生態科學知識讀物編譯項目——生態學內容翻譯實踐和存在問題的研究

【摘要】：近年來，生態研究報告的語言多數是英語或漢語， 經合格的翻譯，才能把研究結果轉化成有效的科普材料。而科學術語翻譯一直是翻譯界最具挑戰之一的工作。動植物的中文學名從拉丁語轉寫和翻譯而來，再基語境和中文構詞特征重新被命名或翻譯。由于缺乏對不同語言特征的分析，譯者缺乏英語和專業水準，誤譯屢見不鮮。

【關鍵詞】：術語翻譯；功能翻譯理論；多語翻譯；植物學

Science and Development

In the science-driven modern society， translation became an important bridge to transfer updated science and technologies amongst the different language. It is a way to develop one area or nation through building people’ scientific awareness and skill.

Theories in terminology translation：

Functionalist approaches include Hans J. Vermeer’s Skpostheorie， intentional interaction that focuses on purposeful translation between source-text and target language. These methods were used in translation of technology and science text. Plant species names were mostly originated from the Latin； their lexical formation is based on the plant’s function， size， colors and division of family and category. For instance， plant Canna （an indigenous American plant） is translate into Chinese as “美人蕉”， “蕉” carries the core meaning of the plant as Canna belongs to banana family，yet “美人”is added in accordance with its shape to make the translation more lively. This method is due to rhetoric characteristics of Chinese language. Therefore， the Chinese readers could understand the meaning， as Canna is a banana type plant with a beautiful shape by the core word “蕉”. This has functionally translated the core meaning.

However， in the original word Canna， there is no such suffix as “ 美人”， which would destruct to translate the word into another language of different grammatical principles by only referring to the Chinese translation.

The translator is ostensibly the expert in translational action and should be responsible both for carrying out the commissioned task and for ensuring the result of the translation process， even when aspects like formatting and layout are assigned to other agents. （Cf. Vermeer 1989b： 174） Therefore， when such plant terminologies translated into other languages directly， there is a risk to destruct the original meaning as the language would sense “美人”is more important in meaning than “蕉”. As every language has its own grammatical rules， like the Latin， the core part of a word tells its function， for suffix， it prefers to put its color， size or the habitat characteristics rather than rhetoric. It is more sensible to its targeted reader.

Some translation mistakes：

There are many such mistakes， in a third language； such as Canna is directly translated from Chinese as “beautiful tree” that rendered the readers to understand “Canna” is tree belongs to Banana family. Another example could be Tulip， originated from Latin or Persian language with a translation mistake. It is translated into Chinese as郁金香，based upon its shape and function in Chinese context.

Above all， to translate such terminologies， a translator has to refer both to the source language and target language before translating them into other languages. Direct translation is very dangerous. This is also the major task of a trilingual translator in transferring science into a comprehensive public knowledge.

參考文獻：

[1]Language， culture and translating， Eugene A. Nida [M] Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 1993

[2]《十萬個為什么》科學知識-兒童讀物，藏漢翻譯版，朱蘭 [M] 2001

作者簡介：巴桑拉毛， 女，藏族， 籍貫：青海玉樹， 單位：西南民族大學藏學院，研究方向：少數民族語言文學翻譯方向。

基金項目：本文系西南民族大學研究生 “創新型科研項目”項目編號：（CX2016SP225）。