交际翻译理论视角下外宣英译研究——以《第九届中国–亚欧博览会招展手册》为例

Research on External Publicity Translation from the Perspective of Communicative Translation Theory—A Case Study of The 9th China-Eurasia Expo Brochure

摘要: 随着我国综合国力与国际地位不断提升，全球化背景下中外交流日益密切。外宣材料作为国际社会交往交流的重要载体，其英译质量较高程度影响信息传递效果，尤其是中外经贸合作及文化交流。彼得·纽马克(Peter Newmark)根据文本的不同功能，将文本划分为表达型、信息型和呼唤型三种主要类型，外宣材料兼具信息型与呼唤型文本特征，以信息传递与对外宣传为目标。纽马克提出语义翻译与交际翻译两大理论：语义翻译更适配表达型文本，侧重忠实源语的句式结构与语言风格；交际翻译则适用于信息型、呼唤型文本，不拘泥于原文语言形式，力求使译文读者获得与原文读者相近的阅读感受。将交际翻译理论运用于外宣英译，能够准确传递会展信息、吸引境外客商参展投资、开展对外文化经贸传播。本文以纽马克交际翻译理论为支撑，选取第九届中国–亚欧博览会招展手册中英双语文本作为研究语料，采用文献研究法、案例分析法，从词汇、句子、篇章三个层面对手册英译文本所使用的翻译方法展开剖析。在此基础上归纳手册现存的翻译问题，针对文化缺省补偿、概念混淆、大小写不固定等方面提出优化建议。研究发现，交际翻译理论高度适配会展招商手册这类以读者交际效果为导向的外宣文本；译者应当以目标读者的认知习惯为出发点，做到不仅准确传递信息，又对读者进行感召呼唤，以此提升会展外宣英译质量，助力中国会展经济与对外经贸文化传播。

Abstract: As China’s overall national strength and international status continue to rise, exchanges between China and other countries become increasingly frequent in the context of globalization. As an important medium for international communication, external publicity materials are highly influential in the effectiveness of information transmission, especially in Sino-foreign economic and trade cooperation as well as cultural exchanges. Peter Newmark divides texts into three main categories based on their functions: expressive, informative, and vocative. External publicity materials combine characteristics of both informative and vocative texts, with the aim of facilitating information transmission and foreign promotion. Newmark introduced two theories: semantic translation and communicative translation. Semantic translation is more suitable for expressive texts, focusing on preserving the sentence structure and language style of the original language; communicative translation, on the other hand, is appropriate for informative and vocative texts, not restricting itself to the original language form, aiming to provide readers of the translated text with a similar reading experience as the original readers. Applying the communicative translation theory to English translations of external publicity materials can accurately convey exhibition information, attract foreign business partners to participate in exhibitions and invest, and promote cultural and economic exchanges with foreign countries. Based on Newmark’s theory of communicative translation, this paper uses the Chinese-English bilingual text from The 9th China-Eurasia Expo Brochure as research material. By using literature research and case analysis methods, it examines the translation techniques used in the English version of the manual at three levels: vocabulary, sentences, and paragraphs. On this basis, the existing translation problems in the manual are identified, and suggestions for improvement are provided regarding issues such as cultural omissions, confusion of concepts and inconsistent use of capitalization. The study finds that the communicative translation theory is highly suitable for public information texts like those used in exhibition promotion manuals, which are oriented towards achieving a good communication effect among readers. Translators should take the cognitive habits of the target readers into account, ensuring that information is transmitted accurately while also inspiring and engaging the readers, thereby improving the quality of English translations of public information materials related to exhibitions and contributing to the development of China’s exhibition economy and cultural and economic exchanges with foreign countries.