Transformation Of Cultural Terms And Stylistic Features In Academic Papers

This report is an analysis of a Chinese-English translation task assigned by a university professor. On the brief historical mirroring of logic and its Chinese kinship, the Chinese paper Reception of Culture-loaded Words Traveling in China promulgates the spiritual and cultural transformation reflected from the term translation. The source text is highly academic and involves a large number of philosophical concepts, literary expressions and quotations written in classical Chinese, which are closely related to traditional Chinese culture. Also, as a typical academic paper, the source text is mainly composed of long sentences with rich content and strong logicality. All of these are the key but difficult points in undertaking this translation task. Therefore, this report analyzes the transformation of cultural terms and stylistic features in academic papers by exploring the translation of various culture-loaded expressions and realization of sentence relations.Based on the hands-on practice of this translation task, it is concluded that considering the type and features of the source text as well as the requirements from the commissioner, transliteration plus annotation and coinage are two effective methods in translating philosophical concepts. Literal translation and generalization can be used to translate literary expressions. Borrowing and free translation are feasible for the translation of classical Chinese. As for the realization of sentence relations, combination and division are recommended. The above translation techniques prove to be effective in that the final translation does not only grasp the main idea, but also transform the style of the source text to a large extent.