Official Document and its Translation with the adaptation theory

Zhou Longying　Xiaoli

ABSTRACT：with the principle of cognitive consonance，this thesis studied official document translation from the perspectives of contextual correlates and communicative correlates. Specifically，among the contextual correlates，the social and cultural factors，the mental workings，cognitive mechanism，the translators intentions，the needs for objective and authoritative information，the aesthetic expectations and acceptability of the target receptors are prominent in their influence upon the translators linguistic choice-making. The linguistic contextual correlates including intertexuality，contextual cohesion，sequencing，and style play a very important role in determining the translators linguistic choices in the official document translation.

Key words：official document; translation; adaptation theory; cognitive consonance1Definition of Official Document and Definition of cognitive consonance

In the narrow sense of Chinese language，official document restrictedly refers to the document used in the Administrative Departments of the Government and the Administrative Departments of the Chinese Communist Party，including all specified in the Statutory Regulations of Official Document and Conventional Regulation of Official document. The specifications are stated by State Council，CPC Central Committee General Office and State Bureau of Quality Supervision in the documents of Procedures for Handling Official document in the Administrative Departments of the Chinese Government，Regulations for Handling Official Document in the Administrative Departments of the Chinese Communist Party，and formats of official document in the Administrative Departments of the Chinese Government.(嚴(yán)孚良，2001：4)［1］

In English law，official document refers to the document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right，and it also can be referred to as legal document，legal instrument and instrument.

Cognitive Consistency Approach asserts people seek consistency among their attitudes，and between attitudes and behavior. It emphasizes the acceptance of attitudes that fit into their overall cognitive structure.(Heider，1958) ［2］

We would like to bring it into a deeper probe into the translators mental processing. We mean the cognitive consistency which the translators utterances produce in the target receptors when they process and appreciate the authors intentions.(李占喜，2005：69) ［3］Put simply，the translators linguistic choices should not make the receptor feel pressed psychologically or mentally uncomfortable when they interpret and appreciate the authors intentions during their communication with the translator.

As a result，to improve the quality of translation of official document in the context of globalization has been an increasingly hot issue in the world; accordingly，the study of the related translation attracts the attention of more and more scholars. Surprisingly，articles concerning official document translation are seldom published in the journals of translation study and linguistic study.

Moreover，few studies on that issue are only criticisms which are largely confined to value judgment of translation practice and seldom touching the cultural and political issue in translation field，far from theoretical and applicable value. In view of the state of the art of research in translation of official document in China and the west in general，this research is intended to explore new research perspective for translation of official document.

2Research Background and Rational for Investigating Translation in Light of Adaptation Theory

No ideal model ever proposed by translation theorists seems able to present us with convincing explanation of how the translators mind works，and offers us sufficient explanation of the psychological motivations behind the translators linguistic choices in translating official document.

Official document translation as a typical form of non-literary translation has not been thoroughly researched from the perspective of adaptation theory at home and abroad.

Moreover，pragmatic approach has been proved to be one of the most powerful research perspectives on the study of the dynamics of language comprehension，language use，and context.

Accordingly，a comprehensive research from a pragmatic perspective can be done in the analysis of the translators mental interactions in translating official document. Therefore，adaptation theory may serve as the conceptual framework for generalizing some main features of the official document translating process.

No ideal model ever proposed by translation theorists seems able to present us with convincing explanation of how the translators mind works，and offers us sufficient explanation of the psychological motivations behind the translators linguistic choices in translating official document.

Jef Verschueren holds that “the general concern for the study of linguistic pragmatics is to understand the meaningful functioning of language as a dynamic process operating on context-structure relationships at various levels of salience.”(Verschueren，2000：69)［4］ He further expounds that language use is a process of continuous making of linguistic choices. Like other linguistic activities，translation is also a process of continuous making of choices.

