单词术语与多词术语在文献标题翻译的概念信息传递中的比较与探讨

Single Word Terms vs. Multi Word Terms in Conceptual Information Transfer via English to Chinese and Chinese to English Translations of Article Titles

以文献标题中的英—中、中—英翻译为素材，对文献标题翻译概念信息传递中的单词术语与多词术语进行了比较和探讨。

A corpus of 800 original and translated article titles from two English medical journals and two Chinese medical journals is analyzed to see whether single word terms or multi word terms are more representative and informative in conceptual information transfer via English to Chinese and Chinese to English translations of journal article titles in medicine. First, a macroanalysis is conducted to compare the frequency of occurrence of single word terms with that of multi word terms in the original and translated article titles in English and Chinese. Second, a microanalysis is conducted to compare the domain general and domain specific information of single word terms with that of multi word terms in the original and translated article titles in English and Chinese. Both analyses indicate that multi word terms are both more representative and informative than single word terms because the former have a higher ratio in frequency distribution and a higher value in conceptual information representation.