On English Translation of Ancient Chinese Architecture from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

In New Media Era, multi-modal discourses which are rich in non-language symbols such as visible images, characters, colors, sounds have become the mainstream of publicity. By integrating sculpture, image, sound, color, space, layout, etc, ancient Chinese architecture is a comprehensive multi-modal art. In order to improve the quality of their translations, the multi-modal characteristics of ancient Chinese architectures must be fully reconstructed in English translation and represented through multi-modal approaches. On the basis of the synthetic theoretical framework for multi-modal discourse analysis, this study investigates the principles and strategies for English translation of both dynamic and static multi-modal discourses of ancient Shanxi architectures from four levels, namely, the level of context of culture, the level of context of situation, the level of context of content and the level of context of media. The study is believed to provide certain theoretical and practical references on expanding the perspective of English translation of ancient Chinese architectures and their means of publicity and on how to improve the English translation of ancient Chinese architectures multi-dimensionally as well as on how to promote the international communication of ancient Chinese culture.