Comments on Nigel Wiseman s A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine(Ⅰ)——On the“Word-for-word”Literal Approach to Translation

Comments were made on the ＂word-for-word＂ literal translation method used by Mr. Nigel Wiseman in A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. He believes that only literal translation can reflect Chinese medical concepts accurately. The so-called ＂word-for-word＂ translation is actually ＂English-word-for- Chinese-character＂ translation. First, the authors of the dictionary made a list of Single Characters with English Equivalents, and then they gave each character of the medical term an English equivalent according to the list. Finally, they made some minor modifications to make the rendering grammatically smoother. Many English terms thus produced are confusing. The defect of the word-for-word literal translation stems from the erroneous idea that a single character constitutes the basic element of meaning corresponding to the notion of ＂word＂ in English, and the meaning of a disyllabic or polysyllabic Chinese word is the simple addition of the constituent characters. Another big mistake is the negligence of the polysemy of Chinese characters. One or two English equivalents can by no means cover all the various meanings of a single character which is a polysemous monosyllabic word. Various examples were cited from this dictionary to illustrate the mistakes.

Status of Practical Translation

Talking about translation, it seems that people have been researching the pure translation or the pure translation principle. Some researches consider the literature as highbrow art, while count practical translation as rustic art. In fact, since the World War II, translation has developed and involved all fields other than literary translation. In particular, since China joined the World Trade Organization, the practical translation was growing vigorously. However, in recent years, the practical translation is facing frustration. Internal and external reasons can explain the phenomenon.

A Probe into C-E Translation of Publicity Materials of Red Tourism in Hu.nan Province

Hunan Province is rich in red tourism resources, and many scenic spots in the region proudly echo the glory of China's revolutionary history. Publicity materials of red tourism in Hunan Province play the role of publicizing and promoting historical sites and places linked with China's revolutionary history. However, at present the C-E translation of publicity materials of red tourism in Hunan province is far from satisfaction. Reasonable application of eco-translatology in C-E translation of publicity materials of red tourism in Hunan Province will allow the translator to enjoy a much greater degree of flexibility in translating and produce appropriate translation which produce functionally the same effect on the target readers as the original on the readers.

On C-E Translation of Chinese Tang Poetry from the Perspective of Ecotranslatology

Tang poetry is a shining pearl in the history of Chinese literature.C-E translation of Tang poetry is regarded as a very complex and hard task because of its special style and form,concise diction and profound artistic conception.Eco-translatology provides a new perspective for the study on C-E translation of Tang poetry.Based on analysis of some practical examples,this paper discusses some C-E translation methods of tang poetry from the perspective of eco-translatology,namely,adaptive transformation from linguistic,cultural and communicative dimensions.

Peer Feedback in Chinese-English Paragraph Translation Practice:A Case Study

This pilot research is to explore the efficacy of peer feedback in translation teaching and learning in the context where College English Test has great influence on university’s language teaching and learning through a case study.It will shed some light on pedagogical thinking in the context of Chinese ESL teaching and learning.

On the C-E Translation of Cultural Information in Tourist Publicity Materials

Chinese scholar Qiu Maoru points out that the aim of translation is,partly,to establish cultural equivalence between the source text and the target text.He also argues that whether or how to establish cultural equivalence depends on the following four factors:1) the type of source text;2) the significance of cultural flavor in the source text;3) the purpose of translation;4) the type of readers of the target text.This theory provides a good perspective for the C-E translation of cultural information in Tourist Publicity Materials.Under the guidance of this theory,this paper attempts to explore the methods of establishing cultural equivalence in translation of Tourist Publicity Materials.

Translation and Translating:Theory and Practice——A Brief Introduction

Translation has always been playing an important role in the world history, however, it scarcely has gained enough attention in the world stage. In this paper, the author will analyze the importance of translation and translating, hope to arise people attention on this subject.

How to Deal with the Mood in C-E Translation

The mood particle in Mandarin Chinese is a very important kind of mark in the analysis of discourse structure.By varying the discourse structure,changing the word order or using modal verbs,we can translate Chinese into English both accurately and beautifully.

A Study on C-E Translation of Product Introductory Texts on Company Websites Under Skopos Theory

This paper takes the C-E translation of product introductory texts on official websites of three mobile phone makers as the study object under the Skopos theory, with an aim to identify and analyze the distinctive translation features of such special type of text. The exhausted parse and analysis bring out the findings that there exists a significant translation difference between the Chinese and English-version product introductory texts on official websites. It is found that Chinese introductory texts are more inclined to rely on exquisite words and redundant expressions to describe products’ features and functions, while switching to the corresponding English version, simple vocabularies and compact sentence structure are more frequent. Hereafter, this paper raises two practical guidelines to instruct translation activities in business contexts.

A Study on ESP Chinese-English Translating Practice Based on the Translation Memetics

＂Memes＂ translation theory has been applied in translation practice, especially in the field of ESP （English for Specific Purposes） translation. In view of this, based on the relevant ＂memes＂ translation theory and the professional module positioning expressed by ESP, this article analyzes ESP language memes analysis and illustrates some related translation strategies employed in ESP Chinese-English translating practice properly, such as direct translation and indirect translation, semantic translation and communicative translation, foreignizing translation and domesticating translation, etc.

