A Practice Report On C-E Translation Of Chemical Patentability Report From The Perspective Of Text Typology

WIPO publishes that international patent applications which Chinese companies have filed under PCT(i.e., the number of patentability reports), have increased by 36.36% from May, 2014 to now. It can be seen that companies are seeking for patent protection to enhance competitiveness. Hence, highly qualified translation will paly a key role in patent granting. However, previous studies at home and abroad are mainly concentrated on machine translation and translation of patent documents, and few on translation of patentability report can be found, let alone theoretical perspectives.This thesis tries to carry out studies on C-E translation of Written Opinion of International Searching Authority(WOSA, one of patentability reports) in chemical field under the perspective of Newmark’s Text Typology with the aim of discussing translation problems from semantic translation(ST) and communicative translation(CT), exploring effective translation techniques and improving translation quality. In the thesis, firstly, experience summary method is used to collect views of ten patent translators and perform data analysis in order to conclude stylistic features of Chinese chemical WOSA, and WOSA is defined to be an informative text; secondly, translation problems at the lexical, syntactical and discourse level are found, and reasons for translation errors are then summarized via analysis of translations; and finally, under Text Typology, the writer indicates that CT should be the primary method and ST the secondary, and furthermore, proposes solutions—five translation techniques: sequential translation, addition, combination, shift as well as adjustment of word order. Last but not least, the writer implies that patent translation is a promising industry, and the combination of language, subject knowledge and translation software would inevitably enlarge the language service market.