Faithfulness of the Translation of Popular Science Writings at Idiom and Sentence Levels:A Case Study on Two Popular Science Books of Biology

• Main Authors: Yan-lin Huang, 黃彥霖
• Other Authors: Hsiao-chen Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/70045844322163818677

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 95 === In recent years, the translation of popular science writings has attracted growing attention in Taiwan’s translation community, particularly after the advent of the translation of Scientific American magazine, together with an outburst of a wide array of translated popular science books. Meanwhile, more serious and academic efforts have been made in exploring or correcting relevant translation problems and errors. And yet this fledging branch of translation studies certainly suffers from subjective judgment and a translation quality assessment in lack of systematic and targeted treatment. In view of these inadequacies, this study seeks to achieve a more focused assessment of translation quality by evaluating the faithfulness of translation at the idiom and sentence levels with the examining of two popular science books of biology. One is Clone: The Road to Dolly, and the Path Ahead, authored by Gina Kolata and translated by Hong Lang and the other is The Language of Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present, and Future, authored by Steve Jones and translated by Sih-han Liu. This study also aims to do justice to the translators in two ways. One is by providing more contextual and/or background information and word-for-word back-translation essential for better understanding and making fewer personal or subjective comments. The other is by addressing the faithful translation accomplished by the translators. By so doing, the researcher hopes to help turn a new leaf on the translation quality assessment in this new branch and prompt its reinvention and progress. This study consists of four chapters. Chapter One introduces the background, motivation, rationale, and purpose of this study. Chapter Two presents an overview of the two popular science books, reviews relevant literatures, and presents the translation quality assessment model for examining faithfulness at idiom and sentence levels. Chapter Three analyzes examples with the model presented in Chapter Two. Chapter Four is the conclusion of this study and also offers some suggestions for further study on the translation of popular science writings.