Research on C-E Translation of Patent Abstracts at Different Levels

【Abstract】As China’s opening to the world is enlarged， and the foreign exchanges is deepened， the demands of C-E translation of patent abstracts are increasingly important and become a prominent part in the field of legal translation in China. On the basis of specific examples， the author makes analyses on problems? such? as? mistranslation? of? terminologies， and mistranslation? at? logic at lexical， syntactical and textual levels， and proposes? some? practical? solutions? for? C-E translation? of? patent? abstract? with? the? aim? to? provide? reference? for? the? translators.

【Key words】 patent abstract; problems; solutions

【作者簡介】胡雅麗（1986.11-），女，湖南湘潭人，中國專利信息中心，中級翻譯，碩士研究生，研究方向：英語語言學。

1.The Introduction and Requirements of the C-E Translation of Patent Abstracts

A patent is a form of intellectual property and involves an exclusive right or rights granted by a government to an assignee or an inventor for a limited time period in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention. A patent application is divided into claims， detailed description （or specification）， drawings， background， abstract and summary. A patent abstract aims to make the public understand the essence and nature of a technical disclosure as soon as possible. The purpose of the patent abstract is to provide a concise overview of the technical disclosure of a patent application. Besides， a patent abstract must be no more than 300 Chinese characters. Therefore， the C-E translation of an abstract should be accordingly clear， accurate and concise.

In addition， the C-E translation of the patent abstract should meet the requirements of Espacenet， which is the website for European Patent Office. The logic of translations must be clear and can accurately deliver main contents of the patent abstract. Since patent translation belongs to the technical translation in which terminologies are very importance， terminologies applied in the patent abstract translation should meet common criteria in corresponding industries and must be consistent with the abstract. Translations should be smoothly linked up， fluent for reading and easy for understanding. Distortion， omission and random amplification are prohibited.

It is also required that a translator has a good command of Chinese and foreign languages， as well as technical knowledge. A translator should have certain expertise to understand source texts. Therefore， when translating a patent abstract， the translator should be acquainted with the background knowledge of corresponding technical fields.

2. Corresponding Strategies and Techniques Applied to the C-E Translation of the Patent Abstract in the Lexical Level， Syntactic Level and Textual Level

（1） Lexical Level

Patent documents describe innovative technologies， new methods， new devices and new apparatuses invented by an inventor， so it is inevitable that the patent abstract involves many technical vocabularies including specialized technical vocabulary and general technical vocabulary that may belong to different technical fields. Terminologies are the gist of the patent document. Their accuracy has significant impact on the accuracy and professionalism of the document and will also affect readers’ understanding on this document. Sometimes， if one terminology is translated incorrectly， the invention in the application may be changed and become different from the original one. Therefore， the translator is required to give professional dictionaries and search tools into full play so as to ensure the correct translation of terms; otherwise， the accuracy of the patent abstract will be compromised.

It is always the case that the same terminology in Chinese may have different English translations in the different technical fields. Therefore， background knowledge is important for the completion of translation tasks. Firstly， background knowledge ensures the accuracy of terminologies in a certain technical field， and the translation of the terminologies influences the accuracy of the whole translation. The translator should pay particular attention to the background technical field of the terminologies in a source text before translating the terminologies. Firstly， the translator should check the whole patent document to figure out the technical field; secondly， the translator can resort to online-dictionaries， for example， Youdao Dictionary which provides a user-friendly interface enabling great convenience in screen word snatching and clarity in the classification of technical fields; and thirdly， the translator can check the chosen English translation in parallel texts in the authoritative website of patents， the European Patent Office.

Chinese and English differ in their language structures. Chinese is usually paratactic and its forms of nouns are indistinct， however， English always hypotactic and its forms of nouns should be as precise as possible. Chinese language is not as logical as English. Such kind of condition can be reflected in Chinese patent abstracts. It is indeed true that the singular or plural forms of nouns are not particularly revealing in the Chinese patent abstracts， but the nouns must be unequivocal in the corresponding English ones. Such a feature may become an obstacle for the translator， so he must make his translations clear and accurate based on sentence meanings and contexts and， sometimes， even drawings so that the translations are of high quality and can be understood by target readers in a comfortable way.

（2） Syntactic Level

As for syntactic features， the Chinese patent abstract has three outstanding features. Firstly， active-voice sentences are frequently applied. In the Chinese patent abstract， the performer of an action cannot be determined just by the context; secondly， there are many fixed sentence expressions in the Chinese patent abstract just like the universal expressions in the legal field; thirdly， since logical relations in the technical schemes are intricate， difficult and long sentences are prevalent in the patent abstract. Moreover， Chinese text has its unique features. The sentence boundary is intangible， and full stop and comma at the end of the sentence are both acceptable. Therefore， many long sentences with multiple layers of complete meanings only end with one full stop.

