A Report On English-Chinese Translation Of Scientific Paper On One Earth Journal (Excerpt)

The natural environment has deteriorated recently,and biodiversity has been lost.Biodiversity,as the foundation for human survival,development,is the bloodline of all life on Earth.Against such a background,this report selects two English scientific papers on biodiversity and offsetting from the journal One Earth as the translation material.The original text is a scientific paper containing many technical terms and is characterized by a high-frequency use of passive voice and long,intricate sentences.The original text,which is typical informative text,functions to convey information and knowledge in biodiversity offsets.By applying Nida’s functional equivalence theory,this paper explores the translation of the original text at three levels:lexical,syntactic,and textual,aiming to discuss the applicability of the functional equivalence theory and provide specific strategies for tackling difficulties in the source text.At the lexical level,the translation of terms and nominal phrases are analyzed.When translating terms,the translator takes advantage of online resources and tools to accurately determine the meanings of technical and semi-technical terms based on the context.At the syntactic level,the translation of passive voice and sentences and long complex sentences are analyzed.Source-text passive voice is partially converted into subjectless sentences in the active voice for the sake of the idiomaticity of the target text.When handling long complex sentences,the translator first analyzes the sentence structure to determine whether certain translation methods are needed.Specifically,the translator mainly adopts the division method to convert long complex sentences into shorter run-on Chinese sentences to conform to the expression habits of the target language.At the textual level,the translator first analyzes in detail the cohesive and coherent devices used in the source text and the cohesive and coherent effects achieved by these devices.Afterwards,the translator adopts flexible methods to reproduce equivalent effects in the target text.Specifically,the translator applies the addition and ellipsis methods in dealing with grammatical devices and partially maintains lexical devices,such as reiteration used to explicitly reveal semantic relationships within the text,to ensure that equivalent coherent effects are reproduced in the target text.In short,the translator should adopt flexible methods and strategies during translation to achieve functional equivalence between the target text and the source text.This translation report provides some references for the translation of the informative text.