A Report Of Patent Translation From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Patent translation is of great importance in protecting patentees’ intellectual properties in the international market.Moreover,it can also help researchers and technicians learn new technologies in other countries.Proposed by Nida(1964),Functional Equivalence Theory argues that the translator should convey the message of the source text naturally and prioritize target readers and their responses.In addition,it holds that the translator is supposed to give more attention to the content of the source text than to the form.Guided by this theory and entrusted by Qingdao Baibosi Medical Technology Co.,Ltd.,the author of the report accomplished the task of translating the American patent “Enclosed,Mobile Emergency Response Unit” into Chinese.As a summary of the translation task,this report contains six chapters.Introductory in nature,Chapter One presents the background and the significance of the task and the organization of the report.Chapter Two is a description of the patent,including its structure,main content,and linguistic features.Chapter Three presents the translation process,which could fall into pre-translation preparations,while-translation challenges,and post-translation proofreadings.Serving as the theoretical underpinning,Chapter Four expounds the background and the main arguments of Functional Equivalence Theory and discusses its applicability to this task.Chapter Five makes case analyses of the translation strategies adopted by the author of the report with the guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory.Specifically,on the lexical level,the translation strategies she adopted were mainly omission,amplification,and word-class shift.On the syntactic level,the strategies she applied were mainly division,restructuring,and voice conversion.On the textual level,the strategies she employed were mainly literal translation and free translation.As the summary of the whole report,Chapter Six takes stock of the translation strategies she used during the fulfillment of the task and makes reflections upon her personal pains and gains from it.