Misleading Elements in Technical English Translation--- A Case Study of Automobile English
Abstract
The fast development of China’s technology has boosted the demand for foreign technical documents, among which the English technical documents comprise of the biggest part. So the translation of technical English became a crucial project. In technical English translation, several fundamental principals are to be followed, i.e., “accuracy, fluency and simplicity”. But during the process of translating, translators will sometimes find misleading elements regarding lexicons, sentences and paragraphs. These elements will affect the outcome of translation and pose potential risks to technology development. The urgent task is to identify these elements and solve the problems caused by these problems.
This thesis will analyze the misleading elements in automobile English translation so as to offer some help in realizing higher quality technical English translation. Those elements will be analyzed at three levels: lexical level, syntactic level and textual level. Examples will be shown to illustrate different elements; causes will be analyzed in order to define countermeasures; solutions will be raised based on related theories and translation experience. The findings of this thesis will be used as a guide to technical English translation.
This thesis could either be used to guide technical English translation practice or as the basis for further study in related areas.
Key words: misleading elements, translation, technical English, automobile English
摘        要
随着中国科技的飞速发展催生了对外来文献的需求，而外来文献中应用最广的则数英语文献。因此，科技英语翻译显得至关重要。其最基本的要求在于“准确规范、通顺易懂、简洁明了”，而在翻译实践中常常会碰到有歧义的英语词汇、句式甚至于逻辑结构，误导译者从而造成各类翻译文献质量参差不齐，对科技发展极为不利。如何识别这类误导元素,更为重要的是如何解决这些元素造成的问题，是亟待解决的问题。
本文旨在分析汽车行业的翻译中容易引起误译的各种元素并找出解决方法，以更好地产出高质量的科技翻译。主要内容将分为三个板块：误导性词语、误导性句子以及误导性段落结构。作者从这三个方面入手，搜集相关材料，然后根据一定标准将其分类，总结出一定的模式，再结合相应的理论及实践经验提出针对不同板块的解决办法，最后总结出汽车翻译的经验以及对科技翻译的借鉴作用，以引导翻译实践走向成熟。
本文可以用来指导汽车英语翻译实践，也可以用来作为相关领域研究的基础。
关键词：误导元素，翻译，汽车英语，科技英语