A Report On The Translation Of Sri Lanka Highway Construction Project

EST(English for Science and Technology)translation,as the main translation activity conveying scientific and technical information,plays an indispensable role in promoting economic and cultural exchanges among countries.It can bring us the latest updates on science,technologies and information in a systematical way.Due to different linguistic expressions,there are many problems in the field of scientific and technical translation that should be brought to the translators' attention.This study aims to find out the most effective translation method and provide some constructive suggestions in EST translation for other translators.The effect of information transmission,the accuracy of contentsand the standardization of expression are the benchmark against which EST translation may be measured.For a preliminary analysis of scientific and technical texts,the author adopted Eugene Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory as the theory guideline in the whole translation process.According to the Functional Equivalence Theory,the translated text should reproduce the source-language message in the target language by using a “common language”,that is “the closest natural equivalent source language”.To better the understanding,in this thesis,the Functional Equivalence Theory is used as a theory guideline with which E-C translation of Sri Lanka Highway Construction Project is being studied.The thesis is a brief analysis of E-C translation of the Sri Lanka Highway Construction Project.By analyzing translation strategies and techniques such as literal translation and free translation,addition,deletion and recasting,the author draws the following conclusions.As one of the practical translations,EST translation refers to the conversion of scientific and technical texts from one language to another,which involves the analysis of text type,the transformation of parts of speech and reconstruction of sentence structure.Scientific and technical translation is usually set in a certain social environment.The scientific and technical text consists of words,sentences,paragraphs and chapters,which are all structural units aiming to achieve the communicative purpose ultimately by showing their respective functions in the certain communicative environment.Nowadays,the criterion measuring the translation quality has experienced significant changes.By comparison,Nida's functional equivalence theory pays more attention to the reader's role and thereby fitting in the translation of scientific and technical texts.Thus,in translation process,the author should pay more attention to the target readers and functional equivalence of the translated works.