初探科技英语翻译策略A Tentative Study On The Strategy Of English-Chinese EST Translation.doc

初探科技英语翻译策略a tentative study on the strategy of english-chinese est translationtable of contentspage1.introduction -11.1 research background -1.2 research objective -1.3 paper organization -2222. rationale- 2 2.1 definition of est -2.2 features of est -2.2.1 lexical features of est -2.2.2 syntactic features of est -2.2.3 stylistic features of est -2.3 principles of est translation -3334573. data description-74. data analysis-8 4.1 source language analysis -4.1.1 morphological analysis -4.1.2 lexical analysis -4.1.3 syntactic analysis -4.1.4 logical analysis -4.2 translation thought analysis -4.2.1 transfer from analytic thinking to synthetic thinking -4.2.2 transfer from objective thinking to subjective thinking -4.2.3 transfer from spiral thinking to linear thinking -4.2.4 transfer from abstract thinking to concrete thinking -889101213131415155. results and suggestions-16 5.1 results -5.2 suggestions -16186. conclusion -19bibliography-20appendix -22摘要众所周知，科学技术对于一个国家的发展起着至关重要的作用。当今世界，科学技术迅猛发展，科技资料浩如烟海，但是其中的绝大多数都是用英语发表或出版的。因此，科技英语翻译越来越引起人们的重视。但是由于科技英语自身的专业性和特殊性，导致其在翻译的过程中会出现一定的困难。本文正式针对这一情况，从传统的翻译技巧出发，结合翻译中经常遇到的问题，得到适合科技英语的翻译技巧。文章首先对科技英语的定义及其相关特点进行了介绍，引出科技英语翻译的基本准则。然后通过多个词句翻译实例，着重对科技英语的词汇，句法，逻辑和专业四个方面进行分析，同时强调了不同的语言思维转换在翻译过程中所发挥的作用，最终总结得出了科技英语翻译所应采取的策略。科技英语翻译有别于一般性的翻译。这就要求一名出色的翻译者不仅能够最大限度的保持与原文的一致性，而且还能做到“深入浅出”，使读者也能最大限度的理解原文所要表达的内容。只有全面分析原文的各项特征，合理的运用科技英语的翻译策略，才能得出高质量的译本。希望本文的研究成果能够对科技英语翻译的实践有所裨益。作者期望看到人们给予科技英语翻译更多的关注，为其发展付出更多的努力。关键词：科技英语；语言思维；翻译策略abstract as we know, science and technology are both crucial factors for the development of a country. they have been developing at such amazing rate that mountains of papers of this kind spring up around the world. however, since most of them are written or published in english, it is obvious that we should pay more attention to the translation of est, namely english for science and technology. due to its specialization and professionalization, we would inevitably get some troubles during the translation. thus, considering all above, this research makes some investigations on the traditional translation skills, analyzes the problems we usually meet in translation and offer the proper strategies of est translation.it first provides a review of both definition and features of est, introducing the basic principles of est translation. then the research puts the emphasis on the analysis in t aspects of lexicon, syntax, logic and profession by some typical words and sentences. meanwhile, we still pay attention to the role the linguistic thought changing plays in the process of translation. finally, the strategies of english-chinese est translation are concluded through all above.est is different from the ordinary text, which requires the translator not only to be able to keep the relevance of the original as maximum as possible, but also have ability to be “deep-going and simple-expressing”, making the readers understand what the writer want to express as much as possible. only after the comprehensive analysis and efficient strategy can we get a excellent translation version. key words: est; linguistic thought; translation strategy1. directions for learners1) analyze the data in no less than 1,000 words by using one or some of the methods recommended in step 2 and step 3 of stage 7 in writing your ba paper through practical translation project design. the analysis should be based on the examples from the data, or no less than 3 samples from each category of the data.2) the heading for this section has been given. you may decide on your own subheadings if there are any.3) insert your analysis of the data in paragraphs, tables, diagrams or listings in the space below.4. data analysis 4.1 source language analysis4.1.1 morphological analysisthe purpose of morphological analysis is to decompose the internal structure of a word and to know the rules and the meanings by which words are formed. as we have discussed in the rationale, technical term and semi-technical terms abound in est. in order to determine the original meaning of these words, it is necessary for a translator to analyze word formations, such as compounding, derivation, affixation, etc. a detailed morphological analysis will help to shed light on the correct meaning of some difficult words.for instance, the word “parabiospheric” consists of para(outside) + bio(biology) + spheric(having the form of sphere). after a brief analysis, the meaning of the difficult word is clear “外生物层的”. another more complicated example: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovocanoconiosis. this extremely long word seems appallingly complicated. however, anatomic analysis of its formation enables us to get a clear understanding of its meaning: pneumono (of lung) + ultra (beyond) + micro (very tiny) + scopic (of viewing or observing) + silico (of silicon) + volcano (of valcano) + coni (of dust) + osis (forming the name of a disease). even if we are not sure of the chinese equivalent of this medical term, we may roughly get right meaning of the long word: a kind of lung disease caused by extremely small silicon particles.thus, there are many prefixes and suffixes which we need to familiar with so that we can translate many technical words of such formation appropriately. for examples:the prefix “cyber-” is related to computers, so words formed of “cyber” might be roughly translated as “计算机，电脑的”: “cybernetic”(电脑控制的), “cybertron”(控制机), “cyberspace”(电脑空间), “cyberphonia”(电脑恐惧症). the prefix “hydro-” is related to water or fluid, therefore the following words can mostly be translated with meaning of “水” or “流体”: “hydrocephalus”(脑积水), “hydrocolloid”(水状胶体), “hydroextractor”(脱水器), “hydropathy”(水疗法). the suffix “-itis” is used to form a noun with meaning inflammation, so words formed in this way can be rendered as “炎（症）”: “appendicitis”(阑尾炎), “tonsillitis”(扁桃体炎), “hepatitis”(肝炎), “faucitis”(咽喉炎). 