A Rhetorical Approach To English Discourses For Science And Technology And Its Implications For Translation

The development of science and technology is recognized as the defining issue of our time, so as the imports and exports of science and technology. During the process, English science magazines have become the primary medium for knowledge exchange in this field. This paper aims to explore the approaches to the translation of scientific articles selected from Scientific American, Smithonian, Science, Discover and The Economist, and to make an analysis of the methodology outlined in units of EST (English for Science and Technology) discourses under the guidance of Louis Trimble and Yu Jianping’s Rhetorical-Functional Approach.A general introduction of the translation project, together with an overview of the stylistic features of scientific English is provided in the first chapter. A detailed description of Louis Trimble and Yu Jianping’s Rhetorical-Functional Approach is provided in chapter two. Chapter three,the main part, provides several examples to explain how Rhetorical-Functional Approach, which is an illustrated taxonomy of theme, rhetorical techniques, rhetorical functions and rhetorical-grammatical relationships, is applied in the translation of scientific articles. Furthermore, chapter four concludes this thesis by suggesting that the strategies for translation of scientific articles is to focus on the rhetorical functions of units at four levels in EST discourse,and that by applying this methodology, the quality and efficiency of translation can be enhanced.