A Practice Report On C-E Translation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Patent Abstract Under Guidance Of Skopos Theory

Traditional Chinese medicine(hereinafter referred to as TCM)is an important resource with great innovative potential in China.In the international patent application,TCM is one of the fields in which China has advantages.With enterprises? awareness of the importance of intellectual property continuously improving and the pace of traditional Chinese culture going abroad accelerating,the number of TCM patent application has shown a rising trend both at home and abroad.TCM patent abstract is a most important part of TCM patent application,the demand for the translation thereof has increased dramatically as well.However,looking through the existing studies on translation of TCM,few are about C-E translation of TCM patent abstract.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct a study on C-E translation of TCM patent abstract.In this report,the problems the author met in translating TCM patent abstract are analyzed and corresponding solutions are imposed.These problems include: at lexical level—inappropriate wording,inaccurate translation of Chinese medicinal herb names,and failing to express the connotation of four-word phrases of drug effect;at syntactic level—misunderstanding logic in sentence and lack of subject in sentence;and at discourse level—lack of cohesion and lack of conciseness.According to skopos theory,translation is a purposeful activity.Translators should choose translation strategies and methods on the basis of the purpose of translation.Skopos theory therefore is meaningful in guiding C-E translation of TCM patent abstract.Under the guidance of skopos theory and the three rules(skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule)of it,the author proposes the following solutions: consulting dictionaries,translating Chinese medicinal herb names into Latin,and liberal translation for four-word phrases of drug effect;adopting passive voice,and adding subject or transforming elements in sentence to subject;and adding conjunction and omitting repeated information.In this report,skopos theory is applied to the field of TCM patent abstract translation,which is an extension of theoretical application for skopos theory.