EST技术翻译的研究：General Introduction of EST and Technical Translation

Introduction引言

现如今已经是一个全球化的信息时代，在工作中翻译已经成为不可或缺的一个十分重要的工具，人们的沟通和交流以及信息的交换，都依靠的是科学发展中的信息交换技术。因此，EST(科技英语)正在中国的经济发展中起到重要作用。在技术规模的层面上来看，技术翻译的历程经历了三个时期。第一个时期从1950年代初到1960年代初开始,期间苏联援助中国多个工业项目，并提供了许多苏联专家和大量的苏联的材料支持，中国专家翻译一大批教科书和学术文献的时候翻译技术不断提高。第二个时期伴随着中国改革开放的政策,并且伴随着西方国家的技术资料开始流行于国内。第三个时期是中国进入WTO,这一时期直到今天仍在延续。
 

Today we are in an age of globalization, and translation has already become an indispensable tool for people to communicate and exchange information, among which science and technological information is vitally important. Thus, EST (English for Science and Technology) is increasingly playing an important role in economic development of China, and in terms of scale, Chinese technical translation has experienced three high tides since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. The first high tide started from the early of 1950s to the beginning of 1960s, during which Soviet Union aided China in 156 industrial projects along with a number of Soviet experts and lots of Soviet materials, and Chinese experts translated a buck of textbooks and the academic literature. The second high tide accompanied with Chinese policy of the reform and opening up, and western country’s technical material and technology began to spread to China due to lots of imported projects. China’s entering into WTO has brought the third high tide and this wave is still going on till today. 
 

With the rapid development of technical translation, it began to be researched systematically at the end of 1970s in China. In 1978, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press published some significant articles, which opened the door to technical translation research. In regards to the research in China, technical translation theory has mainly experienced the following two steps. At first, technical translation drew nourishment from interdiscipline: the principles and methods of linguistics have a far-reaching effect on the development of technical translation; Chomsky’s generative transformational grammatical theory was once used to explain the process of interlinguistic transformation; Austin’s theory of speech can guide technical translation as well—we should recognize the propositional meaning and illocutionary meaning when doing technical translation. Secondly, technical translation concerns with the function of the target texts: Chinese translation research began to study language function in the late 1980s; the principal function of science and technology texts is to objectively represent realities and facts to readers, and these texts are concerned with form as it involves the effective communication and accuracy of information.#p#分页标题#e#
 

As to technical translation research abroad, the essay entitled Some Distinguished Features of Modern Science and Technical Writings, which was delivered by C.L.Barber of British Leeds University in 1962, represented the beginning of the research of EST. However, the focus was only on language form at that time, and its communicative function was neglected. In 1970s, some experts did their research from the surface to the deep structure and style level. Later, more and more people started to do research on EST style. 
 

While technical translation is increasingly significant, there are two misleading ideas about it traditionally. On one hand, technical translation is considered a pure craft, and many clients hold that a translator can do technical translation well as long as he or she has adequate knowledge of a foreign language and suitable dictionaries, even some translators tend to believe that the key to technical translation is adhering to the original structure rigidly and translating everything faithfully; Therefore, both the clients and translators consider technical translation at a micro level and have failed to find strategies and principles that govern the process of technical translation at a macro level. On the other hand, technical translation is restricted within traditional translation theories which only focus on literary translation for a long time. 
 

Therefore, my purposes to write the thesis are not only to make clear the intrinsic characteristics of EST and technical translation, but also to recommend the most suitable translation theory for technical translation. In Chapter 1, a general introduction of EST and technical translation is given to prove the necessity of using Newmark’s communicative translation theory in technical translation, and then its theoretical framework is demonstrated in Chapter 2. Some specific methods for technical translation are presented in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4; Chapter 3 discusses word choice and Chapter 4 focuses on logic, as scientific and technical texts are sensitive to choice of technical and semi-technical terms, and are intrinsically logical as well. 

 

Chapter One  General Introduction of EST and Technical Translation EST技术翻译的研究
 

In order to accomplish a relatively perfect translation, a capable technical translator should master the principle knowledge of EST and technical translation, which will be demonstrated in this chapter, including the concept and the main characteristics of EST as well as the main characteristics of technical translation.

