Translating Chinese Linguistic Terms Into English

The significance of term translation can never be overstated throughout the history of translation in China.Each of the four major periods in Chinese translation history features the practice of term translation in different fields.Since the dawn of translating Buddhist scriptures in ancient times,term translation activities in China have been proceeding for nearly two thousand years.The remarkably massive effort of introducing scientific and technical nomenclature as well as terms of humanities and social sciences from the West runs like a meandering stream,nourishing continuously the development of Chinese civilization in varied ways.It contributes most directly to the theorization of Chinese translation and evolution of Chinese lexicon as well In recent decades,with the expansion of Internet access,the circulation of terms has no longer been confined to the sphere of intralingual use.As a matter of fact,the cross-cultural application of terms is increasingly common.Particularly,the outward journey of Chinese terms into English academia is gathering new momentum.Term translation has entered a new phase of mass-translation.As the practice of term translation has been popularized,such problematic issues as"de-normalization" and "contamination" of term use have come into being.With a view to facilitating the multilingual transfer of terms,scholars have endeavored to work out the term translation strategies,methods,criteria and so on.Nevertheless,previous attention is more focused on the case analysis of term translation while the theoretical underpinning and methodological innovation of term translation are much less stressed.Moreover,lack of reference to the related terminological theories and extensive use of term banks well explain the limitation of term translation research.Without thorough investigation,it is hardly possible to fully understand the system complexity of term translation in a specialized field.The conclusion drawn from the study of individual cases may probably fail to bring solutions to the improvement of term translation on the whole.In view of the status quo of term translation,it is of urgent necessity to conduct further research from new theoretical perspectives and with new methodologies.The study of term translation,as a wide-ranging topic,touches upon all the subject fields from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences.In comparison,the study of term translation in humanities and social sciences is more special and sophisticated due to the culture-loaded terms in large quantities,which makes it possible for extensive research.The present research is centered on the terms in linguistics on account of two reasons as follows:firstly,according to the statistic results of literature categorization in CNKI,compared with other specialized linguistic units in social sciences,research on the translation of linguistic terms was carried out most in which the discussion on the criteria for translating linguistic terms has given rise to a point of contention between scholars;secondly,as the first research achievement in denominating specialized concepts in humanities and social sciences,Chinese Terms in Linguistics can be counted as normative data while building a Chinese-English Linguistic Term Bank,and as systematic research data while re-evaluating the criteria of translating linguistic terms.Against the background of terminological theories,the present research is to reflect upon the theoretical foundations of term translation studies with term bank evidence on one hand,and on the other hand,to discuss three critical issues relating to term translation practice as follows:(1)What are the actualities of the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English on a system level?(2)What are the causative factors the system complexity of the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English is subject to?(3)What are the evaluation criteria for the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English on a system level?To establish a framework for theoretical analysis,the present author makes comprehensive use of philosophical studies,terminological studies and translation studies,and investigates into the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English in four dimensions.The first is an ontological dimension.With special reference to typological terminology,the present research aims to classify the English translations of Chinese linguistic terms with distinguishing features.The second is an epistemological dimension.With special reference to the system complexity theory,the present research aims to deepen the understanding of the system complexity of Chinese-English translation of linguistic terms by means of analyzing the causative factors from three aspects,namely,system structure,system environment and system function.The third is an axiological dimension.The value of the present research can be judged from intellectual communication and cultural exchange on a system level.To be more specific,the intellectual communication is meant to be the interaction between the knowledge systems of Chinese linguistics and English linguistics,and the cultural exchange the interrelationship between two different languages and cultures in the process of translating Chinese linguistic terms into English.The fourth is a methodological dimension.With special reference to contrastive terminology,the present research aims to comprehend the essence of bilingual transfer of linguistic terms by conducting a contrastive analysis of two specialized lexicological systems,knowledge systems and communicative contexts.The preliminary findings of the research are as follows:(1)To describe the status quo of the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English with term bank evidence.The present research bases the theoretical framework on typological terminology,which provides an analytical model for classifying the Chinese linguistic terms from the perspectives of linguistic form,conceptual denotation,diachronic development and systematic function.It finds out that the strategy primarily used for translating loan terms into Chinese is "nationalization"(or "domestication"),while the strategy used for translating Chinese linguistic terms into English is neither utter"internationalization" nor "nationalization".Examining equivalence takes three elements into account,namely,linguistic form,conceptual denotation and knowledge transfer.As for the translation methods used for translating Chinese linguistic terms,there are mainly five,namely,transliteration,interpretation,free translation,literal translation,and a method combining transliteration and free translation.Through a careful observation of the data from the bilingual term bank,the present author identifies three problematic issues of translating Chinese linguistic terms on a system level:a)some translated terms are multi-word ones,making a difference in measuring the language economy;b)the cases of "one-to-many" equivalence are very common,making a difference in conceptual relevance;c)some translated terms lack semantic motivation,esp.those of Chinese native linguistic concepts,making a difference to the balanced culture ecology.(2)To analyze the complicated system factors the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English is influenced with term bank evidence.The present research indicates that the system complexity of the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English is closely related to the system structure,system environment and system function.To be specific,the complexity of the system structure stems from the diverse constituents,different knowledge structure and hierarchical concepts of Chinese linguistic terms;the complexity of the system environment stems from the open,dynamic and functional system environment of Chinese linguistic terms;the complexity of the system function stems from the interactive and adaptive system function of Chinese linguistic terms.In brief,the system complexity of term translation originates from the complexity of term system,and certainly,it is linguistically and culturally conditioned in multilingual use of terminology.(3)In consideration of the systematic research of the translation of Chinese linguistic terms above,the present author discusses the evaluation criteria for the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English on a system level at the end.This research proposes that the evaluation criteria on a system level must be taken into consideration,apart from the criteria for evaluating individual case of term translation.In essence,the evaluation criteria on a system level is composite,which is made up of three specific evaluation criteria,namely,the law of conceptually systematic relevancy,the law of linguistically systematic economy and the law of culturally systematic ecology.Adherence to the rule of the three laws of term translation guarantees the translation quality of terminology in a specialized field both on the macro-structural level and micro-structural level.In brief,the establishment of the "systematic composite criteria" is conducive to the reflections on the essence of the translation of linguistic terms on the one hand;on the other hand,it serves as the general guideline for evaluating the translation of Chinese linguistic terms into English as a whole.The evaluation criteria for term translation on a system level and on individual case level are complementary to each other,and both of them have their own focus.The present research adopts a systematic approach to the English translation of Chinese linguistic terms,of which its significance can be revealed in theoretical,practical and methodological aspects.Theoretically,the present research analyzes the system complexity of the translation of linguistic terms and proposes the composite criteria.In addition,in line with the factual data about the distinctive features of Chinese linguistic terms,the present research amends and supplements the typological terminology to make it more accurate.Practically,the systematic composite criteria can be used as the guiding principles for translating linguistic terms and evaluating the translation of terms in other specialized subject fields.Methodologically,the empirical analysis with term bank evidence and descriptive approach can be introduced to the term translation study in other social sciences,like literature,history,philosophy,etc.