A Report On The E-C Translation Practice Of Principles Of Neural Science (Chapter 3)

The original text of this report is selected from the third chapter“Genes and Behavior” of Principles of Neural Science(Fifth Edition),whose editor-in-chief is Eric R.Kandel,the American Nobel Laureate and a leading figure in neuroscience.The book was published in 2013 by China Machine Press,and its Chinese edition has not yet been released,so the third chapter translated by the translator is the first translation.The chapter explores the relationship between genes and behavior and their abnormal genetic studies.The source text is a non-literary work with objective language and rigorous structure,which is an informational text that emphasizes the content and the authenticity of its content.The main difficulties encountered by the translator in the translation practice are: shifts of words in professional contexts,the transformation of special syntactic structures and the coherence on textual level.On the lexical level,the translator explores abbreviations,terminologies and nominalization in neuroscience texts by adopting such translation methods as the verification of terminologies,appropriateness of abbreviations and shifts of nominalization are adopted;on syntactic level,there exists special syntactic structures,including many passive sentences and long and difficult sentences.The methods of changing of passive-voice,turning long sentences into short sentences,conversion,amplification and splitting are adopted;coherence on textual level,the methods of omission of pronouns,logical relationship between sentences,references and logical reorganization are used to strengthen the cohesion and coherence of the phrases and enhance the readability of the text.Through this translation practice,from the verification of words in the professional contexts to the transformation of special syntactic structures to the coherence on the textual level,the translator realized that for informational texts,the content of the text should be faithfully conveyed.Through this translation practice,the translator has accumulated translation experience,and has greatly improved her ability to translate neuroscience texts,which meets MTI’s professional translation standards,hoping to provide references for the translation practice of the same type of text.Finally,the translator also hopes to make this educational book available to people in this field or other related fields.