| With the rapid progress of science and technology, international trades and technical cooperation have increased greatly. In this case, English for Science and Technology (hereinafter shortened as EST) has basically become one precondition for smooth international cooperation. As a kind of purposeful text, EST is applied widely in various industries, especially in engineering design, construction, and scientific research. Target readers are in great demand of faithful and smooth translation. For this reason, the thesis aims at exploring effective translation techniques in the light of semantic and communicative translation theories by means of analyzing and studying EST texts and their translations.British translation theorist Peter Newmark pointed out that different translation methods should be adopted according to different text types. He also proposed the following well-known translation theories:"semantic translation" and "communicative translation". Semantic translation puts emphasis on the "content" of the original text, while communicative translation gives priority to the "effect" of the translation. According to text typology theory, technical texts belong to informative type and expressive type. On the basis of abundant examples of EST translation, this thesis discusses suitable translation principles and summaries some important translation techniques.Accordingly, the author suggests that translation of EST texts should both ensure the accuracy of the translation and try to achieve the same effect of the original texts as well. Furthermore, the key principles are advised to be concluded as "faithfulness" and "smoothness"."Faithfulness" means that the translation should accurately reflect the original content without misrepresentation of the original meaning and willful increase or decrease of the content. The principle of "smoothness" requires that the translation ought to be smooth and easy to be understood, which fully takes target readers’receptivity into consideration, so that the translations can achieve the same effect as the original texts. Besides, the thesis summarizes several techniques of EST translation at lexical, syntactical and textual levels.At last, the thesis concludes that the quality of EST translation can be boosted under the guidance of Newmark’s semantic translation and communicative translation theories. The theories can be instructive in translation practice, which can effectively eliminate certain lingual and cultural obstacles during translation. Meanwhile, the thesis points out that the translators need to adopt translation methods flexibly according to different text types. |
