A Translation Report On Typical Problems In C-E Sci-tech Translation: A German Functionalist Translation Theory Perspective

Driven by a fierce competition among countries, communication in science and technology has been conducted more frequently than before. As a bridge, sci-tech translation plays a key role in such communication. However, a number of researches in sci-tech translation remain superficial in which theories are still divorced from practice. In view of this, this report aims to study sci-tech translation by combining German functionalist translation theory and translation practice.This report is written under the guidance of German functionalist translation theory which regards “teleology” as the core. The theory primarily takes into account the objective of translation and the function of both the source and target texts. Different from the so-called simple equivalence in traditional translation theory, German functionalist translation theory focuses on translation as a purposeful activity. German functionalist translation theory frees translation from the rigid equivalence to the source text, making translation a purposeful activity instead of language trans-coding. The Skopos theory is the core of the German functionalist translation theory, and it consists of three major rules: Skopos rule, fidelity rule and coherence rule. And none of these three can be excluded.This report is based on the author’s practice of C-E translation of a spatial data mining textbook. This text book ranks among the list of 12 th Five-Year Plan. As a textbook, it provides detailed instruction in spatial data mining to students of higher education majoring in software. This report concludes four typical translation problems encountered by the author in her translation practice: the translation of specialized vocabularies, the translation of long and difficult sentences, and the translation of explanatory note of figures and formula. This report aims to provide corresponding translation strategies in regard to the four problems by the adoption of three rules proposed by German functionalist translation theory.