English-Chinese Translation Of Abstract Nouns In Energy Humanistic Texts From The Perspective Of Explicitation

The translation project is selected from Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century,a representative work of Energy Humanities.The book analyzes how petroleum affects the development of American culture and society from such perspectives like environment,philosophy,art and aesthetics,thus figuring out the way human beings coexist with petroleum.A large number of abstract nouns within this book are difficult to understand due to plenty of implicit information which contributes to their research value.Explicitation refers to making the information implicit in the source language manifested in the target language.Based on Claudy’s study of explicitation,this paper focuses on analyzing and summarizing the translation techniques of abstract nouns under the guidance of explicitation strategy,taking the three types of abstract nouns prominent in the source text,namely inherent abstract nouns,behavior abstract nouns and quality abstract nouns as the research objects.During English-Chinese translation,explicitation strategy is commonly applied,after which the translation will be higher in accuracy and readability.Based on the project text,this thesis summarizes the following translation techniques: specification of word meaning,explanation of word meaning,conversion of parts of speech,addition and annotation.All of these translation techniques should be comprehensively and flexibly used in combination with the context,so some of them can be applied to the several types of abstract nouns at the same time,but on the whole,each has its own emphasis.It is concluded that specification of word meaning is mostly applicable to inherent abstract nouns;explanation of word meaning,conversion of parts of speech and addition are mostly suitable for behavior abstract nouns and quality abstract nouns;Annotation is appropriate for abstract noun phrases with cultural connotation or professional information.In short,this thesis is conducive to arousing readers’ interest in the emerging field of energy humanities.Meanwhile,it can also make up for the deficiencies in the translation study of abstract nouns from the perspective of expliciation.