A Report On E-C Translation Of Sci-tech Texts From The Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

In the era of AI(Artificial Intelligence)and big data,modern science and technology is developing rapidly,which benefits human life a lot but at the same poses a big threat to traditional way of life and human knowledge.The existing identification methods have been quickly replaced by biometric technology,which has truly made people’s life and work more convenient and effective but also brought security risks such as loss of privacy and property concerning legal and ethical problems.Thus,science ethics has become a major concern of the international community.The English book Biometric Identification,Law and Ethics is a sci-tech text about such issues.This book is highly professional and comprehensive,presenting the latest information of Biometric science and technology and relevant issues in law and morality.This thesis is a report on translation of the first three chapters of the work Biometric Identification,Law and Ethics under guidance of Relevance Translation Theory.Those theorists hold that translation is interpretation and communication,and propose the relevance-theoretical model for human communication which relies on reference to obtain relevance;and that in translation the translator should provide optimal relevance to make target readers achieve sufficient contextual effect without expending unnecessary effort.Guided by Relevance Translation Theory,the translator in this practice analyzed and inferred the explicit and implicit information from the source language text and also the contextual conditions of target readers,i.e.,the cognitive environment and contextual knowledge of Chinese readers that is different from that of the original author and source language readers.For instance,professional descriptions of the "patterns of finger ridges" such as "arches","loops",and "whorls" in Example 1 are explicatures,while the phrase "free-ride" in Example 12 is implicature,implying "sit idle and enjoy the fruits of others’ work",rather than the commonly used "hitchhike" in Chinese context.Information about biometric law and ethics are even more implicit and inference is always needed.In the translation,the translator adopts appropriate translation methods to make informative intention of the original author meet the target reader’s expectations as much as possible.For a successful translation,both direct translation and indirect translation methods such as literal translation,literal translation plus annotation,shift,adding,division and omission are employed.This research is academically and ethically significant,for it finds the social and moral value of operating the translation of the text about biometrics,law and ethics,the spreading of whose information is to enhance social progress and to warn against possible havoc on human life.The applicability of Relevance Theory as an approach to study of translation of sci-tech texts is also found and proved in this research,and this will draw keener attention to the study and development of the theory.Then,the accomplishment of the task will inspire further relevant study and translation of the text,helping regulate the rational use of products of high technology so as to ensure the security and safety of human society.