On Translating Terms Of The Social Science Text A Report On Translating Hypnosis–A Comprehensive Guide

Hypnosis – A Comprehensive Guide, written by Tad James is an academic book in psychology. This book introduces hypnosis methods comprehensively. The author first reviews the history of hypnosis, introduces relevant terms and tools in the field of hypnosis, and then focuses on three notable hypnotic methods. The language style of this book is plain but clear, and this book employs concrete examples to illustrate methods and theories. Therefore, this book is a perfect introductory guide for hypnosis learners. The translation material of this task is chapter 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.Hypnosis – A Comprehensive Guide belongs to the category of the social science text, so this report first analyzes the lexical and syntactic features of the social science text, such as wide use of technical terms, nominalization, and tendency towards passive voice. In this translation process, the translation of terms is the biggest problems for the translator. Thus, this report focuses on term translation in the social science text. Terms, according to Feng Zhiwei(1997), are the lexical units in a specific professional field of a certain language, referring to general theoretical concepts, concrete or abstract. Terms are the starting points of academic research and theory construction; the translation of terms is both complicated and special. After studying the previous criteria of term translation put forward by scholars, the translator comes up with her own criteria, i.e., accuracy, readability, conciseness and conventionality. Later the translator analyzes concrete translation strategies of term translation with examples in the source text. The translator adopts flexibly various translation strategies according to the characteristics of terms such as literal translation, literal translation with annotation, combining literal translation with free translation, coinage, etc.Although a great many passages have discussed the strategies of term translation, the translator gives specific translation strategies through detailed analysis of terms in the source text, and presents her own translation. The translator hopes that the report could make a significant contribution to the research and study of term translation.