1.1 The Concept of EST

 

1.1.1 Definition of EST

 

EST is the abbreviation of English for Science & Technology，and one of branch of English for Special Purposes(ESP). It is used to mean written discourse on scientific and technical topics and “covers the areas of English written for academic and professional purposes and of English written for occupational (and vocational) purposes, including the often informally written discourse found in trade journals and technical materials written for laymen.”(Trimble, 1985:6).#p#分页标题#e#

 

1.1.2 The Classifications of EST

 

In accordance with the genre, EST can be generally categorized into several different types, such as scientific and technical works, dissertations, reports, science fiction, commentary of vocal materials related to scientific and technical area, and so on.

 

1.2 Main Characteristics of EST

 

1.2.1 EST Vocabulary 

 

1.2.1.1 Classification of EST Vocabulary

 

Vocabulary can be the most important feature of EST, and it can be divided into three categories: technical or professional words, semi-technical words, and non-technical or popular words. 

1) Technical or professional words

Technical or professional words are formal words with precise and narrow meanings unique to a certain field, which usually make up a small part of a scientific and technical text. Therefore, they can be comparatively easily translated as long as a translator masters the corresponding specific disciplines well. For instance, 

hydroxide氢氧化物, lathe 车床, reagent 试剂, amplitude 振幅, impedance 阻抗, photo-chemistry 光电化学, inverter 反向器, etc.

2) Semi-technical words

Semi-technical words occupy the largest part in EST and can also be found in ordinary English, with high frequency across disciplines. However, meanings of these words in technical fields usually differ from their non-technical ones. Meanwhile, even if they are within different technical fields, their precise meanings may be different, depending on the context. For instance，

Power: 力量、权力(used in daily life); 爆发力(used in Science); 乘方、幂(used in mathematics); 动力(used in mechanics);电力(used in electric science); 功率(used in physics).

Splash: 飞溅(used in daily life); 苯丙胺，安非他命(used in medical science).

3) Non-technical or popular words

Non-technical or popular words are used across all styles for laymen. These words include pronouns, conjunctions, numbers, verbs, non-technical adjectives and nouns, etc. Usually, they constitute the framework of a text, which is beneficial to its coherence and completeness.

 

1.2.1.2 Formation of EST Vocabulary

 

A new EST vocabulary is often formed in the following ways: acronym, derivation, blending, and back-formation. For example,#p#分页标题#e#

Deoxyribonucleic acid — DNA (acronym)

Semi-: semiconductor, semicoke, semitone, semiduplex (derivation)

-eer: engineer, auctioneer, mountaineer (derivation)

Camcorder = camera + recorder (blending)

Television – televise (back-formation).

 

1.2.2 EST Sentence Construction

 

1.2.2.1 Nominalization

 

In EST, nominalization of verbs is widely used to show processes, which can achieve conciseness, logic and objectivity of the sentence. For instance:

1) The addition of 2 percent sodium carbonate to boiling water increases the bactericide effect.

2) Two percent sodium carbonate is added to boiling water. This increases the bactericide effect.

Evidently, compared with the second sentence, nominalization in the first sentence leads to brevity and clarity of the meaning.

 

1.2.2.2 Passive Voice

 

Generally, passive voice is uncommonly seen in writing, so as to avoid monotonousness and awkwardness; however, it is abundantly used in EST, which may reduce ambiguity, redundancy and emphasize the most important information at the beginning. 

Take the following examples, from which we can feel the advantages of the passive voice:

1) The resistance must be reduced so that we can have a stronger current.

2) The quartz crystal does not vibrate at certain frequency until the voltage is applied.

    

1.2.2.3 Wide Use of Simple Present Tense

 

Scientific and technical texts always contain regular actions, factual truth, descriptions of experiments and so on, so the simple present tense appears more often in EST writings. For instance:

1) The technicians check the unit once a week. (Regular action)

2) Action is equal to reaction, but it acts in a contrary direction. (General truth)

 

1.3 Technical Translation

 

1.3.1 The Differences between Technical Works and Literary Works

 

There are fundamentally differences between imaginal thinking of literary works and logical thinking in technical works. Although they both reflect objective things, technical works use scientific way while literary works adopt artistic way. Moreover, the language of technical works is often plain and clear, while the language of literary works is lively and visual. Besides, literary works are to satisfy people’s artistic or aesthetical pleasure and other emotional needs, but technical works are mainly used to convey true information.#p#分页标题#e#

 

1.3.2 The Characteristics of Technical Translation

 

1.3.2.1 Objectivity

 

Objectivity can be regarded as the essence of technical works, as well as the fundamental character of technical translation. In technical works, precise and rigid sentences are often used to express the contents accurately and objectively, thus in technical translation, translators must respect the truth without changing the information randomly. 