3Major findings of the study

Verschuerens viewpoints on the dynamics of the translating process are enriched and tentatively complemented in three aspects. First，the study tried to explore into the psychological motivations behind the translators linguistic choices and its relationship with the principle of cognitive consonance. Second，the study examined how the translator deals with cultural defaults and how he makes linguistic choices to cater to the political，ideological，and aesthetic aspects dominant in the target cognitive environment. Third，the study attempted to find out the main features of the official document translation and the relationship between them and the translators linguistic adaptations in translation.

A successful translation is the one that can satisfy the target receptors needs and their expectations and acceptability. It must be pointed out that the standardized forms or style of the official document is a very important feature that must be strictly observed in the translation while the translators personal psychological motivation，the aesthetic preferences and pragmatic awareness also influence their specific handling their translations. Since part of the findings above is in the field of social psychology，we borrowed its term and proposed that the principle of cognitive consonance of the target receptor serve as the criteria for a successful translation.

Finally this thesis made a tentative conclusion that official document translation is a dynamic process of making adaptation with regard to linguistic structure and communicative context at various level of salience so as to achieve the target receptors' cognitive consonance.

3.1Practical applications

Theoretically，our research describes the translating process from adaptation theory，and offers a new point of view to the study on official document translation. It tentatively proposes the Principle of Cognitive Consonance. This study enriches or complements Verschueren's viewpoints on the mental operation of the translator and generalizes the main features of the official document translating process.

Practically，this approach may offer some guidance to official document translation. It helps the translators have a new idea of its translation from the angle of pragmatics：it is a dynamically-adjusting process in which the translators make every effort to ensure the cognitive consonance of their target receptors in accordance with the characteristics of official document language. And it reminds them of the fact that translation of official document takes its own typical strategies to achieve the cognitive consonance of their target receptor.

3.2Adaptation at the Supersentential Level：style

Style is a very important aspect of writing，and can be seen as the result of motivated choices made by text producers. Gutt(1991，2000：134)［5］ emphasizes the importance of the way the author's thoughts are expressed and argues that the point of preserving stylistic properties lies not in their intrinsic value，but rather in the fact that they provide communicative clues that guide the receptor to the interpretation intended by the communicator.

Therefore，the translator is supposed to process the authors general language style and writing style on the one hand; he should pay special attention to their communicative clues on the other hand. These clues can indicate the authors characterized ways of expressing. All these may provide some references to the translators communicative style when making linguistic choices in the target cognitive environment to convey the authors intentions.

While different styles of different text types lay emphases on different translation strategy(ies)，as Newmark put it，translation is such an art that translators are always ready to choose the most appropriate strategies with the change of the translation situation and communicative purposes.(Newmark，Peter，1981：91) It is similar with Verschuerens adaptation theory on the point that translators make choices to adapt to the different situations or context of the target utterances. ［6］

As to official document，both in the English language and Chinese language，it strictly observes certain standardized forms which reflect its authoritative and binding force. Its language must be accurate，undeniable and scrupulous. Conservativeness is the other feature of legal language.(沈程鳳，2006：7)［7］

Since the official document is characterized by its style of writing，the translator should make corresponding linguistic adaptations to its style to ensure that the translated official document can be accepted easily by the target receptor.

Therefore，translation of the official document naturally is influenced by the style observed because its translation must conform to specific provisions on the document format required by the General Office of the State Council. Document format usually includes the title，C.C，Issue Name，body，Attachment，Signature，date，the document number，and secret levels，emergency and so on.

(1)Notice of dismissal

It is hereby proclaimed that the board directors have decided to dismiss Wang Hai from the post of chief of the presidents office.

The Presidents Office

September 12，2003

a.免職通知

經(jīng)董事會(huì)決定，免去王海先生擔(dān)任的董事長辦公室主任職務(wù)，現(xiàn)予公布。

董事長辦公室

(秦美娟，2005：1)［8］

(2)We the undersigned hereby certify that John Smith having fulfilled the requirements of the Ordinances and Regulations of the University was by the university authority admitted to the Degree of Master of Science in Electronic Engineering at a congregation held in the University on July 8，1992

a.茲證明約翰史密斯遵守大學(xué)法規(guī)條例，業(yè)已完成學(xué)業(yè)，于一九九二年七月八日獲得該大學(xué)的電子工程專業(yè)理學(xué)碩士學(xué)位。

In the above examples，all these linguistic choices reflect some references to the translators adaptation to the target writing style. The forms of the source official documents were changed to fit into the style of the target official document so that the target receptors can comfortably process the translation and recognize its legal or authoritative status. In other words，the translator adapted the original style to the style of the target official document for the purpose of achieving the cognitive consonance of the target receptors.

