A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Science And Technology Text: Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative (Excerpt)

In recent years,with the development of economic globalization,the countries around the world have enriched their exchanges in science and technology.Therefore,the translation of science and technology texts from English to Chinese is becoming increasingly important.The quality of translation has direct impact on readers' understanding of science and technology texts.Therefore,it is the responsibility and obligation for translators to improve the quality of the translation of science and technology texts from English to Chinese.The selected text Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative(NGMTI for short)is a plan for American military to cooperate with important manufacturing companies in the development of manufacturing technologies.It aims to accelerate breakthroughs in manufacturing technology to strengthen the foundation of the defense industry and improve the status of American manufacturing companies in global economic competition.The “Model-Based Enterprise” proposed by NGMTI is a kind of manufacturing entity that uses modeling and simulation technology to thoroughly improve,seamlessly integrate,and strategically manage all its technical and business processes on design,manufacturing,and product support.It uses product and process models to define,execute,control,and manage the entire enterprise process;and it applies the scientific simulation and analysis tools to guarantee the best decisions at every step of the product lifecycle,radically reducing product innovation,the time and cost of development,manufacture,and support.The selected text Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative is a science and technology text,in which passive voice is used to reflect the objectivity and reliability of the material.The translation of passive voice,however,is not so easy,since the structures with the passive voice need to be adjusted when translated into the target language.This paper explores the translation skills of passive voice from the perspective of Functional Equivalence and proves that it has the practical and reliable guiding significance in the translation of science and technology texts by some examples.As Nida emphasized,“translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language,first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”(Guo,2000:65).The passive sentences in the selected text can be translated into active sentences,passive sentences,judgment sentences and non-subject sentences in order to improve the authenticity,accuracy and readability of the translation,and achieve the best functional equivalence.It is expected that this report is of some referential value for the translation related to the texts of similar types.