A Report On E-C Translation Of The Popular Science Text Eyewitness: Forensic Science From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Against the backdrop of globalization,translation has become an essential way for knowledge and culture dissemination.In this process,as an important media,the translation of popular science texts is of great significance to the public.The current translation project selects the English popular science book Eyewitness: Forensic Science as the source text.It takes real criminal cases as examples to introduce the history and relevant knowledge in forensic science.The year 2021 marks the start of the eighth Five-Year Law Popularization Plan in China.The popular science translation can convey knowledge of forensic science and cultivate readers’ legal consciousness,thus contributing to the further development of law popularization in China.Taking the purpose of science popularization and readability into consideration,the author adopts Vermeer’s Skopos theory and its three rules,namely,skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule to guide the translation of the English book Eyewitness: Forensic Science.Specifically,the present report analyzes translation problems of the popular science text at the lexical and syntactical level.It then summarizes the translation methods and techniques adopted in the translation project under the guidance of Skopos theory.At the lexical level,popular science texts contain abundant terminologies.Hence,accuracy and consistency are the cruces of translating popular science texts.When translating terminologies,the author adopts the literal translation method in most cases,which is consistent with the fidelity rule.Under the guidance of the skopos rule,the liberal translation method is utilized in chapter headings translation to attract the reader’s interest.Meanwhile,to ensure the readability of the target text,part of the speech shift technique is adopted in translation under the guidance of the coherence rule.On top of that,English popular science text often contains passive sentences and long compound sentences at the syntactical level.Thus,under the guidance of the skopos rule and the coherence rule,sentences voice shift and division techniques are applied to create a concise and acceptable target text.According to the fidelity rule,the source text’s rhetorical devices are retained by literal translation,thus reproducing the language style.The reporter summarizes the translation methods and techniques suitable for popular science text translation based on her translation practice,thereby providing some references for others who translate popular science texts in the future.