A Report On The E-C Popular Science Translation Project Of "AI Discovery" Under The Guidance Of Adaptation Theory

At present,the new generation of information technology(NGIT)represented by artificial intelligence(AI)is undergoing rapid growth,which has attracted wide attention from the public.To satisfy young people’s curiosity about this advancing field,several scholars from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences registered a WeChat official account in the name of "AI Discovery" and established an online translation studio,devoting themselves to prompt the popularization of scientific knowledge in AI-related areas.The author’s translation practice at this studio is the source of the translation materials of this report.All of the five articles selected are related to the NGIT.Popular science writings show a distinctive feature of adaptability because they endeavor to communicate science-related information to the public in an easy-to-understand way.The translation of these works should adapt to the intra-and extra-linguistic factors of the original texts so as to balance between scientificity and popularity.From this respect,the principle of popular science translation coincides with the main idea of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory.Therefore,with "dynamic adaptation" as the starting point,this report explores the author’s linguistic choice-making process in translating popular science articles on artificial intelligence from two levels,contextual correlates and structural objects,and sums up the adaptative translation techniques that had been frequently applied.To deal with the difficulties in interpretation and expression,the author had made full use of the translation techniques such as addition,subtraction and alteration,trying to adapt to the expectations of the target text readers.All in all,to improve the readability and appeal of the translations,the translator’s dynamic adaptations to the contexts and language structures have run through the entire process of this translation practice.This report verifies the effectiveness of Adaptation Theory in guiding popular science translation on artificial intelligence and could have implications for future translation practice on popular science texts.