 

1.3.2.2 Standardization

 

Because technical works use a number of specific technical terms which have been recognized in the academic for a long time, standardization becomes a strict character of technical translation. 

 

1.3.2.3 Acceptability

 

Without doubt, acceptability is an important character of technical translation, making the translation to be readable. The function of technical works is to convey reliable information to the readers, thus technical translation would be useless if it’s full of inaccuracy, redundancy and even obscurity, leading to difficulties in understanding the original text. 

 

Chapter Two   Review of Communicative Translation Theory交际翻译理论的回顾

 

As mentioned above, the literary text-centered translation theories in China can’t be conveniently applied to technical translation, and with regard to the characteristics of technical translation, analysis of translation purpose and text functions is an effective way to identify the appropriate approaches to technical translation. For the purpose of this thesis, I should mention an important person here—Peter Newmark; he is one of famous cotemporary linguists and translation theoreticians, whose theory was first systematically introduced into China in the early 1980s after the opening-and-reforming policy. His most prominent contribution is the theory of semantic translation and communicative translation based on the types of texts, which narrows “the gap between emphasis on source and target language” to some extent. 

 

2.1 Textual Functions and Text-types

 

Peter Newmark proposed in his book Approaches to Translation that “It is perhaps more profitable to begin with Bühler’s statement of the function of language which had a wide influence on the Prague School and has been used by some translation theorists”(Newmark, 2001). Then based on Bühler’s classification of functions, Peter Newmark divided functions of a language into six kinds, among which the expressive function, the informative function and the vocative function are the primary three ones. With these three functions, Newmark raised three general categories of texts correspondingly: the expressive-function texts, the informative-function texts, and the vocative-function texts. His text classification can be illustrated as follows:#p#分页标题#e#

 

Language functions, text- categories and text-types (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:40)

 

2.1.1 Expressive-Function Texts

 

In line with the above features of an expressive-function text, we should recognize idiolects or personal idiolects in this kind of text, in order to find out the personal characters of the author; and when translating these texts, translators have to translate the exact meanings of the original text, and the semantic and stylistic structures of the source language as well. 

    

2.1.2 Informative-Function Texts

 

According to Newmark, “the format of an informative text is often standard: a textbook, a technical report, an article in a newspaper or a periodical, a scientific paper, a thesis, minutes or agenda of a meeting”(Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:40). Thus an informative text is mainly concerned with the true information, not the author like an expressive text. Translators should pay attention to reaction of audience of the source text when translating such texts, so Newmark has proposed a “communicative translation” method that “attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original”(Newmark, Approaches to translation, 1982:39).

 

2.1.3 Vocative-Function Texts

 

As to a vocative-function text, the word “vocative” is used “in the sense of calling upon the readership to act, think or feel, in fact to react in the way intended by the text” (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:41). When translating these texts, translators should make efforts to make sure that readers can understand the text right now and act like readers of the original text. Thus, it’s important to not only use communicative method for translation of vocative-function texts, but also study the linguistic and cultural features of the original text before it plays a pragmatic impact. 

 

2.2 Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation

 

Now we may reach a conclusion that translation is a text-oriented process: the category of the text influences the translator’s choice of suitable translation method. When Peter Newmark considered the three major text-categories, he came up with two translation methods—semantic and communicative methods; Informative and vocative texts are fit for communicative translation method while expressive texts are fit for semantic translation method. Newmark thought “the basic difference between communicative and semantic translation is the stress on ‘message’ and ‘meaning’; ‘reader’ and ‘author’, ‘utterance’ and ‘thought-processes’; ‘like’ or ‘as’—and ‘how’; ‘performative’ and ‘constative’, but this is a manner of difference in emphasis rather than kind.’’ (Newmark, 2001)#p#分页标题#e#

 

2.2.1 The Concepts and Features of Semantic Translation

 

Newmark considered that the focus of semantic translation is to present the accurate contextual meaning of the original text, giving highest priority to the meaning and form of it. Semantic translation is author-centered or source-oriented and source-language biased, so the author’s idiolect, unique form of expression should be maintained, and any correction in source texts is not allowed. Furthermore, semantic translation seldom takes into consideration the readers of the target language, and the target texts are often more complex and difficult to comprehend. In addition, the semantic translation regards a word, collocation or phrase as its translation unit, and it “tends to overtranslate, to be more specific than the intention of the original, to include more meanings in its search for one nuance of meaning”. 

