| This paper is a hands-on experience report of English-to-Chinese translation on popular science. The source text is extracted from the popular science book Human Evolution. In this paper, specific characteristics of the book Human Evolution are analyzed along with the description of the common characteristics of popular science, based on which Newmark’s semantic and communicative translation methods are introduced, in order to explore the application of the two methods in the translation of popular science. From the perspective of stylistics, popular science is a branch of science, presenting the language characteristics of both science and literature. Therefore, the translation of popular science should be the unity of being faithful to the original facts or basic principles in science and being reader-oriented in literature. In this respect, the translator should apply semantic translation and communicative translation flexibly in order to respectively meet the requirements of science and literature texts. This paper analyzes the application of semantic and communicative methods in the translation of popular science through case analysis. In the analysis, proper translation is selected for the best scientific strictness as well as communicative intelligibility. The principal function of popular science is to restore the scientific truth; therefore, semantic translation should be the priority when intelligibility is not reduced. Generally speaking,the grammar and vocabulary in this book are plain and simple, thus semantic translation is capable of ensuring the intelligibility. However, in some situations where semantic translation may cause difficulties in understanding for target readers, communicative translation will be applied to make the translation smooth and conventional. |
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