C-E Translation Of Abstracts In Academic Papers: A Functionalism Perspective

The abstract, an important component of an academic paper, plays a crucial rolein academic communication. As the globalization of academic research acceleratesand the international academic dialogues deepen, most academic journals in Chinarequire their authors to provide English abstracts for their papers, so as to helpEnglish speaking scholars to timely learn about the development of China’sacademic research. Recent years have witnessed an increasing trend towards theresearch of C-E translation of abstracts with a special focus on the problems anderrors in translated versions. Relevant studies investigated have been conducted froma series of perspectives. However, the issue has seldom been approached fromfunctionalism orientation.The present study, within the framework of functionalism especially skopostheory and text typology, aims to find out possible problems and errors in theselected translated English abstracts from one hundred sample discourses.The analysis manifests that those translated English abstracts in presentresearch is subject to the following problems and mistakes: spelling mistakes,translationese and chinglish expressions, grammar mistakes, inappropriateterminologies, collocations mismatching, syntactic problems, misuses of tenses andvoices, information missing, subjects changing, sentences and texts mistranslating,sentence order inverting, and so on. Those problems should be partially ascribed tothe translators’ carelessness, lack of professional knowledge as well as unawarenessof the native genre features and conventions for English abstract writings. The studyfurther proposes some suggestions for improving the current translation.The research is expected to deliver useful insights to the teaching andtranslating events in the field of C-E translation of abstract discourses.