A Report On English Translation Of X Passenger Vehicle Maintenance Manual(Excerpt)

Economic globalization has promoted the sharing of automobile product resources on the international stage and has given birth to the automobile-related translation industry.As a significant way for the international community to exchange and communicate,science and technology English is rising in status,so the automobile industry experts increasingly pay attention to the translation of the sci-tech text.The research object of this translation report is X Passenger Vehicle Maintenance Manual(excerpt),which belongs to a descriptive text for automobiles.The contents of the materials consist of two parts: Part A is about “the overview of the maintenance manual” and Part B is about “the vehicle maintenance”.The total number of words is about 14000,which is representative of automobile texts in the sci-tech field.This translation report consists of five parts.Part 1 summarizes the basis of the topic selection and the significance of the report.Part 2 describes a complete process of the translation task,including processing of translation materials,making a reasonable translation plan,selecting appropriate translation tools,and making a term list before translation.Difficulties in the translation are marked and solved by using shift methods while translation.After translation,the translator controls the quality of the translation strictly,polishes the expression of translation,and optimizes the layout and format of the translation.Part 3 is the theoretical foundation,referred to as Catford’s translation shifts theory.Part 4 is the case study,which analyzes the translation skills of specific cases from the perspective of translation shifts theory.It is mainly based on the category shifts,supplemented by the combination of level shifts.Part 5 concludes the translation practice report,including the findings and limitations in the translation process,and puts forward suggestions for future sci-tech translation.In a word,this report makes an in-depth study of the Chinese-English translation of vehicle maintenance manual and explores the application of translation shifts theory in sci-tech translation.By combining the language features of automobile maintenance manuals with Catford’s translation shifts theory,the report finds that the translation methods of level shifts and category shifts can solve the difficulties of sci-tech translation to a certain extent.Therefore,this report summarizes some translation shift rules for vehicle maintenance manuals and aims to provide a reference for future sci-tech translation.