翻译课程论文

Semantic translation and Communicative translation

Peter Newmark was the well-known translator and theorist. He absorbed the experience summed by predecessors and research production. Meanwhile ,he linked his practice in t with the previous theory to publish a book whose name was approaches to translation in t in 1981.In this famous book, Newmark advanced two new translation methods which were semantic translation and communicative translation. These two new concepts were easy to understand and creat a new way to research the theory of translation. So they were known as Peter Newmark’s greatest contribution in translation.

So what is semantic translation and communicative translation? From Newmark’s perspective ,he held the point that semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original while communicative translation attempts to produce to that obtained the readers of the original.

After having seven classes of translation theory and techniques,

I have some views on semantic translation and communicative

translation. My understanding on semantic translation is that semantic translation is deeply based on the source text, that is to say, it is source-oriented, author-centered, and pragmatic.

Using this translation method, the translator should value the form of the source text as well as the original intention of the author. Because of the requisition that target text should close to the source text in structures and words, the method emphasize on the transmission of information and the accuracy. It is somewhat like liberal translation or foreignizing translation. But in my opinion, the semantic translation collects the advantages of the word to word translation, liberal translation and loyal translation. However, it goes without saying that semantic translation also has its disadvantages because it has too much limitation. For all I know, Communicative translation is a convenient way to translate one language to another. Compared to semantic translation, communicative translation is target-oriented, reader-centered and idiomatic. As readers, they want to read a foreign book smoothly and without any difficulty. But the difference of culture will make them puzzled and confused----that is why we should take communicative translation strategy to translate foreign works. The core of communicative translation is readers, so this method attaches a great deal importance to the reader’s understanding and reaction, which means that it thinks highly of the transmission of function and effect. It require translator to organize the