On E-C Political Speech Translation from the Perspective of Newmark's Communicative Translation Theory

By Comparing two Chinese versions of Obama's inaugural address

Abstract

According to Newmark's text type translation theory, Obama's presidential election victory speech is a text with expressive function and vocative function, so it should be translated under the guidance of communicative translation strategy. The author believes that when translating political speeches from Chinese into Chinese, translators should be well-versed in the linguistic features and functions of the text, and understand the differences between the cultural backgrounds of Chinese and Western recipients, in order to produce fluent and acceptable translated texts tfor Chinese readers.. By analyzing two translated versions of Obama's inaugural speech, the article elucidates the instructive role of the theory of communicative translation theory in translating Western political speeches into Chinese.