3.3Pragmatic Awareness in the Dynamic Adaptation Process of Translating Official Document

Not all of the translators choices in the translating process occupy the same place in consciousness. They are closely related to target linguistic aspects and his cognition. On the one hand，the translators abstract cognition，without reference to any contextual correlates，does not exist; on the other hand，the contextual correlates do not exert any influence on his choices without being interpreted(sometimes cognitively produced) by the translator. So the translators subjective factors will lead him to make linguistic choices out of degrees of consciousness.

Here “pragmatic awareness” is employed to designate the status of processes of target language meaning generation determined by the translators personality and cognitive mechanisms of processing. The translators pragmatic awareness cannot be measured by physical standard. Moreover，it is not necessary to determine degrees of his awareness for all processes in his specific target language use. There is，however，a need to take this awareness consideration whenever its traces can be shown to reveal its relevance for an understanding of the translators psychological motivations behind his linguistic choices. That will cater to the concerned aspects prevalent in the target cognitive environment to reduce the psychological pressure of the target receptors. At this moment，the translators pragmatic awareness is highly increased to achieve the cognitive consonance of the target receptor.

(3)The Committee shall review as necessary，but at least once every two years，the implementation and operation of this Agreement，taking into account the objectives thereof，and the rights and obligations contained therein.

a. 考慮到本協(xié)議的目標(biāo)以及本協(xié)議中規(guī)定的權(quán)利和義務(wù)，委員會(huì)應(yīng)當(dāng)于必要時(shí)，但每兩年至少一次對(duì)本協(xié)議的執(zhí)行或?qū)嵤┣闆r進(jìn)行審查。(寇培宇，2007)［9］

In this example，the translator is aware that compound adverbs “thereof” and “therein” are equal to “of there” and “in there” respectively. So he consciously chose the expressions of“本協(xié)議的”and“本協(xié)議規(guī)定的”by adding words to clarify the content in the source official document.

(4)In no event shall Party A and Party B purchase less than a minimum of seven thousand hours of production at the rated capacity of the Power Plant.

a. 甲方和乙方在任何情況下均須按電廠的額定容量購買不少于7ooo小時(shí) 最低電量。(王道庚，2006：118)［10］

In example above，as an adverbial，“in no event” appears at the beginning of the sentence. With the adverbial being negated，the position of “no” has to be moved to before “l(fā)ess” in order to achieve the smoothness and harmony of English language. The translator thus chose consciously the corresponding equivalent expression，“在任何情況下……不少于……” in Chinese version，which better fit into the language features of Chinese language and the aesthetic expectation and acceptability of the target Chinese receptors.

3.4Limitations and implications

The most obvious limitation of the present study is the lack of strong empirical support for some interpretations or analyses of the data under research. Concentration is placed on official document translation from Chinese to English.

Another weakness is the limited amount and sources of data examined in the analyzing process.

Finally，the present research might not cover all the aspects of the official document translation，as this is extremely complicated. We have only tentatively described the general features and the translators mental workings in translating official document from a new point of view of pragmatics.

4Suggestions for Further Research

Future researchers could do more profound investigations into official document translation if they can go into the details such as the dynamics of adaptability，which is not mentioned in the present study due to the limited space.

The Target Receptor-Centered Principle of Cognitive Consonance has been tentatively proposed to probe into the psychological motivations behind the translators linguistic choices，but it also awaits test by means of empirical study . There is also much room to improve the amount and sources of data examined in the analyzing process.References：

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