3. Translation of proper punctuations
News title is always simplified in structure; accordingly, punctuation plays a very important role in news headline. More often than not, certain punctuation can produce some kind of special result. The translator should pay attention to the concrete meaning of these punctuations while translating them.
3.1. Comma (,)
“Comma expresses the stop between the compound ingredients in title, and it is also used to replace ‘and’ in order to save space, generally being translated to be ‘和’ in Chinese.”[5]P29
For example:
(1) Australia,U.S. Seek More Ways to Promote Trade
(=Australia and U.S .Seek More Ways to Pro-mote Trade)
---澳大利亚和美国寻求更多途径以促进两国贸易
(2) UN, Iraq Talk on Refugee Aid
---联合国和伊拉克谈判援助难民问题
(3) China, CIS States May Share Cables
---中国和独联体国家合作开发光电通讯
(4) Ready, aim, flambé: Army, Marine Cooks Battle Each Other
---预备、瞄准、开火:海陆两军交“火”厨师各显神通(“The two commas in front of the colon are used to indicate display, and function as Chinese slight-pause; the last comma then is equal to ‘and’." [6]P67)
3.2. Colon (:)
In the English news title, the most eye-catching information is always put in front, and then some supplement information is drawn out to make up the subject after colon. The similarities in Chinese and English expression provide a series of parallelisms of content in translation.
Look at the examples:
(1)The$2 billion Makeover: Australia’s Olympic City Gets Ready for the Games
---二十亿美元的大改造:澳大利亚的奥林匹克城准备迎接奥运会
(2) War Plan: the West’s Military Options
---战争计划:西方的军事选择
“Colon is also used to take place of relation verbs, and it is always translated to be ‘说’、 ‘宣称’、 ‘是’ in Chinese.”[7]P29
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