Nord’s Function Plus Loyalty Theory in Translation in the Domains of Soft Power and National Image

• Main Authors: Wen-Chang Lin, 林文昶
• Other Authors: Tsai, Pei-Shu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/p26r37

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 105 === Soft power has always been an indispensable diplomatic force for Taiwan. Based on Nye (2004), World Economic Forum’s choosing criteria of soft power, and views of scholars, foreign policy and culture, which are the two most important dimensions of soft power, were selected in the present research. In the past, literature did not specify the relationship between translated texts in the domains of soft power and national image. In the present research, translated texts in the domain of soft power that applied Nord’s function plus loyalty theory were retranslated from translated texts of Taiwan Panorama. By using questionnaires, the present research intends to investigate the relationship between soft power and national image. Also, it intends to probe into the relationship and effects between translated texts that applied Nord’s function plus loyalty theory and translated texts of Taiwan Panorama in terms of the ascension of national image. In total, the questionnaire collected 63 non-native Chinese participant’s ratings. Each participant answered questionnaires written in English that contained eight paragraphs. The questions of the questionnaires adopted Likert Scales of five points to estimate the quality of translated texts and the degree of ascension of national image. The present research adopted a repeated measures Analysis of Variance. Two independent variables were soft power (domains of foreign policy versus culture) and translation theory (with versus without translation theory). Dependent variables were visibility, appraisal, word choice, and naturalness. visibility and appraisal were the subcategories of national image, whereas word choice and naturalness were the subcategories of translation quality. The main focus of this research was to examine the effect of the articles selected in Taiwan Panorama on the presentation to national image and performance to translation quality. The results showed that the average rating of Soft Power in the Domain of Culture was higher than Domain of Foreign Policy in word choice and visibility. In addition, the average rating of paragraphs adopting Nord’s (1991) Translation Theory, was higher than that did not adopt the theory, in word choice and visibility. However, differences between the types of Soft Power and those between the adoption of Translation Theory were not statistically significant in terms of naturalness and appraisal. Therefore, in the future, in terms of the ascension of national image and translation quality, it is suggested that Taiwan Panorama adopt articles in the culture domain of soft power and translate articles with Nord’s (1991) function plus loyalty theory.