes use some skills (such as rhetorical device, humorous languages, vivid description) to add flavor to the news. So the task of translators is not only to reproduce the financial news with the same information, but also to attract readers by adopting some special methods.
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