4.1.2 lexical analysislexical analysis refers to detail treatment of the source language word with the aim of clear understanding of the lexical meaning, which may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system and the personality it acquires through usage within that system. it goes without saying that words rarely occur on their own. they almost always occur in the company of other words. therefore it is often a hard task to get their meaning that is suitable to the occasion.lexical analysis can be firstly employed to distinguish the meaning of polysemy, the same word with a set of different meanings in different situations. it is necessary for a translator to analyze the specific meaning according to the collocation and context.collocation is a term used to refer to “the habitual co-occurrences of individual lexical items”(hu et al, 1988:110). that is to say, collocation is just a tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language. taking “idle” for instance: “idle capacity”(备用容量), “idle coil”(闲圈), “idle current”(无功电流), “idle motion”(空转), “idle frequency”(中心频率).of course, it is not enough to judge the meaning of a word just from collocation. a translator should relate the words to a larger context. context in translation practice refers to the combination of linguistic context and situational context that the translator takes into consideration while reading and analyzing the source language text. a case in point is the word “develop”:a. shorts frequently develop when insulation is worn.（发生）b. noise may develop in a worn engine. (产生)c. albert einstein develop the theory of relativity. (创立)d. 80 percent of the plants developed this kind of disease.（染上）4.1.3 syntactic analysiswords and phrases cannot occur at random to form a meaningful sentence. they have to follow certain rules of ordering. syntactic analysis tries to sort out nature and function of the sentential elements so as to know the semantic structure of a sentence.as we have discussed in chapter two, the most prominent syntactic features of est are the extensive use of passive voice, the tendency towards nominalization, inclination to long and complicated sentences, and post-positioning of the attributive.as it is known, one of the most important essences of science is objectivity, so scientific writings are required to have the corresponding language form. and the passive voice is the proper sentence type that should be adopted customarily to embody the objectivity of scientific writings. for example: “some kind of plastic can be force through machines which separate them into long, thin, strings, called fibers, and there fibers can be made into cloth.” here in the sentence, we can easily find that “be forced” and “be made” are two passive voices, and the meaning of them is also very clear.compared with english for general purposes, nominalizations are used more frequently in est. as the semantic meaning of a noun phrase that consists of several words is usually complicated, the translation should go beyond the surface structure. for example: “the limitation of physical model techniques have, in order branches of engineering, led to the development of mathematical models representing a variety of mechanical structures. the development of the analytical approach has accelerated since the introduction of large digital and analogue computer installations.” in the example, the four nominalized structures make the sentence difficult to be understood. we must analyze the semantic relations carefully. in the first nominalization, “of physical model techniques” is the actor of “limitation”; as to the second noun phrase, the relationship between the noun and the prepositional phrase is affiliation; and “the analytical approach” in the third phrase is a method of “development”; as to the last nominalization, the relationship between “introduction” and “large digital and analogue computer installations” is just a subject-predicate structure. as a characteristic of est, long sentences abound in est. if we want to understand them in the source language text, we have to analyze the syntactic relation among the sentences, that is, to clear up the micro-structures of the long sentences. for example, “it is fully as important that a machine element is made of a material that has properties suitable for the conditions of service as it is for the load and stresses to be accurately determined.” in this long sentence there are three subordinate clauses. the first one is a subject clause introduced by “that”. within the subject clause is an attributive clause “that has properties suitable for the conditions of service”, which is used to modify “material”. the third clause is an adverbial clause of comparison “as it s for the load and stresses to be accurately determined”. post-position of the attributive, one of the prominent