Technical Translation

The thesis is an attempt to eporc some characteristics in technical translation from the perspective of linguistic view. The writers practice as a technical field translator in a large imported engineering project includes vritten and oral translation. For the flexibility and complexity in the process, the communicative approach to translation is adopted. Many examples, which are extracted from the field translation, have been presented to show how these principles guide the writer. Particular emphasis is given to grammatical, cultural and pragmatic elements. However. oving to the fact that language encapsulates too many interdisciplinary elements which influence the interlingual communicating, further studies need to be carried on to accomplish the ideal target, i.e. to overcome the conununication barriers. For any translation is something done with languages, the nature of language is generally discussed in Chapter One. Here the situation substance plays an important role, since equivalence in the target language mainly means that the formal features of the two languages can be related to the same, or nearly the same, features of the situation, i.e. have approximately the same referents. In Chapter Two, a definition of translation is proposed on the basis of the discussion of language nature. Then a model suggested by Nida is quoted to show the complex relationship between the source, message and receptor. Further discussion, including channel capacity and the application of information theory, is introduced to illustrate the theory that guides the writer, i.e. the communicative approach to translation. Since the core of translation is to achieve a functional equivalence, it is discussed in detail in Chapter Three. The chapter includes contents such as the degree of adequacy of equivalence, the method, and the strategy on how to reach a functional equivalence. Under the guidance of the former discussion, the writer tries to explore grammatical, cultural and pragmatic characteristics in Chapter Four. They relate not only to content form, but especially to content substance as well. Sometimes these elements are linked so closely to one another that a comprehensive consideration on rendering is necessary. In short, technical field translation can be an extremely complicated process. Many elements have to be taken into the consideration. A wise principle well put by Johnson (1952) is to be borne in mind: A translator is to be like his author: it is not his business to excel him...