A Study On Terminological Translation From The Perspective Of Descriptive Terminology

Terminology is the main vehicle by which a unit of specialist knowledge is represented and conveyed. That is to say, the quality of specialist communication depends on the quality of terminology employed. In the present study, a study on C/E and E/C terminological translation is conducted under the guidance of descriptive terminology. In this study, terminology does not refer to the language of special purpose exclusively in science and technology, but also LSP in humanities and social sciences.This study proposes a descriptive approach to translating terms, trying to help translators without sufficient information about terms acquire knowledge necessary for the understanding of the terms. By combining S. E. Wright and G. Budin’s framework of starting a descriptive terminology project and R. Arntz’s model of term description, this study shows how the knowledge of terms helps translators to improve terminological competence. This approach especially enables translators to be aware of different term usage in different regions and social-cultural contexts. Synonym and polysemy caused by different audience of communication and term loaning among disciplines are also discussed.In order to provide translators with large-scale and reliable information of terms, a bilingual query tool named WIKITERM was developed to assist knowledge acquisition. WIKITERM is an online and local query tool that searches the multilingual on-line resources of terms. A pilot study was carried out searching the knowledge database of Wikipedia in this study.The study confirms the significance and feasibility of the descriptive approach to terminological translation. It sheds light on the importance of terminological knowledge for translators’competence. Besides, case studies of translation difficulties caused by various factors are analyzed with the help of the query tool, which yielded the finding that terminological translation is not such an easy job as to mechanically match terms in different languages but a process involving the systematic analysis of concept designated to terms.