| Popular science works are a variant of scientific and technical literature,a genre combining literature and science,whose purpose is to “popularize scientific and technical knowledge,advocate scientific methods,spread scientific ideas and carry forward the scientific spirit.”Popular science text is obviously easier to spread than professional science and technical text.It has both the scientific and informative nature and the characteristics of literariness,popularity and entertainment of literary texts.In this report,the second chapter and part of the third chapter of A Citizen’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence are chosen as the translation materials,i.e.,the transparency and bias of artificial intelligence.Guided by Guo Jianzhong’s translation theory of popular science texts,the author completes the translation with the assistance of Yi CAT.Guo Jianzhong has proposed three basic standards for the translation of popular science texts: 1.Be faithful to the source texts and accurate in conveying scientific knowledge;2.Be fluent in words and literary in style;3.Be easy to understand in wording.In short,the translation of popular science texts needs to meet the three standards of accuracy,literariness and popularity.According to the three standards,the author has summarized some prominent and typical translation difficulties encountered in the practice as follows:(1)Difficulties in accuracy:translation of technical terms(in the scientific and technological,legal and psychological filed),polysemants and complex sentences with subordinate clauses;(2)Difficulties in literariness:translation of long sentences with parentheses,coordinate adjectives and picturesque and relaxed writing;(3)Difficulties in popularity: translation of abstract nouns and passive sentences.The author,adhering to the three standards as well as features of source text,adopts the following methods to solve the translation difficulties:(1)Difficulties in accuracy: literal translation,particularization and adaption;(2)Difficulties in literariness: reconstitution,adoption of four-character phrases and imitation;(3)Difficulties in popularity: addition of category words and inversion.This report verifies that the methods the author has adopted are in conformity with Guo Jianzhong’s three standards,and also proves that Yi CAT can be helpful for the translation of popular science texts.Through this translation practice,the author hopes to improve readers’ understanding of books about artificial intelligence,as well as enrich the research work on popular science texts and shed some light on their translation. |
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