Translating Engineering Machinery Texts From Chinese To English: A German Functionalist Approach

In recent years, with the increasing development of China’s foreign trade, improvementof science and technology and need of economic boom, more and more engineeringmachinery products are imported or exported. Professional texts of engineering machineryproducts play a unique role in advertising, marketing, using, maintenance and even innovationand research of these machines. So, translation of these texts is a very important task. In viewof the definite purpose and function of these texts, Functionalist Theory can well guide thetranslation of them. At present, many defects exist in the translation of engineering machinerytexts, such as improper words, encumbrance, mistranslation and barbarism. Further study isneeded in this field. This paper will analyze engineering machinery text from its definition,function, classification and characteristics, reclassify engineering machinery texts on the basisof expected purpose and reader and study the translation strategies of these texts through caseanalysis according to Functionalist Theory, and then discuss the common problems in thetranslation of engineering machinery texts from two aspects of grammar and rhetoric with thehelp of examples. On this basis, this paper will study the translation principles (includingSkopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule) and strategies (including literal translation andfree translation, semantic translation and communicative translation, foreignizing translationand domesticating translation) of engineering machinery texts under the guidance offunctionalist approach and the problems shall be avoided during translating the reclassifiedthree kinds of texts.