On Terminology Translation Of Aristotle's Rhetoric

As a translating activity that transfers specialized knowledge between differentlanguages, terminology translation plays an important role in international academicexchanges. Not enough attention, however, has been paid to this area of translation inChina. And since little importance is being attached to rhetoric as a Western discipline byChinese scholars, scarcely any attention has been paid to terminology translation of keytexts of rhetoric in the European tradition. This paper attempts to probe into terminologytranslation of Aristotle's Rhetoric by comparing the translation of its two Chineseversions and analyzing its terminology, so as to shed new light on terminology translationin general, and the translation of rhetorical terms in particular.To this end, principles and norms of terminology translation proposed by Chinesetranslators of Greek philosophy and literature have been adopted, and for methodology ofconducting the research, the paper refers to relevant theories of terminology.As a preparatory step, this paper first offers a detailed account of Aristotle's Rhetoric,including its historical background, the writing of the text, and its influences. This isfollowed by a critical review of the translation of Aristotelianism and Western rhetoric inChina, introducing two Chinese versions of the Rhetoric, and making a generalcomparison between the two versions.On the basis of this general account, the paper goes on to offer an analyticaloverview of the two versions' terminology translation, and to classify the terms involvedaccording to some features generalized. The analysis shows that differences of translationbetween the two versions occur primarily in logical and specialized rhetorical terms in thefirst three chapters of the work. Then the focus of attention is shifted to a discussion of theproblems in translating those very key terms and sentences in the text. Suggestions areproposed for solving the problem in each case.The findings of this study have significant implications not just for the translation ofspecialized terms in this classical Greek text and in rhetoric as a field, but also forterminology translation in general.