Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Translation Background
In recent years, China has achieved remarkable achievements in economy, politics, culture, science and technology and so on. At the same time, with the deepening of economic globalization, the relationship between China and the world becomes closer and closer, and exchanges and cooperation in various aspects are also deepening. While China actively introduces advanced science and technology from foreign countries, China's advanced technology and equipment are also constantly going abroad. In order to learn advanced science and technology in various countries, accurate science and technology English translation must be carried out, so the role of science and technology English translation becomes more and more important.
It is found that there are not many translations of scientific and technical texts on equipment instructions of which there are few materials about translating Chinese into English. The translator believes that more researches are needed on the translation of equipment instruction. It is necessary to summarize the translation methods and skills used in the process of translating Chinese into English of scientific texts. This report can continuously improve the quality of translation and provide reference for other Chinese-English translations about technical text in the future.
This translation material is about CDQ instruction. The original text of the translated material is in Chinese. The material comes from the translator's translation task during the internship at a translation consulting company in Shijiazhuang. The material consists of six parts, including CDQ processing equipment, industrial boiler, heat, industrial building and structure, HVAC, and automation instruments. The content is mainly based on the basic structure and working principle of the equipment. This material is designed to help foreign device users understand the equipment and use it more efficiently, as well as provide technical support for equipment users.
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1.2 Task Goal
The field of this material belongs to the field of science and technology. The original language of material is Chinese. This document contains 13,000 words approximately. After making a preliminary estimate of the number and difficulty of translation, the author made the following arrangement: the translator plans to translate 1000 words per day, and complete the task in 20 days. Because there are some difficulties in the translation process, and other translation tasks of the expedited documents might be assigned to the translator during the company internship, the task will be fulfilled in 20 days.
The audience of this text is foreign users of the equipment, and the material is used to provide certain technical support for device users, so the accuracy of translation will be particularly important in the translation process.
Nowadays, China has achieved remarkable achievements especially in science and technology. In addition, under the trend of economic globalization, the relationship among countries in the world is closer, and the import and export of products are more frequent. This means that the demand for scientific English translation is also growing.
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Chapter II Theoretical Framework
2.1 A Brief Introduction of Skopos Theory
Emerged in the 1970s, functional theories of translation have gone through four development stages.
In the first stage, Catharina Reiss first proposes functional theories of translation as translation thought in the book "Possibility and Limitations in Translation Criticism". Reiss’s early theory involves the concept of equivalence. But in the later period, she realizes that the fully equivalence can not be achieved, so the functional characteristics of target language should be considered.
In the second stage, Hans Vermeer points out Skopos theory. He releases the translation research from the domination of source-text-oriented theory. He believes that the results of translation behavior determine the strategy and method used in the translation, that is, the translation results determine the translation process. He also emphasizes the importance of target-text users, that is, the audience of the text determines the purpose of the translation.
In the third stage, Justa Holz-Manttari puts forward the concept of theory of translation action in "Translation Behavior-Theory and Method" published in 1984. Theory of translation action regards translation as a result-centered communicative activity driven by purpose. He believes that translation is a purposeful intercultural communication activity. He also conducts a detailed analysis of the actors and participator in the translation process. However, there are many similarities between theory of translation action and Skopos theory, so Vermeer integrates it later.
In the fourth stage, Kristiane Nord publishes "Translation as a Purposeful Activity- Functionalist Approaches Explained" in the 1990s. For the first time, she comprehensively elaborates various academic ideas of functionalist in English. She inherits and carries forward the theory of Skopos theory, and puts forward the principle of "theory plus loyalty".
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2.2 The Three Rules of Skopos Theory
Skopos theory consists of three principles: Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule. Among them, fidelity rule subjects to coherence rule, and coherence rule and fidelity rule subjects to Skopos rule.
2.2.1 Skopos Rule
Skopos rule is the most important principle of the three principles of Skopos theory. Skopos theory holds that Skopos rule is the primary principle in all translation activities. Skopos theory believes that translation is a purposeful intercultural communication activity, and translators should choose proper translation strategies according to the purpose of translation. That is, during the translation process, the result of the translation determines its method. However, the translation behavior can be divided into several purposes. We can further divide these purposes into three categories: (1) the basic purpose of translator (such as earning a living); (2) the communicative purpose of target language (such as inspiring readers); (3) The purpose to be achieved using particular translation means (e.g., using the literal translation according to sentence structure to illustrate the special features of a grammatical structure). However, in general, the purpose refers to the communicative purpose of target language. The translation is required to indicate what kind of translation is needed for translators. The translators do not need to passively accept everything, and they can participate in determining the purpose of translation. When the translation initiator is not clear about the purpose of the translation due to insufficient professional knowledge or other reasons, the translator can negotiate with the initiator to get the translation purpose from the special translation situation. (Zhong Weihe, Zhong Rong 1999: 47).
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Chapter III Description of Translation Procedure ···················· 9
3.1 Preparation before Translation ··················· 9
3.1.1 Formulation of Term Bank ······················ 9
3.1.2 Preparation of Translation Aid Tool ·················· 10
3.1.3 Choice of Translation Skill ················· 10
Chapter IV Case Study ······························ 13
4.1 Analysis of Feature-based Translation ····················· 13
4.1.1 Vocabulary Features and Translation ···················· 13
4.1.2 Sentence Features and Translation ···················· 15
Chapter V Conclusion ······················ 29
5.1 Translation Gains ····························· 29
5.2 Research Limitations ························ 29
Chapter IV Case Study
4.1 Analysis of Feature-based Translation
4.1.1 Vocabulary Features and Translation
4.1.1.1 Massive Use of Compound Words and Acronyms
There are large numbers of scientific and technical vocabularies in the technical text. These terms are divided into technical terms, semi-technical terms and non-technical terms. Technical terms are terminology that only applies to a single subject, such as: nitrogen, Verabar, Venturi, etc. Semi-technical terms refer to words with different meanings in different professional fields. Technical terms are important, but they need non-technical terms to string all these vocabularies together to form a complete sentence and discourse, expressing the thoughts and meanings of sentences and texts completely (Zhang Qin, 2016). Technical vocabularies have its own unique lexical features, such as massive use of compound word and abbreviations.
The compound word is a new word that combines two or more words according to certain rules. There are many technical vocabularies in English for science and technology that do not have clear expressions and fixed statements, so they need to be expressed by means of compound words. The composition of the compound word includes the combination of noun and noun, such as: bag-type dust remover, man-machine operation interfaces, dust-removal low voltage distribution room; a combination of noun and gerund, such as: heat-accumulating, cold coke-carrying, ash-removing manholes, wear-resisting; a combination of adjective and noun, such as: real-time, high-temperature, low-pressure, low-temperature; a combination of noun and verb past participle, such as, cone-shaped , machine-made bricks; a combination of preposition and noun, such as: on-site, off-line; a combination of noun and adjective, such as: explosion-proof, rust-proof and so on.
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Chapter V Conclusion
5.1 Translation Gains
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