Translation Methods of English News Headlines.doc

Translation Methods of English News Headlines【Abstract】As a communication tool， news can help people transmit information of all fields in the worldwide to narrow the distance among countries. A good news headline can not only show the subject clearly， but also can arouse the deeper interests of the readers. The thesis concludes the language features of English news headlines and then concludes the common translation methods of English news headlines through some examples， such as， literal translation， free translation etc. in the English news headlines， which makes the translation of English news headlines more accurate and brings more convenience to the translation of English news headlines. 【Key words】news headline； features； translation methods 1. Introduction News can promote the communication of various countries in politic， economic， culture and other aspects. News headline is the most important part in a piece of news. A good news headline can not only make the content clear， but also can arouse the readers’ attention and make them go further in reading the news. So when reading a piece of news， people always focus more on the translation of news headline. 2. The Translation Methods of English News Headlines Since the translation of the English news headlines is an important part， so the translators must have a good command of the translation methods of English news headlines， and can use them skillfully. 2.1 Literal translation Literal translation is always used when the original text is very easy. Literal translation keeps not only the content of the text， but also the form of the text. It can clearly show the meaning that the author wants to show and the translator can not add or reduce any ideas of him. 　　e.g. Xi calls for “more tolerance and patience” toward netizens. （From the website of China Daily， their website can be seen in bibliography） This is a piece of news on April 20th， 2016 from China Daily. It is translated as “?主席呼吁对网友更宽容更耐心” This news is literal translation. The English news headline can express the content of the news clearly， so the translator doesn’t need to use other translation methods， but the readers can understand without more thinking. 2.2 Free translation People can know from the title “Free translation” that the translation must be very free， and should not be limited. If people cannot conclude the content of the English news headlines or it is very different from some Chinese habits by literal translation， free translation will be a better choice. 　　e.g. Obama says being president is a “serious job”―one Trump won’t get. （ibid） This news is translated as “奥巴马不看好特朗普当选美国总统” If the translator just translate the news directly as “奥巴马说当总统是一项严肃的工作，特朗普是不行的” ， it will be very difficult to understand. But the translator translates it freely， so the meaning of the news can be expressed clearly through the English News Headline. 2.3 Addition approach English news headlines must be succinct and short enough， so when we translate it into Chinese， sometimes in the process of our translation， we should add some necessary information. 2.3.1 Addition of subjects In order to make the news headlines short， the author always omit the subjects in English news headlines. In the translation of English news headlines， we need to add some subjects in order to make clear what the author wants to express. e.g. “The Real James Bond？” （ibid） And it is translated as “谁是真正的邦德？” ， in the translation of this news headline， the translator adds the logical subject “who”. It can make the meaning of the news headline clearer. 2.3.2 Addition of verbs In some English news headlines， the author just omits the verb in it to make the news headline look succinct. But in the process of translating the news headlines， the translator must add some verbs or the readers can not know what happened from the headline. e.g. S. Korea， Japan， China education ministers meet for 1st time （ibid） The English news headline is expressed as “中日韩教育部长首次会面――讨论教科书应该如何记录战时历史” ， but there is no verb in the English news headline， the author omitted “（how to） record”. If the Chinese readers just read the English news headline， it will be very difficult for the readers to know that the purpose of the meeting of S. Korea， Japan， China education ministers is to discuss how to record the history of the World War. 2.3.3 Addition of quantifiers In some English news headlines， the author always omits some quantifiers because it is not very important. But if we translate the English news headlines into Chinese， we must add the quantifiers or the sentence will not be coherent. e.g. China Announces Plans To Launch Second Space Lab Tian gong-2（ibid） This English news headline is translated as “中??宣布今年发射天宫二号空间实验室和神州十一号飞船” We can see from the Chinese news headline that the author add the quantifier “号” ， so that Chinese people can understand it easily. 2.3.4 Addition of indefinite articles 　　Some English news headlines 。