Research On The Uncertainty In Popular Science Translation

In 1960,Willard Quine firstly put forward the indeterminacy of translation thesis in his book Word and Object.The thesis was based on the indeterminacy of meaning and the inscrutability of reference,denying the argument "existence of the only correct translation".The bold proposition of this has greatly challenged the status of traditional translation theories,emphasizing the translator's subjective position and has far-reaching significance for translation practice.As a kind of literary genre in a more special style,the translation research of popular science works also has extraordinary significance.Not to mention the poor quality currently,so that the study of popular science translation is necessary.In this paper,Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis is used as the theoretical basis,and the three Chinese versions of the popular science classic Silent Spring are taken as examples for the research,with the case analysis method and the comparative method.The author intends to find out the answers to the following two questions through the study of this paper:(1)How is the indeterminacy of translation of popular science works?(2)How do three Chinese versions of Silent Spring reflect the indeterminacy of translation?Then,this paper demonstrates the phenomenon of uncertainty in popular science translation through three aspects:translator's subjectivity difference,translation translatability limit and word meaning inequality.After comparing the three Chinese versions of Carson's Silent Spring,the author has got three conclusions.In the first place,the indeterminacy of translation of popular science works does exist,and different translators will have different translation choices in translation practice.Secondly,the translation of popular science works has both translatability and untranslatability.Language vacancies,semantic conflicts and information defects can increase the difficulty of translation,which leads to"untranslatability".Finally,the indeterminacy of translation does not mean that"translation can not be done".On the contrary,translators can take some measures to circumvent this uncertainty.With good scientific literacy,solid writing skills,rich translation skills and mastery of the two languages,they can play main roles to create in the translation activities,faithful to the original as a ruler.Then,facing uncertainty in popular science translation,the translator should have dialectical thinking,flexibly use various translation strategies and auxiliary tools with the textual context,and play the main creativity so as to provide readers with a satisfied translation.