A Report On E-C Translation Of The Popular Science Text The Weather Machine Under The Guidance Of Reception Theory

The translation of popular science works plays a significant role in educating the public.Translation studies on popular science texts have drawn attention worldwide,but these studies mainly focus on the scientificity and popularity of popular science texts and pay less attention to the literariness and the emphasis of readers'acceptance.Thus it is a must to conduct more studies on this.The reception theory is commonly used in the research and examination of literary translation.Scholars seldom apply reception theory to the translation studies of popular science texts.However,reception theory can also shed a light on the achievement of beauty in popular science texts because reception theory believes that only reading can help achieve the aesthetic values of literary works.At the same time,popular science texts lay stress on readers' comprehension,which coincides with the readers-center reception theory.Under this circumstance,this thesis analyzes the Chinese translation of the first three chapters of The Weather Machine-A Journey Inside the Forecast from the perspective of reception theory and discusses how to reproduce literariness and readers' acceptance of the popular science texts in the translation.Through the analyses of the source text,this thesis finds that it is of great literariness:it frequently uses descriptive words,parallel structures,rhetorical devices like simile and rhyme.Meanwhile,this book tries to popularize scientific knowledge by using concrete examples and vivid expressions,and idioms that are familiar to readers in the west.Under the guidance of reception theory,this thesis,taking into account all typical features of the source text,puts forward feasible translation methods from the perspective of meeting readers' horizon of expectation,achieving fusion of expectation and emphasizing readers' supreme role.In terms of the translation of descriptive words and parallel structures,the translator uses four-character expressions and parallel structures to meet Chinese readers' horizon of expectation;in terms of the translation of simile,when it can meet target text readers'horizon,the translator keeps the simile to best fuse the readers' horizons with the author's,and when it is not,the translator changes the vehicles in simile to fuse readers' horizons to reproduce the literariness;in terms of the translation of rhyme,the translation method of addition is used to best fuse the horizons;in terms of the translation of concrete examples and vivid expressions and idioms,translation methods of addition,omission and domestication are used to reproduce the attention to readers' acceptance.Under the guidance of reception theory,this thesis analyzes the typical features of popular science texts and has a discussion about the feasible translation methods to reproduce literariness and readers' acceptance.This thesis hopes to provide a fresh angle for future studies and attract more scholars to engage in the translation studies of popular science texts.