The Implications Of Discourse Analysis Of Software Localization Translation

It is self-evident that software is vital in the Internet era.As a leader in consumer-grade desktop operating software,Windows 10 has a direct impact on the computer experience of a wide range of users with its localization.Excellent localized translations can help users easily operate their computer,while poor localized ones can bring users into confusion.This thesis discusses the key findings of a corpus-based study on Windows 10 wizard texts,which was designed in the context of localization,and analyzed within the framework of Halliday's cohesion theory.By analyzing the discourse of the Windows 10 texts,the purpose is to identify "translationese" in software localization and improve the software localization translation quality.The writer chooses the texts in the interface of OOBE,settings and Cortana,and then build a small parallel corpus accordingly.The writer analyses the corpus with AntConc and other tools,and concludes as follows.First,the different characteristics of the English and Chinese discourses should be respected,as words used for cohesion and coherence are preferred in English discourse so the translator should not blindly translate the original text of the cohesion words and make it "foreignized".Second,we should follow the register of software text and select the cohesive words in spoken and written language.The mentioned two register cannot be mixed,or the user will feel the discourse in the software to be fragmented.Third,we should recognize the drawbacks of traditional string translation technology.Without the specific discourse and context,the quality of translation will be compromised.In addition,experiences of English-Chinese translation in other fields can be drawn to develop better contextualized translation tools so as to improve the quality of translation.This thesis will hopefully provide with practical ways to optimize the translation quality of Windows 10 texts,which may be relevant to China's "go-global”translation strategy.Likewise,all the advice offered by this thesis can be referred to build China's language system with its own characteristics.