 

2.2.2 The Concepts and Features of Communicative Translation

 

Generally speaking, communicative translation tries to produce on its readers the same effect which has been obtained on the readers of the original text. In contrast to semantic translation, communicative translation gives priority to the effectiveness, readability, and naturalness of the message. It is reader-centered and target-language biased, whose translation unit is bigger than that of semantic translation, taking the sentences or paragraph as its unit to satisfy the understanding of readers of the target language. However, although communicative translation is reader-oriented, it has to respect and focus on the original texts, and it is suited to translation of text whose actual form is not closely tied to its intended meaning.

 

2.2.3 Eight Translation Methods

 

Based on the semantic and communicative translation theory, Newmark (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:45) organized different translation methods into “a flattened V diagram” as following; in accordance with the emphasis degree of the translator is on the SL (Source Language) or the TL (Target Language):

SL emphasis                                              TL emphasis

Word-for-word translation                                Adaptation

Literal translation                              Free translation

Faithful translation                    Idiomatic translation#p#分页标题#e#

Semantic translation        Communicative translation

Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context.

Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.

Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.

Semantic translation: which differs from ‘faithful translation’ only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text.

Adaptation: which is the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.

Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content of the original.

Idiomatic translation: it reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original.

Communicative translation: it attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership. (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:45-47)

    

2.3 Implications for Technical Translation

 

Scientific and technical texts belong to the texts of informative function, and the core of an informative-function text is truth; thus any ambiguity and superficial statement is not allowed in technical translation, in order to make the understanding of the original texts easier to readers. In addition, from the perspective of communicative translation, translators should “attempt to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership” (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988: 47). Therefore, communicative translation is fit for technical translation. Based upon the distinct features of communicative translation, we should seek the same effect of the source language in target language when doing technical translation, and also attach importance on the readership of the target language; there is no doubt that we should remain as much information of the original text as possible.

As said above, the criterion of communicative translation is accuracy of communication of source texts message in target texts, so if translators expect to efficiently demonstrate the same effect of the source texts in technical translation to the readers, they should judge the words and be serious about logic and rhetoric of the target texts as well. #p#分页标题#e#

 

Chapter Three   Word Choice in Technical Translation

 

Accuracy is of significance importance in technical translation, and according to Chapter One, we see that lots of words in scientific and technical works have different meanings in different contexts, so choosing the right word in technical translation is crucially vital.

 

3.1 Preciseness and Appropriateness

 

The above analysis has indicated that in technical translation, a translator must find the right word to ensure that the technical text truly conveys the information to its readers clearly. For example:

 

Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, arrived at this theory through mathematics.

 

In the sentence, “develop” can be translated as “发展”, which is also appropriate in the context; But it is against the scientific fact that Albert Einstein founded the theory of relativity, so the above translation is unacceptable. Simply, we should translate “develop” into “创立” .

 

Example 2:

 

1) Sodium hydroxide is a strong base.

2) Line AB is the base of the triangle ABC.

3) Scientific theories are always based on experiments and proved facts. 

 

The word “base” appearing in the above three sentences owns different meanings and we can decide on its precise meaning in each sentence by frame of reference. In sentence 1), “sodium hydroxide” has indicated that this sentence is about chemistry, thus base means “碱”. In sentence 2), “the triangle ABC” tells us that it is related to mathematics, so base actually means “底边”. In the last sentence, based can be simply translated into “……为基础”.

 

 

3.2 Professionalism and Accuracy

 

In line with what has been described in Chapter One, we know that for semi-technical words, translators should make them “look” professional and exact; while for technical words, translators must find the accurate target language words used in a specific area. For instance, run can be regarded as a general word, but it can’t be translated into its general meaning in a technical text; instead, it should be translated in such a case-by-case basis that a sentence containing the word “run” looks professional and accurate in Chinese. #p#分页标题#e#

 

Example 1: 

1) Locomotives and diesel trucks and ship engines run on a heavy grade of fuel.

机车、柴油载重车和船用发动机靠烧重油运行。

2) Two cables, thirty miles long, run under the sea from English to France.

从英国到法国的海底，敷设了两条三十英里长的电缆

3) The motor runs a rice husker now.

这部马达现在带动一台碾米机。

4) At a certain temperature, the melt in the bush will seize or run.

在一定的温度下，轴套的金属会粘滞或熔化。

 

In the above six sentences, run should be translated with careful consideration. If translators repeatedly translate “run” into its basic meaning—“跑步”, readers of these unprofessional translations will fail to understand the sentences as the readers of the original texts do. 

