A Report On E-C Translation Of Physical Geology(Excerpts)

With the deepening of globalization and rapid development of scientific and technological exchanges between China and the West,the demand for translation of scientific and technical texts is on the rise.As a branch of natural sciences,geology is valued by geological workers both at home and abroad,and it is also widely valued in the translation field.Accurate translation of geological texts is of vital importance.This report is based on the author’s E-C Translation of Physical Geology(Chapter Five to Chapter Ten).Before translation,the author conducted careful analysis of the source text.As an EST textbook of geology,the source text is professional,formal and objective.There are a lot of terminologies in it.The sentences of EST texts own distinctive features,for example,prepositions,nominalization,passive voice,non-finite verbs,and long complex sentences frequently appear in the source text and inanimate nouns are often used as subjects.Based on characteristics of geological texts and differences between English and Chinese,the author adopted some translation skills and techniques under the guidance of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and overcame the difficulties encountered in translation.In translating professional terms,the author mainly referred to authoritative dictionaries such as English-Chinese Dictionary of Geology and websites such as http://www.globalgeopark.org;in translating nominalization with prepositional phrases,the author restored the action nouns into verbs through conversion of part of speech,and resumed the logical relationship between action nouns and nouns behind the prepositions;as for long complex sentences,the author mainly adopted the technique of division and adjustment to translate them.The author made a summary and reflection on this translation practice and raised some suggestions for MTI students concerning attitude toward translation,preparations before translation and time management.The author hopes that the translated text can be of some help to both the students majoring in Geology and geological enthusiasts.It is also the author’s hope that her experience from this translation can provide some references for MTI students when they translate geological texts and similar texts.