English Translation Of Chinese Neologism

Neologism is the most vibrant part of the language. Since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted, new policies, new things, new phenomena and new ideas keep emerging, greatly enriching Chinese neologisms. In order to better introduce the latest developments in China to the outside world and make China better known to the foreigners, it is of great urgency for us to translate Chinese neologisms into accurate and idiomatic English. The English translation of Chinese neologisms has its distinctive features. First, Chinese neologisms are created at a fast rate and the translators should be especially creative since there may not be ready-made versions for reference. Second, some Chinese neologisms are rich in cultural and political connotations. It is really a great challenge for the translators to transmit these connotations into English. Third, Chinese neologisms originate from a wide range of domains and many of them are technical terminologies. This means Chinese neologism translators should have comprehensive knowledge.For the past two decades, some scholars have done pioneering work in this new-rising field and made some achievements, but even more attention should be paid to the theoretical study in this field.This paper mainly studies Chinese neologisms that came into existence for the last two decades. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of the origins and formation of Chinese neologisms, the writer puts forward four principles and six strategies for the translation of Chinese neologisms. The first special contribution the writer makes is putting forward a new concept-contextual gap. Translators should take "contextual gap" into consideration besides "lexical gap" and "cultural gap". Then the writer analyzes some translations in Xinhua Dictionary of Neologism in the light of these principles and strategies. The writer systematically summarizes the mistranslations and inaccurate translations in this dictionary. In addition, the reasons for the mistranslations and inaccurate translations are also discussed.