 

Example 2:

 

Maglev is a system in which the vehicle runs levitated from the guideway (corresponding to the real tracks of conventional railway) by using electromagnetic forces between superconducting magnets on board the vehicles and coils on the ground. 

 

It seems that translators without adequate technical knowledge may translate the paragraph easily, because difficult technical terms can be translated with the help of a specialized dictionary. Thus, it can be translated as “……车辆利用车载超导磁铁和地面线圈之间产生的电磁力在导轨……” However, this translation seems unprofessional. Electromagnetic force means “电磁力”, but here it appears in plural form(forces); The original text also shows that the train uses superconducting magnets. Therefore, we can infer that “electromagnetic forces” indicate attraction created by strong magnetic field of the superconducting magnets and repulsion created by ground coils, and then a professional translation should be: “……车辆利用车载超导磁铁和地面线圈之间产生的电磁吸力或斥力从导轨上浮升起来”.

 

3.3 Extended Meaning of Words

 

In both Chinese and English, we always use words with their extended meanings to illustrate abstract concepts in the specific context. Evidently, Technical translation is without exception. For example:

 

The tendency of all matter in the universe to attract all other matter is called gravitational attraction.#p#分页标题#e#

 

“Tendency” is usually defined in dictionaries as an inclination to do something, but if it is translated into “倾向” here, it will be completely off the point. For Chinese readers, “倾向” is totally irrelevant to something such as “matter in the universe” and “gravitational attraction”. And in fact, “tendency” in the above sentence means a kind of force, which can be better translated as “力”. Thus the whole sentence should be translated into “宇宙万物吸引其它物体的那种力，叫做万有引力”.

 

Example 2:

 

All these inventions are due to the efforts of the inventors and men and women working in all areas of science.

 

For this sentence, the literal translation is “所有这些发明，都应归功于发明家及各个科学领域里的男人和女人们”. “Men and women” in the original sentence is used to strengthen the brevity of the sentence, but in technical translation it needs to be specified, otherwise the readers may become puzzled. Therefore, a professional translation of the sentence should be “所有这些发明，都应归功于发明家及各个科学领域里的男女科学工作者们”.  

 

 

Chapter Four   Logic in Technical Translation逻辑技术翻译

 

Logic is a system of sound reasoning, which is one of main qualities that distinguish scientific and technical texts from other text types, thus translators of technical translation ought to reproduce the logic in the target text and even to restore the logic if the original text is poorly written, just like what Newmark said, “...a high proportion of such texts are poorly written and sometimes inaccurate, and it is the translator’s job to ‘correct’ their facts and their style” (Newmark, A textbook of translation, 1988:41). However, problems in logic may occur during this transformation process, which will be elaborated in this chapter. 

 

4.1 Application of Formal Logic to Technical Translation

 

Formal logic refers to the study of the properties of propositions and deductive reasoning, which can build abstract criteria of consistency and validity. For technical translation, formal logic is useful for eliminating structural ambiguity and establishing well conceptual transformation. 

 

4.1.1 Elimination of Structural Ambiguity

 

Structural ambiguity is commonly seen in scientific and technical texts, which occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure; thus in technical translation, analysis of the text based on formal logic can play an indispensable role in eliminating structural ambiguity during the translation process. For example:#p#分页标题#e#

 

All bodies consist of molecules and these of atoms.

所有的物体都由分子和原子所组成。

 

In accordance with formal logic, we know that two parallel concepts should be two subordinate concepts of one generic concept. So structural ambiguity obviously exists in the above sentence, because the relation between “molecules” and“atoms”is that of including and included, and these two words cannot be put into a parallel structure. Then a suitable translation should be “所有的物体都由分子组成，而分子又是由原子所组成”.

 

4.1.2 Conceptual Consistency and Equivalence

 

A concept means a general or abstract idea of an object, and technical translation is not merely a switching from one language form to another; it contains transfer of concepts in an exact and reliable manner as well. For example:

 

The thermometer rises or falls accordingly as the air is hot or cold. 

 

A literal translation of the above sentence can be “温度计随着空气的热和冷而升降”, but if we make a careful consideration based on logical thinking, we can find that it is in fact the mercury column in the thermometer that rises or falls. So a correct translation should be “温度计的汞柱（读数）随着空气的冷热而下降或上升”.

 

The other problem related to concepts is that lack of careful wording may result in conceptual inconsistency and illogic. Take the following sentence as an example:

 

采用这一方案，缩短了实验时间而保持PARD图谱不变，因而提高了PARD分析的效率。

Using this program, experimental time is reduced, while PARD patterns are not changed, thus, it increases efficiency of PARD analysis.