The obvious features of technical text are clarity and fluency in the expression， and， as a result， the translation of the patent abstract always pursues plainness and preciseness and avoids using the expressive words， figures of speech and the like. Compared with the active voice， the passive voice is more concise and objective in the expression aspect. Therefore， in the translation of patent abstract， passive voice is frequently used to make sentences more concise and clear， and almost all of the sentences are translated by using the passive voice to show the conciseness.

There are a variety of fixed expressions and phrases in patent abstracts， and they should be are strictly followed during the course of translation. When translating the patent abstract， the translator should obey the fixed expressions instead of fabrication. The most common fixed expressions in the patent abstract are as follows：

Chinese and English patent have different preferences for voices， but both use long sentences. In the patent abstract， the characteristics of a utility model， the steps of a method， and the advantages of the invention need to be explicit. In order to strictly express the logic relations between elements， long sentences are frequently used to express those important and correlative contents. However， some long sentences cannot be understood in an easy way， and consequently misunderstanding and mistranslation appear.

If the translator wants to achieve the function of the patent abstract and express its real meaning to target readers， he should properly adjust some structures in translation. When it comes to long sentences， two main syntactical problems， namely， the ambiguity in reference and the mistranslation in logic， are commonly encountered in the C-E translation of patent abstracts.

In Chinese， the source text seems simple to read， but actually an ambiguous reference may make the translation complicated. Sometimes， the reference of some pronouns， particularly “其” in the source text concerning parent abstracts written in Chinese， is ambiguous and causes mistranslation and misunderstanding. Furthermore， the patent abstracts written in Chinese frequently apply relatively loose and long sentences， and sometimes， the subjects of the sentences vary from time to time. Certain words are always omitted in the patent abstracts written in Chinese under the premise that the understanding of the source text is not affected. The prominent reason for ellipsis in this sort of text is to keep the description of the patent abstract more concise and compact. Under this circumstance， on the one hand， the translator should clarify the reference by untangling referential relations through the context and， sometimes， even reasoning on the basis of reading the descriptions of the invention， so it is very important for the translator to read the whole disclosure of the invention. On the other hand， the contents omitted must be complemented during translation in order to conform to English practice.

Segmentation is a most frequently applied method for the translator to figure out the logic relations of the long sentences. Segmentation refers to a method to divide a given text into several sections so as to enable the given text to be understood by a target reader more easily and more clearly. The translator should apply segmentation appropriately by analyzing the principal components of the source text and， if necessary， adopt grammatical analysis. “Subject+predicate+object” is the fundamental form in terms of grammatical analysis since almost every sentence has this structure. With the segmentation method applied， complicated logical relations can be clarified. Therefore， segmentation represents a useful solution to problems involving the mistranslation in logic.

Sometimes， a source text， especially the Chinese text， shows some clerical errors which enormously affect the completion of the translation task. At this time， an agent may be inquired so that the translator will understand how to address these problems. Often in case of encountering such problems， the source text needs editing before translating. As a result， the logic of the source text becomes clear.

（3） Textual Level

One distinctive textual feature is that the abstract has a fixed structure pattern， including a title， a first sentence， a main body and a concluding sentence.

The title of the patent abstract is the summary of the whole patent document， of which the translator needs to express the gist of the patent document accurately and concisely. Generally speaking， the title of a Chinese patent abstract is fewer than 25 characters. The English version of the title should not include articles or complete sentences; instead， nominal phrases are applied， and only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized.

The beginning of the patent abstract usually manifests the technical field and the details of the invention， usually in the form of a method， a device， or an apparatus. The beginning should be a complete sentence. Though the content of the beginning is similar to that of the title， they differ in translation requirements. Articles should be used in the beginning： indefinite articles are used when a noun occurs for the first time and definite articles are also applied when a noun occurs more than once.

The middle part relates to the characteristics of the invention and particular steps of the method mentioned above. Simple present tense should be used; when translating steps， the translator should ensure that V-ing is the proper form in translating the actions of each step. In addition， semicolons are used to separate steps， however， imperative sentences are prohibited.

The ending relates to the technical scheme which can solve problems that the prior art fail to do so and summarizes the advantages of the invention mentioned in the patent abstract.

In summary， the patent abstract has its own unique Characteristics in the lexical， level syntactic level and textual level. In the lexical level， the translator should pay particular attention to the accurate translation of terminologies in different technical fields， the singular or plural forms of nouns and the ambiguity of referential expressions. Many online-dictionaries， such as Youdao， and many official websites， such as the European Patent Office， can provide great help for the translator. In the syntactic level， the patent abstract tends to apply many active-voice sentences and long and complex sentences. Therefore， on the one hand， the translator should be careful when converting the active-voice sentences into the passive-voice sentences in order to ensure the correctness of the subjects of the sentences， and， on the other hand， the translator should apply the segmentation strategy to figure out the logic relations of the long sentences. In the textual level， the patent abstract is divided into four parts， which have different specific contents， so the translator should do the translation in a targeted manner on the basis of the content of each part so as to conform to the fixed pattern of the patent abstract.

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