Research On Chinese Naming For English Terms

Founded in the 1930s, Terminology has been cultivated as an independent and comprehensive discipline instead of a subcomponent of other subjects in the 1970s. The theories of terminology have been progressively expanded and improved, especially since the 1990s, indicating a significant diversity both in development of ideology and theories, with Computational Terminology, Socioterminology, Textual Terminology, Communicative theory of terminology and Sociocognitive Terminology sprouting out from it. Many countries put much emphasis on terminology, forming their unique theoretical system and research paradigm. There emerged three classical schools of terminology---the Austrian, the Soviet, and the Czech schools in addition to the research areas on Quebec Terminology of Canada and Northern Europe Terminology in the late 20th century. However, in China, Terminology research has a relatively late start, experiencing the process of introduction, review of foreign terminology theories and the stage of absorption to nativelization. Diachronically, the research on terminology in our country is evolving based on introduction, integration and innovation.Terminology, the semiotic designation of concepts in a subject area, exists in every scientific field or subject, whose values lie in communication, especially specialized communication among communities with different languages. Besides the existing terms in Chinese, most are chiefly borrowed from English. Currently, the researches on introduction of English terms to Chinese mainly include the translation methods, principles, criteria and standardization for terminology. Generally, the previous researches are quite discrete and short of systems and comprehensive harmony. There exists the phenomenon of non-standardization or even chaos of terminology denomination in some subject fields, though the terminology denomination accreditation has made huge progress. This research emphasizes how to solve the problems with Chinese naming for English terms, including mistranslation, more than one Chinese names for the same English term of identical concept, the same Chinese name for different terms of different concepts, naming for English abbreviation terms, the criteria for those, and dissemination of the naming.The first problem with Chinese naming for English terms is mistranslation, which violates the scientific principles of terminology, so how to reduce the mistranslation will be one of the tasks in terminology work. Nonequivalence between English and Chinese terms, literal translation of English terms into Chinese, misunderstanding even partial understanding of the concepts the original terms designate may lead to mistranslation, which can be concluded as insufficient knowledge of connotation and extension of the concepts and violation of the principles of priority of the concept over the designation. As for mistranslation of English terms, this research has proposed that updating obsolete names, improving improper translation, and correcting wrong translation make their Chinese names more scientific. Meanwhile, this research also points out that the principle of conventions should be emphasized as well as the scientific principles.Secondly, it is urgent to deal with the phenomenon that the same English term which designates the same concept has some different Chinese denominations. The mono-referential relationship between terms (signifier) and concepts (signified) determines the characteristics of monosemy in a subject area or some specific branch. However, monosemy theory in terminology is not well applied, especially when an English term has more than one Chinese names and the reasons for which are cognitive levels of translators, application of different translation methods, multidimensionality of the concepts and region variation. To reduce this phenomenon is one of the tasks of terminology standardization work, for which this research has put forward the following four solutions, including selection between standardized name and its synonym, coordination between disciplines, academic exchanges and cooperation among regions and collaboration between term standardization organizations.The third problem to be solved is how to eliminate the phenomenon that different English terms for different cincepts have the same Chinese denomination. In terminology practice, monosemy principle is breached by the same Chinese denomination for English polysemous terms, homonymous terms, different forms of English terms that designate different concepts, and relatively synonymous terms within the same subject area. This research has put forth the following solutions:naming for the polysemous terms and homonymous terms in Chinese depends on the concepts in different subject areas, but it should be named respectively according to different concepts within a specific subject field; the English terms that have different concepts and forms should be named differently in Chinese in the same subject area; relatively synonymous terms in English should be named separately in line with semantic variation within a specific subject; the good grasp of homonymous terminology morpheme will be helpful to name the English terms precisely in Chinese.The fourth problem needs to be solved is how to name English abbreviation terms. Relatively, the abstract semantic characteristics of abbreviation may not contribute to the dissemination of terminology and the science and cultures it bears. How to name the abbreviation terms is one of the terminology tasks in our country. This research explores the Chinese naming approaches to English abbreviation terms in forms of clipping, acronym and blending respectively, based on which optimization sequence is put forth for naming, that is, phono-semantic matching naming> semantic naming> formal-and-semantic naming/phonetic-and-semantic naming> transliteration naming> zero translation naming.This research has also elaborated criteria of Chinese naming for English terms from Translatology, Stylistics, Linguistics, Aesthetics and Sociocultural perspectives. In the aspect of Translatology, maximum similarity criteria should be followed, including maximum similarities in contents, forms and styles; Stylistically, Chinese naming for English terms should abide by the principles of specialty, accuracy, systematicness and simplicity as well as monosemy and scientificity. From Linguistics respect, the naming should have proper diction and coinage, and the ideographic features of Chinese characters should be explored for motivation of Chinese naming; Acoustic beauty, visual beauty and the beauty of image in Aesthetics should also be required. In addition, the naming should be governed by such extralinguistic elements as politics, economy, religion and the psychology of language culture rooted in the Han nationality.Given the weak awareness and misuse of terms in some public culture areas, this research has suggested three solutions to work out the difficulties in terminology practice, especially in the dissemination of Chinese naming for English terms, including reinforcing government intervention in terminology to standardization, enhancing the publicity and positive guidance of media and intensifying the instructive function of academic standards and dictionaries.The conclusion of this paper is not final, but open-ended. How to build terminology relevance in Chinese-speaking area, how to make use of network and computer technology to strengthen terminology management for dynamic and detailed record and description of foreign terms, and how to cultivate translators’ terminological competence to reduce nomenclature confusion so as to improve the efficiency of terminology work requires in-depth study in the future.