On English-Chinese Translation Of Popular Science Texts

This thesis discusses the instrumental translation of the popular science text Find Your Joy!.The purpose of this book is to introduce positive psychology and the scientific methods to its readers so as to improve their sense of happiness.Referential and appellative functions are the main communicative functions of this source text and the expected function of the target text should be in accordance with the functions of the source text.As a result,the focus of translation should be on how to fulfil these functions in the target text.The instrumental translation strategy,put forward by Christiane Nord,focuses on the communicative functions of the target text,that is,the target text serves as an independent tool for transmitting information in the communication within the target culture.With the guidance of this strategy,the author tries to fulfill the communicative functions of the source text in the target text.The focus of this thesis is how to solve translation problems and fulfil referential and appellative functions with the instrumental translation strategy.In terms of referential function,the translator needs to reconsider the unorganized sentences produced when the writer of the source text simplified the language too much;the translator also needs to add notes to scientific terms to help readers understand their meanings correctly.Considering the appellative function,the translator needs to decide whether to save the objects of metaphors or similes in the translation by comparing the meanings of the objects in the source language and target language,and explain the pragmatic meanings of culture-loaded expressions such as idioms and allusions if readers of the target language cannot understand them.