A Report On The Translation Practice Of How To Change Your Mind Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the constant progress of science and technology and the progressively close international exchanges,learning advanced foreign science and technology is of great importance to us in this modern era.Therefore,English for science and technology(EST)has become a bridge for communication among S&T workers around the world.As a key link,the translation of EST is essential in our daily life because the progress of S&T advances economic development,in turn,the prosperity of EST promotes further exchanges and cooperation.However,the uniqueness of EST makes the translation quite difficult.In the How to change your mind,with the Chapter One “Renaissance” as a practical case,Eugene Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory as a guidance,the translator summarizes the difficulties in the process of translation and put forward feasible methods on the basis of analyzing the features on EST.Michael Pollan is an American author,journalist,activist.How to change your mind chronicles a long and legendary history of psychedelic drugs,from their turbulent heyday in 1960 s to the counter-movement and backlash that followed.He seeks to illuminate the mechanics of the drugs and his own personal experience of psychedelics to show the inner workings of the human mind and consciousness.As an EST text,it has unique lexical,syntactic and textual features,requiring the translator to be committed to simplicity and precision from the aspects of technical terms,passive voice and modal verbs.Considering the formality and simplicity of EST text,the translator chooses the functional equivalence theory.In the process of translation,the translator should not only attach importance to accuracy of scientific terms,but also focus on some special syntactic translation strategies.The translator realizes that translation is not a simple transformation from one language to another,but the communication and integration between two cultures.Therefore,the translator should embrace good knowledge of language and culture,solid translation foundation and flexible translation skills.More importantly,analyzing and understanding cultural background and connotation of the source language and the target language in depth cannot be ignored,they are good ways to ensure the quality and quantity of the translation.Through summarizing the experience from the whole translating practice,as well as the existing problems,the translator hopes that this thesis will provide some references and experience for the translation on the same subjects.