A Translation Research On E-C Translation Of Petroleum Technical English Nominalized Structures

Since consumption and production of petroleum has been one of the most pressing human issues,petroleum technical translation continues to be important.This translation project focuses on three chapters of Oil and Gas Production Handbook written by Havard Devold.The three chapters discuss the history of oil,mining equipment and oil production process,oil refining and petrochemical products.In view of the differences in language structure,the biggest difficulty in translating technical texts from English to Chinese is nominalization,a process that is vital to a successful translation.Chinese and English belong to two different language families,which accounts for the differences in linguistic form,sentence structure and writing style.Some key features of English language texts on petroleum technologies include objectivity,preciseness and conciseness,all of which can be attributed to frequent use of nominalization.We see that increasing the use of nominalization increases objectivity and accuracy of technical language.However,when examining texts on Chinese petroleum technology,we see there is a much higher use of verbs than that of nouns.Through literal translation alone,accurate Chinese expressions cannot be guaranteed.Therefore,in order to translate the nominalization in petroleum technical texts accurately,conversion theory is required.John Cunnison Catford Translation Theory advocates meaning equivalence.Base on the theory,the author provides key translation examples from a translation case study and proposes five translation methods: conversion,amplification,omission,division and reduction.In summary meaning equivalence cannot be achieved through word for word translation or literal translation.Therefore,when translating technical English nominalization,the author should consider logical context and use flexible methods in translation,focusing on conveying meaning rather than reproducing format which will make the translation version closer to the target language.