科技英语复合词及其翻译

Contents

Abstract and Key words …………...……………………………………………….1

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...2

2. Characteristics of Sci-Tech English compounds ………………………………...2

2.1 Semantic features ………………………………………………………….2

2.2 Feature of form …………………………………………………………….3

2.2.1. Noun compound ……………………………………………………. 3

2.2.1.1. noun (Ving) +noun…………………………………………… 3

2.2.1.2. adjective+noun ………………………………………………. 3

2.2.1.2. adjective+noun ………………………………………………. 4

2.2.1.3. participle (adjective) +noun …………………………………. 4

2.2.1.4. noun+gerund ………………………………………………… 4

2.2.1.5. adjective+gerund …………………………………………….. 4

2.2.1.6. Two modificatory words+one centeral word ………………...4

2.2.1.7. Three modificatory words+one central word ………………... 4

2.2.1.8. Four modificatory words+one central word ………………… 4

2.2.2. Adjective compound …………………………………………………4

2.2.2.1. noun, adjective, adverb+adjective …………………………... ..4

2.2.2.2 numeral, adjective+noun …………………………………….. ..5

2.2.2.3. noun, adjective, numeral+nouned …………………………... ..5

2.2.2.4. noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb+ participle ……………….. ..5

2.2.2.5. Adjective compound which is hyphenate with more than two

words …………………………………………………………...5

3. Grammatical features ……………………………………………………. 5

3. The translation of Sci-tech English compounds …………………………………5

3.1. Approaches of literal and liberal translation ……………………………... 5

3.2 Translations through semantic analysis …………………………………… 6

3.2.1 Transparent word ………………………………………………………... 7

3.2.2 Divergent word ………………………………………………………….. 7

3.2.3 Opaque word ……………………………………………………………...7

4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….8

Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………9

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………….10

Abstract: Today, with a development of science and technology,

compounds play a very important role in glossary. English compounds

widely occur in the scientific books and journals and they have become

an inseparable important part in English vocabulary. This paper discusses

and analyzes the structural and semantic of scientific and technological

English compounds. It presents approaches to deal with the translation of

scientific and technological compounds.

Key words: science and technology； English compounds；

translation

1

Sci-Tech English Compound Words and

Their Translation

科技英语复合词及其翻译

1. Introduction:

A compound is made up of two or more simple word. (OXFORD Advance

Learner‟s English-Chinese Dictionary) Compounding, one of the chief methods of

forming new words, is commonly used in present-day English and today the largest

percentage of new words are formed by compounding. Compounding makes the

active contribution in developing process of the science and technology English

glossary, and enriches the English vocabulary.

Compounds, whose formation is one of the most important means to create new

words, are very productive in the English language. It can be observed that these

words are both extensively and popularly used in recent years‟ English newspaper,

magazines and literary works. This linguistic phenomenon has aroused an increasing

attention and interest among linguists and language user as well.

Compounds mainly include compound noun, such as wind-tunnel computer,

build-up, digital computer, unit process; compound adjective, such as bottle-shaped

tower, stress-relieve, smoke-free; compound verb, such as nickname, outline, sightsee

circuit-breaker; compound adverb, such as moreover, nevertheless. Compound

pronoun, such as another, something, and anybody; compound conjunction such as

whenever. And compound preposition, such as along side, outside, throughout and so

on (Zhang Zhenbang2003). In modern English, many science and technology

glossaries are formed through compounding.

Sci-Tech English compounds possess their own structural and semantic

characteristics. Understanding and analyzing thoroughly one surely helpful in

Sci-Tech English compound translation.

2. Characteristics of

Sci-Tech English compounds

As a lexical unit, English compounds function both semantically and

grammatically.

2.1. Semantic features

Every compound should express a single idea just as one word. For instance, a

green power is the power of money, not a power is green in color. White house is by

no means a house that is white, but an American government building. The meanings

of such examples cannot be easily inferred from the two components of the

compounds. Nevertheless, a lot of compounds are transparent, that is the meaning can

be inferred from the separate elements of compounds. Consider the following random

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examples: space-man (宇航员), lunar rover (月球车), laser printer (激光打印机)，hovercraft (气垫船)。 But the two elements are inseparable and the change of the

element would result in the loss of the original identity.