 

According to the above translation, the phrase “using this program” is a dangling participle, and it needs a person to be its logical subject; but here “experimental time” becomes the logical subject of “using this program”. So the dangling participle leads to displacement of concept, misleading the readers. Thus translators can directly use “方案” as the subject in order to make the sentence logical and concise, and an improved version can be “This procedure saves experimental time without changing PARD patterns, and therefore improves efficiency of PARD analysis”. 

 

4.2 Identification of Implicit Logic Relationship

 

Sometimes, logical relationship in a scientific and technical text may not be explicitly stated, and such implicit logical relationship exists at various language levels including word and phrase, and sentence. #p#分页标题#e#

 

4.2.1 Implicit Logical Relationship at Word Level

 

Some words indicate causality, in particular causative verbs like cause, make, result in, result from, lead to, bring about, attribute to, give rise to and so on; another category of verbs like increase, allow, permit, give, limit, prevent, and act may be viewed as a symbol of cause-and-effect relationship as well. For example, “The difficulty in measuring smoke’s outdoor dispersion has led NIST analysts to simulate the problem mathematically” can be translated into “由于测量烟雾在室外的消散有一定的困难，因此NIST的分析员们采用了数学模拟的方法来处理这一问题”. Another example is that “Altering layers of semiconductors with slightly different compositions can act as mirrors, bouncing a portion of the light back and forth between the faces of a chip” should be translated as “ 由于各层半导体的组分略有不同，所以能起到镜子的作用，使部分的光在芯片界面间来回反射”.

 

4.2.2 Implicit Logical Relationship between Sentence Elements

 

Apart from words and phrases which contain logical relationship, such relationship can also be found between sentence elements. For instance:

 

Seismic measurement of travel time and amplitude would define the subsurface.

 

“Seismic measurement of travel time and amplitude” serves as the precondition of definition of subsurface, which represents a condition-result relationship. Thus it may be translated as “如果测得地震波走时和振幅，就能确定地下岩层的性状”.

 

In addition, the logical sequence of effect-cause or conclusion-explanation is widely used in English writings; but in Chinese, the sequence may be from reason to result. Thus, when we do technical translation between Chinese and English, we should consider this difference carefully and make corresponding adjustment of word order and even sentence order so that readers can understand easily and accept the translation. For instance:

 

Railways are the top mode of transportation for most Chinese passengers. National conditions including a great population and a low average personal income are reasons for this. (Conclusion-explanation)

 

In order to ensure Chinese readers’ good understanding of the paragraph, a better translation should be “我国人口众多和人均收入较低的国情，决定了铁路是大部分国内旅客首选的交通方式”.      

   

Conclusion结论

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English for Science and Technology (EST) can be viewed as a unique style, including use of terminology, wording, and sentence structure. Therefore, the suitable approach to technical translation should remain and well presented EST characteristics in the target texts. But we may find that the traditional translation community in China lacks a complete framework of translation theories, most of which are mainly related to literary translation, so these theories and criteria cannot be applied to technical translation. 
 

For technical translation, its purpose lies in transmitting information from writers to readers precisely and acceptably, and so communicative translation theory proposed by Peter Newmark is apparently fit for technical translation. According to main functions of the language, Newmark categorized texts into three types and technical texts belong to informative-function texts, the core of which is to pursue truth, fact, reality. Moreover, he also put forward two translation methods: semantic translation and communicative translation. Semantic translation gives highest priority to the meaning and form of the original text, while communicative translation emphasizes more on the effectiveness, readability, and naturalness of the message. Thus under the guidance of communicative translation, translators of technical translation may not only convey the information of the original text truly, but also make great efforts to give the readers a natural, smooth and understandable translation.
 

In order to achieve the above-mentioned effect in technical translation, translators must pay particular attention to wording and logic during the process. As for technical and semi-technical words, translators should translate with precision and professionalism, which indicates that translators should choose a context-fitted meaning to produce the same effect on the target language readers as it does on source language readers. In regard to logic in technical translation, translators must reproduce and even restore the logic to ensure the intrinsic logical relationship is presented explicitly. 

To sum up, whether from the perspective of wording or that of logic, a comparatively ideal technical translation can be created with Newmark’s communicative translation. Therefore, we can draw a conclusion that Newmark’s communicative translation theory plays an indispensable and useful role in technical translation.