6.1 Summary of the research major findings and conclusion

Chapter 6 Conclusion

This chapter contains the summary of the major findings in the current study and the closing remarks of conclusion. Aside from these, the present study also indicates certain points that can be furthered into future researches on news translation, which makes the second part of this chapter, further research suggestions.

6.1 Summary of the research major findings and conclusion

The present study aims to investigate the strategies translators employ and the factors involved in Chinese-to-English news translation texts. Treating the political and culture-laden commentaries, translators need to follow a set of particular strategies for the sake of readability. Moreover, aside from the strategies dealing with textual information, translators of Taipei Times also need to bring into concern the styles and rules of the newspaper. The textual analysis conducted for the present study comes up with a set of strategies translators apply in practice. Using the benchmark of English-to-Chinese news translation strategies put forth by Cheng in 2004, the results indicate that translators employ a number of different strategies aside from certain others that are the same. These different strategies, along with the disparity in applications of the same strategies, help to illustrate a specific set of translation strategies that is unique to Chinese-to-English news translation. The text analysis also points out that the language used in translation tends to be tailored for its target-readers. If the writing style of the source text is too colloquial, it is likely that the translators make certain adaptations to make the rendering cater to readers’ needs and comply with English news writing styles, a fact that echoes what Ho maintains for news translation, “Keeping a target text in line with the target-language

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norms-good grammar and natural language above all-…” (Ho, cited in Chan and Pollard, 2001: 654).

In addition to the text analysis, interviews were conducted with translators of Taipei Times. The results point to the conclusion that translators are not left with too

much space in translating. On the textual level, they are expected to pay attention to readers’ needs while follow “as close as possible”

the source texts. Moreover, the styles of the newspaper and that of the copy-editor also put their hands on the translation and are likely to make changes without the translator’s consent. Among all, the style of Taipei Times not only dominates the translators in translating, it further exerts power into the source text being translated. In the case of Taipei Times, only commentaries that resemble and acknowledge the style of the newspaper are selected, which enhances Nakamura’s observation that news texts embodies values and belief, and representations are formed from a specific ideological point of view (2004).

Following the same thread of thought, the current study indicates that this phenomenon extends into the translation of commentaries, and that makes certain names familiar on the Opinion Page of Taipei Times. Quoting from the results of the current study, the conclusion maintains that the news translation of Chinese-to-English texts are likely to subject to two factors, that are, English writing style at textual level and, style of the news media corporation at non-textual level.

6.2 Suggestion for further research

The structure and results of the present study suggest that attention is to be paid in some specific area for further research. First of all, the interviews were conducted with translators of the case. However, copy-editors and deputy editor-in-chief should also be interviewed if possible. The information to which the present

1

A point suggested by one of the interviewees.

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research accessed is from translators and lacks contrast with other parties involved in this translation practice. Therefore, in order to better the information given of the translation process, it is suggested that further research endeavor to include all parts involve in the translation practice.

In addition, the text analysis of the current study contains 30 sample texts collected in a course of three months’ time. The results indicated that Taipei Times inclines to use texts provided by some specific sources. Therefore, if further research is to be conducted, a larger sample size is recommended so as to explore whether certain texts are treated differently. Nevertheless, this study is based on a sample of 30 and comes to the conclusion that there is certain inclination in the choice of strategy. If current study is to be done for text analysis for the application of strategy, the researcher would suggest that a larger sample size be gathered so as to explore whether any possible correlation and generality exists.

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