With the development of science and technology, a large number of Sci-Tech

English compounds are created, especially after the event of a great scientific event

take place, many new Sci-Tech English compounds may be coined. For example, in

1969, man landed on the moon for the first time, and after the great moon landing.

Many compounds connected with the moon occurred. Such as, moon fall(在月球登陆)， moon walk (月面行走), moonquake (月震), moonscape (月景), moon craft (月球探测机), moon shot (把宇宙飞船发射到月球),moon ship (登月飞船)，etc. They

are coined in the form of compounding with new meaning.

2.2 Formative Features

For compounds, in writing and print there are three forms: 1. Solid compounds,

such as sea lab (海洋实验室), deepfreeze (快速冷冻),etc. 2. Hyphenated compounds,

such as environment-friendly (不会破坏环境) and sleeping-bag(睡袋), etc. 3. Open

compounds, such as black hole (黑洞) and container ship (集装箱船)，etc. The

conventions of solidity, hyphenation, and openness have tended to determine whether

a word is considered a compound or not. Solidity and hyphenation endorse and

reinforce compound status, visually distinguishing a greenhouse or a green-house

from a green house (a house that is green). (McArthur, T.1992)

The hyphened compounds are most active lexeme in scientific and technological

English compounding. It likes a mirror of the times and reflects every aspect of

scientific and technological field even all walks of life. For example: 1. in science and

technology: drop-out, data-processing, heat-resistance, boil-off. 2. in radio:

frequency-modulate, radio-phonograph, disc-jockey. 3. in space flight: blast-off,

count-down, splash-down, fire-raising. 4. in industry: machine-building,

steel-production, noise-killer. 5. in life: window-shop, ticket-collector, coffee-drinker.

6. in medical: blood-let, blood-test, heart-lung machine, keep-fit class.

English compounds often occur in the scientific books and journals, so knowing

the basic knowledge of the English compounding is of importance to ESL learners

and helpful for translators to render English compounds into Chinese correctly. Here I

only make a sweeping generalization about the structure of English compound nouns

and compound adjectives.

2.2.1. Noun compound

This is the commonest type, and new specimens are constantly being formed.

Noun compounds are subclassified according to the syntactic relation of the

compounding element. Examples are followings:

2.2.1.1. noun (Ving) +noun

machine language (机器语言), decision science (决策科学), computer capacity

(计算机能力), computer-chronograph (计时计算机), control code (控制码),

laser-seeker (激光自寻导弹), charging neutrality (电荷中和).

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2.2.1.2. adjective+noun

chromatographic column (色谱柱), mechanical filter (机械性过滤嘴),

colorimetric analysis (比色分析), electrical communication (有线点通信),

electric-diagnosis (电器诊断), industrial insurance (工业保险), parabolic velocity (抛物线速度), secondary information (二次情报).

2.2.1.3. participle (adjective) +noun

immobilized biocatalyst (固定化生物催化剂), assimilated quantity (同化量),

saturated hydrocarbon (饱和碳氢化合物), combined carbon (结合碳), controlled

rectifier(可整控流器), oxidizing agent(氧化剂), increasing function(递增函数).

2.2.1.4. noun+gerund

light scattering (光散射), propagation limiting(增殖限制), line breading ( 近亲育种), altitude charging (高空增压), performance checking (性能检查), computer

programming (计算机设计), sideway floating (横向自动调节), vapor planting (汽化渗镀), ray proofing (防辐射).

2.2.1.5. adjective+gerund

manual catching (人工棒烟), late harvesting (晚期采收), regenerative cooling

(再生冷却), universal coupling (万向接合器), analytic cracking (催化裂化),

dynamic programming (动态规划), dieceletric heating (电介质加热), monadic

breeding (单倍体育种).

