A Comparative Study Of Chinese Connotation Mining And English Translation Of Relevant Efficacy Terms

ObjectiveIn the new stage of English translation to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are lots of problems existing in the translation of TCM action terms which act as the carrier to the effect of TCM. However there still lack enough systematic or empirical researches. In this background, we took action terms of Chinese medicinals related to "heat-clearing" effects as the research object for this study, investigated the Chinese connotation of relative terms and conducted comparative study for English translation basing on Chinese connotation, thereby we explored the rules and skills of English translation for action terms of Chinese medicinals, aimed at laying the foundation for the strategies and methods to the translation.Method1、To review the development of English translation for action terms of Chinese medicinalsWe explored the development of TCM translation and action terms translation in the historical view, summarized and analyzed the relative problems put forward by previous literatures and papers from both Chinese and English levels. The translation of action terms of Chinese medicinals has stepped into a new stage with the TCM translation, however the common and special problems presents gradually, and there still lack of systematic and empirical studies to provide ideas to solve the problem.2、To investigate the Chinese connotation of the action terms related to "heat-clearing" effectsWe extracted five key verbs from the basic effects of Chinese medicinals with cold or cool properties, and constructed related phrases. By these phrases, we screened the relative action terms for this study. Then we investigated the Chinese connotation from three levels: the root of the key verbs, the mode of the relative phrases and logic relation within action terms.3、Comparative study for the action terms related to "heat-clearing" effectsWe screened eight versions of action terms translation as representatives by authority and universality, conducted comparative study of English translation from the aspects of connotation and simplicity, and finally screened or put forward corresponding recommending translation.ResultThrough this study, we can figure out that the problems existing in the Chinese expression and English translation of the action terms related to "heat-clearing" effects: macroscopically speaking, there are different translations for one term in the same context and the same translation for one term with inconsistent connotations in different contexts; microscopically speaking, the translating process is performed without considering the context, including inadequate understanding of the single words, unclear targeting of a single element and inaccurate understanding of logical relationship.There may be three reasons aspects causing the problems including:the inequality between Chinese and English, the unclarity of the connotation in the Chinese and the lack of translation theory for TCM translation.To meet the new requirements for new development phase of TCM translation, the connotations should be investigated layer-by-layer and converted into English. And the suggestions to solve the problem can be as follows:firstly, investigating connotation of the term should take the application (indications) of appropriate Chinese medicinals into consideration; secondly, the connotation investigatio should be combined with the properties and flavors of the corresponding Chinese medicinals, the qualities may also be considered if necessary; thirdly, clarifying the internal logic relationship within terms should recognize the primary and secondary position of the elements; finally, selecting English equivalents should be based on the English definitions and sample sentences.ConclusionWe may deduce that the key solution to the translation of action terms is to investigate the connotation layer-by-layer with the indications、properties and flavors of the corresponding Chinese medicinals, and to select the English equivalents according to the Chinese connotation. In addition, the selection of English equivalents needs the combination of English coonotation and the context. Despite the inevitable limitation of current studies and the bias of the small number of the objects in this study, or some specific problems, the view and method of this study may provide novel strategies and methods for the translation of action terms of Chinese medicinals, and even lay a foundation for the corresponding translation theory.