On The Translation Of Popular Science Writing For Children From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Popular science writing for children plays an important role in children’s growth and development. It can popularize scientific knowledge, spread scientific ideas, arouse children’s interest in science and cultivate children’s aesthetic capacities. Today’s China is experiencing a booming in the market of popular science writing for children However, most of the best sellers are introduced from abroad. With the unique charm, the introduced popular science writing for children continuously attracts the attention of children. But many problems are easily found in some translated versions, which are not conducive to the understanding and acceptance of children. In view of the fact that there are only very few researches on the translation of popular science writing for children and there is no systematic theory for analyzing this issue, the author takes up the task of analyzing the translation of popular science writing for children from the perspective of skopos theory and discussing its translation techniques.Skopos theory considers that all the translations are purposeful and the purpose of translation determines the translation strategies and translation methods. The target reader of the translation is an important factor in determining the translation purpose. With regard to popular science writing for children, its target readers of translation are children, and the purpose of translation is to serve children. Therefore, the author believes that the skopos theory can be applied in the analysis of the translation of popular science writing for children.Since there lacks of a generally recognized definition for popular science writing for children, the author sets out to redefine popular science writing for children based on previous works on popular science writing and children’s literature, and then proposes a working definition for popular science writing for children.The author adopts case analysis method and inductive method in the analysis of the translation of popular science writing for children. The examples are from the popular science writing for children titled The Magic School Bus:inside the Earth introduced from the United States where The Magic School Bus series are recommended by the US National Library to all the preschool children and the elementary school students as their extracurricular popular science books and they are also the most popular natural science books for children in America. Since this series are introduced into China, they have always been welcomed by children, and they are also awarded "the best-selling books in China". In this thesis, the author will analyze these examples mainly from four aspects:diction, syntax, rhetoric and other translation techniques. From the perspective of skopos theory, the author also respectively summarizes the translation techniques for popular science writing for children.This thesis finds that skopos theory can be adopted to effectively analyze the translation of popular science writing for children. From the perspective of skopos theory, the author summarizes the translation techniques which can be used in its translation. In terms of diction, the translation of technical terms should be accurate and precise. In addition, the translator can appropriately use reduplicated words, onomatopoeia, modal particles, erhua words and Chinese four-character idioms. In terms of syntax, the long sentences can be divided into short clauses and the clause order should be adjusted appropriately, which can help to improve the readability of the target text. As for the sentence pattern with a special effect, the translator can retain the original sentence pattern in order to effectively convey the original meanings and emotions. In terms of rhetoric, the translator can retain the original rhetoric in order to achieve the purpose of the source text. In terms of other translation techniques, the translation of titles should be vivid and interesting in order to attract the attention of children. In addition, the translator can also adopt amplification and creative translation. From the perspective of skopos theory, the author proposes translation techniques for popular science writing for children by analyzing the examples. What is more, the author expects that these translation techniques can be applied in the translation of popular science writing for children in the future.