A Study Of English-Chinese Translation Of Meteorological Terms From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Meteorology is a highly international subject,thus English-Chinese translation plays an important role in meteorological international exchange and cooperation.The correct terms translation is the foundation of the spread of Atmospheric Science,while the mistranslation will cause loss in the corresponding field.The translation of meteorological terms is a difficult task for two reasons,firstly,meteorology is a rare and special subject which most translators are not familiar with and its terms and the corresponding terminology are difficult to learn;secondly,meteorological terms are not adequately covered by printed dictionaries(Pascale &Kathleen,1997).The current research on meteorological terms translation is not adequate and requires more researchers to deepen this study not only on the theoretical exploration but also on the translation practice.As the most important theory in the functional school of translation studies,skopos theory mainly consists of three rules: the skopos rule,the coherence rule and the fidelity rule.This thesis mainly studies the translation regulation of meteorological terms from the perspective of skopos theory.This thesis starts with the definition of meteorological terms,and then the feature of meteorological terms is also carefully analyzed.This paper explains the four principles of meteorological terms translation,that is,preciseness,conciseness,univocity and standardization.After that the theoretical framework of this thesis---skopos theory,including its history and its three rules are introduced.From the perspective of skopos theory,the application of skopos theory in English-Chinese translation of meteorology terms is discussed,along with the common mistakes that are made during the translation practice and the vocabulary gap and its translation strategy.Meanwhile,based on the skopos theory,two practical translation methods are introduced.The research is mainly focused on two problems as follows: 1)the essential and prominent features of meteorological terms as well as the applicability of skopos theory in the translation of meteorological terms;2)how meteorological terms should be translated under the guidance of skopos theory.The finding of this thesis is that skopos theory is applicable to meteorological terms translation.Moreover,under this guidance,several translation methods such as transliteration,free translation,mixture of transliteration and free translation are introduced.