A Translation Report On Chinese-English Translation Of Science And Technology Patent Abstract

This translation report is based on “2017 C Project Translation” of the Intellectual Property Publishing House.The author of this report participated in the project as a translator and completed the translation of 60 patent abstracts and titles totaling nearly15,000 Chinese characters,following the principles of accuracy,clearness,conciseness and objectivity.By studying related English web pages and patents,the translator sorted the English translation of common expressions of Chinese patent abstracts and titles out.Then,the translator obtained the translation of the stylized expressions,frequently-used words and terms of Chinese patent abstracts and titles in a qualitative way by referring to dictionaries,English websites and corpora.The translator summarizes experiences and implications she obtained in this translation project from two aspects.The first aspect involves translation skills: 1)Translators can apply patent websites and corpora to patent translation so as to improve accuracy and idiomaticity of the translated texts;2)The subdivision of terminology banks and that of translators is important for improving translation efficiency.And the second part involves C-E patent abstract translation techniques: 1)Translators can translate new technical terms into compound words.The components of the compound word need to be hyphenated,especially when a compound word is used as the attributive of a noun;2)Special attention should be paid to the word selection of transitional words since there are differences between English patent claims and Chinese patent claims;3)In C-E translation,translators can substitute the attributive clause preceded by “which” or the corresponding headword for long terms to avoid frequent use of long terms;4)In Chinese patent abstracts,the subject is usually inapparent or omitted.Therefore,translators are supposed to find the subject and translate it into English.And translators need to identify the semantic focus and determine a leading subject to prevent the semantic focus from being diverted by multiple subjects.The author hopes that this report can provide patent translators with new techniques and new ideas for patent translation so as to avoid adverse effects of the unidiomatic translation on patent applications.