On C-E Translation Strategies and Methods of Zhiba Culture for Global Communication

Zhiba culture is a profound culture with a long history,but there are still many problems in the C-E translation of it,such as low popularity,few recipients,and so on,which hinder its communication and development.Therefore,it’s necessary to improve the quality of C-E translation of Zhiba culture.Based on the perspective of communication studies,combining with the principle of“Information First”,the principle of“The Audience First”,the paper explores the existing problems of Zhiba culture C-E translation and hopes to help to improve the present situation,to truly show the charm of Zhiba culture,to make it better accepted by the international community and optimize the global communication effect.

Translation Quality Assessment： Bridge the Gap between Theory and Practice

Translation Quality Assessment （TQA） is a central concern for both academic research and translation practice. Yet consensus on the issue has almost never been reached among theorists and practitioners. In this paper, a detailed comparison between academic and professional assessment has been made mainly in terms of text type, assessment criteria and models. It is believed that a ＂one size fits all＂ model across academy and industry is neither possible nor necessary. However, the gaps in between could be narrowed down by increasing communication and cooperation between theorists and practitioners, who are advised to turn their focus to translator＇s competence and evaluation process.

Practice Analysis on the Teaching Theory and Skills of English Translation

As a universal language, English makes a better communication between China and the developed countries;English language teaching has become increasingly important in more and more Chinese Schools. At the beginning, when Chinese students start to learn a second language, they need to translate the second language such as English into Chinese in the first hand, and this procedure will help them to understand and learn English better. For English language translation teachers, they need to research and create the suitable, effective method of learning English translation for most students constantly in order to improve the English translation learning efficiency of the Chinese students. The local culture of China is quite different from the culture of other English speaking countries. When our Chinese students study English language translation, at the same time, they need to learn the different culture in different countries and learn how to accept and face up the cultural background difference between our country and the other English speaking countries. In the meantime, during the time of teaching English translation, the English translation subject teachers need to guide the students to learn and understand the difference in practice, and help them to establish a comprehensive and correct idea of learning English translation through teaching correct and different translation skills.

A Contrastive Study on the C-E Translation of the Verb of Perception zhijian from the Perspective of Subjective Consciousness and Objective Consciousness

Verbs of perception include sight,hearing,smell,taste and touch,of which zhijian belongs to sight is very common in literary works,and its semantic meaning also begins to change with the development of time.Based on the original text and two translated versions of the Water Margin,this paper makes a comparative analysis of the translation strategies of zhijian on the basis that Chinese emphasizes subjective consciousness and the mixed consciousness of subjectivity and objectivity,while English stresses objective consciousness with a clear boundary between subjectivity and objectivity.According to previous studies,this paper regroups the appearance of zhijian and divides it into two categories,namely zhijian at the beginning of a sentence and at the beginning of a minor sentence.On the basis of the context and the changing function of zhijian,that is,the function of being a verb and being a discourse marker,it can be concluded that as the meaning of a verb,the real action,the meaning of zhijian is expressed by“seeing”,so translators usually adopt literal translation;while as a discourse marker,it is no longer the main component of sentence structure,but to highlight the following information,translators will adopt deletion,conversion and retaining.It can be seen that translators often need to convert Chinese characterized by subjective consciousness into English dominated by objective consciousness,thus conforming to various meaning of zhijian.

Restructuring and Rewriting:Two Justified C-E Translation Tactics for Publicity Materials about Chinese Cities

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the target-reader-oriented translation strategy for publicity materials about Chinese cities. Under the guidance of functionalism, it is proved that a great variety of translation tactics, restructuring and rewriting in particular, should be adopted to make the target text of publicity materials acceptable to the addressees.

On Approaches to C-E Translation of Chinese Dish Names

Literal translation and free translation are the most common methods of translation. It may be accepted that either the two methods or one, or neither on account of the different understandings of the two methods. The author tries to probe into some approaches to C-E translation of Chinese dish names according to the contrastive studies between Chinese and English dish names.

Problems in C-E Translation of Company Profiles from the Perspective of Linguistic and Cultural Differences Between Chinese and English and Counter Measures

Company profile, as an important propaganda media, plays a crucial role in the growth of Chinese companies and their expansion into the international market. By making comparison between Chinese company profiles and English company profiles in diction, syntax features, passage features, thought patterns and culture, and analyzing C-E translation errors in the company profiles, the writer expect to offer targeted measures to improve the C-E company profiles of Chinese enterprises. To improve the C- E translation of Chinese enterprises, translators need to focus on the following things: the absorbing of source language text, enough communication with people from different cultures and comparative study of Chinese and English.

An Analysis of Problematic C-E Translations of Signs in Light of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory

Based on Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory,this article makes an analysis of the problems in C-E translations ofsigns in China.The author will discuss respectively the problematic C-E translations from two respects:1)not being equivalent tosource-language message,and 2)not being natural for target language.If translators work hard with the help of Nida’s functionalequivalence theory,the defects and imperfections will be discovered,and standard signs in English will be read more and more inpublic places.

A Study on C-E Translation of Puns in Advertisements

Due to concise language and rich connotation, puns have become the most widely used rhetorical devices in various advertisements, to achieve the best communicative purpose, to arouse the customer's emotional appeal and to provoke certain purchasing action. Guided by Skopos Theory, this article aims to explore the practical translation methods in combination with the use of puns in Chinese advertisements.

Reflection on the C-E Translation of Tao Te Ching (Chapter 22)

This paper will give a reflective report on the C-E translation of Tao Te Ching(Chapter 22).An overall reflection will be introduced in the aspects of words and phrases,sentence patterns and the whole text.Through case analysis,the author has deepened his understanding of translation of Chinese classics and gained experience to translate similar texts.