features of est, can be seen as reduced attributive clauses. generally speaking, english attributives are flexible in position, while chinese ones are relatively fixed. in translating, it is often a common practice to move the english post-modifiers forward to the front of the modified in its chinese version. for example, “most effort to control corrosion involves coating the metal with an inactive substance.” obviously, the post-modifiers in the english sentence can be looked at as reduced relative clauses “which use to control corrosion.”4.1.4 logical analysisest pays much attention to the logical of the text. sometimes, we may find it difficult to get the proper meaning of est whether from the perspective of lexis or from that of syntax. in such situations, logical analysis might be helpful to understand the text. in translation practice there exist extra linguistic elements, that is, some problems in translation are not in the scope of linguistics. the problems often lie in the logical relations among phrases and sentences. for example: “we think it is often possible to obtain a more pure precipitate by redissolving the precipitate, having washed it as free as possible from soluble impurities and reprecipitating.” there are three gerunds that follow after “by”, and we should pay attention to the different tenses of these gerunds. the perfect tense “having washed” of the second gerund indicates that this action occurs before the other two. so in the translation we should be careful of the logical sequence and shift the original sentence order so as to rearrange the three actions chronologically.4.1.5 professional analysisest is normally organized around a professional topic, so an analysis of the professional knowledge enables a translator to realize whether he is familiar with the subject matter and to determine whether he possesses the necessary knowledge required for the understanding and the translating. it is no exaggeration to say that relevant professional knowledge, in most cases, plays a dominating role in est translation. for instance: a. the nucleus is the information centre of the cell.(细胞in biology)b. in the center of the spacious workshop stood a cell with packets of block anodes.(电解槽in metallurgy)c. when the ends of a copper wire are join to a device called an electric cell, a steady stream of electricity flows through the wire.(电池in electricity)d. when a cell value is changed, the values in all affected cells are recalculated automatically.(单元in computer science)the above sets of examples clearly indicate that the same word may convey different meanings: meanings particular to a science, technology, business or the like. in other words, words and subject matter constitute an inseparable bond. the correct understanding and proper translation have great deal to do with the subject matter as well as general knowledge.4.2 translation thought analysisas we know, the structure of any language is established according to the thought pattern of a given language-speaking people. as the thought pattern differs, the expression differs, which brings about the heterogeneity between any two languages. certain thought patterns may be more accessible or easily performed by members of one linguistic community relative to those of a different linguistic community. that is to say, every society and culture has its individual thought pattern.because of different historical background, ways of life and social customs, the thinking patterns between chinese people and the english-speaking people have different features. general speaking, chinese people prefer synthetic thinking, figurative thinking, circular thinking and subjective thinking, while english-speaking people prefer analytic thinking, abstract thinking, linear thinking and objective thinking.4.2.1 transfer from analytic thinking to synthetic thinkingthe difference in thinking pattern between the chinese and the western has generated different tendencies in the language: the english language tends to be hypotactic, with its emphasis on formal connection; the chinese language tends to be paratactic, with much stress on logical ad chronological coherence. in contrast, chinese is a typical analytic language, characterized by non-inflection, frequent use of function words and manipulation of word order. in a word, english sentence have an explicit, formal relationship while chinese sentences are implicit.as to the chinese sentence, the realization of conjunction is by means of internal logical relations among words, phrases and clauses instead of grammatical means. accordingly, when translating english into chinese, many english connective devices well disappear and their functions will often be substituted by lexical means or be accomplished through meaningful ordering. this can be proved by the example. “all was cleared up some time later when news came from a distant place that an earthquake was felt the very day the copper ball fell.” “some of the machine tools are so small that they can be moved by hand. others are so big that the weigh 100 tons or more.” “when short waves are sent out and meet an obstacle, they are reflected.” all of the three english sentences are linked by explicit connective words, while in the chinese correspondent all the connectives becomes implicit.4.2.2 transfer from objective thinking to subjective thinkingthe object-centered english mode of