2.2.1.6. Two modificatory words+one centeral word

mechanical hydraulic governor (机械调速器), industrial distribution equipment

(工业配电装置), electronic data processing (电子数据处理系统), electronic

countermeasure computer (电子对抗计算机), self- compiling language (自动编译程序), air pollution concentration (大气污染浓度).

2.2.1.7. Three modificatory words+one central word

phenosuffuric acid method (苯酚硫酸法), low boiling point component (低沸点烟气成分), computer-controlled manufacture system (计算机控制加工系统),

jack-in-all-trades (万能博士).

2.2.1.8. Four modificatory words+one central word

three-layer construction logic circuit (三层结构逻辑电路), international through

rail service waybill (国际铁路联运运单), foreign trade unit value index (外贸单位价格指数), high technology nicotine delivery systems (高科技尼古丁释放系统).

2.2.2. Adjective compound

Adjective compounds are also subclassified according to the syntactic relation of

the compounding elements.

2.2.2.1. noun, adjective, adverb+adjective

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oil-rich (盛产石油的), electron-hungry (缺少电子的), super-hot (超高温的),

red-hot (炽热的), too -rapid (太快的), under rip (不成熟的).

2.2.2.2 numeral, adjective+noun

long-distance (长途的), high-frequency (高频的), low-temperature (低温的),

atomic-power (原子能的).

2.2.2.3. noun, adjective, numeral+nouned

Iron-willed (有钢铁意志的), cleome plated (镀铬的), high-powered (大功率的),

medium-sized (中型的), four-cornered (四角的).

2.2.2.4. noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb+ participle

labor-saving (省力的), coal-burning (烧煤的), computer-controlled (计算机控制的), jet-propelled (喷气推进的), self-contained (自动记录的), large-carrying (装载量大的), highly0flying (高空飞行的).

2.2.2.5. Adjective compound which is hyphenate with more than two words

up-to-date (新式的), on-the-spot (在现场的), out-of-date (过时的),

difficult-to-operate (难操作的).

3. Grammatical features

A compound tends to play a single grammatical role in a sentence, such as, a

verb, a noun, or an adjective when bad-mouth used as a verb, we must take the form

of the third person singular-s and past tense marker-ed, e.g. „he bad-mouthed me‟

(Ballinger and Sear 1981) Compound nouns show their plural forms by taking

inflectional-s at the end, e.g. such as brothers-in-law, lookers-on. We can‟t make them

“btother-in-laws” or “looker-ons”. In spite of this their important grammatical rules

are apparent.

3. The translation of Sci-tech English compounds

Along with the development of science and technology, English compounds

frequently appear in scientific and technical books, papers, periodicals, and various

documents with the trend of escalation. Therefore, the accurate translation of Sci-tech

English compounds is definitely important.

As the increase of social communication between China and the outside world,

Sci-tech English compounds play even more important role in our daily life. The

compound words are widely used in Sci-tech fields.. So a good translation of

compounds directly affects the quality of versions, even wrongly conveys the Sci-tech

information.

3.1. Approaches of literal and liberal translation

Literal translation and liberal (free) translation are mainly two useful approaches

in translation. The use of them depends on the particle situation and the context of the

original. The British famous translator and theoretician Peter Newmark (2001:76)

says: “Literal translation is the first step in translation, and a good translator abandon

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a literal version only when it is plainly inexact or, in the case of a vocative or

informative text, badly written.”. He also thinks: “literal translation is correct and

must not be avoided, if it secures referential and pragmatic equivalence to the

original”. For most Sci-tech compounds, we may adopt the approach of literal

translation，the approach of literal translation is adopted in the following example.

1）They explain the minimum in rate of work-hardening by transition from a

process of generation of long range stress fields due to dislocation tangles to a

strongly temperature dependent dislocation cutting process or to an

interstitial-jog-hardening mechanism as the deformation temperature is lowered.他们解释加工硬化率最小的原因如下：当变形温度降低时，就从由于位错纠结而引起的生产广域应力场的过程转变到对温度有重大依赖性的位错切断过程，或则变为间充移动硬化机理。

interstitial-jog-hardening is more directly and suitably translated into “间充移动硬化”。

2) the IEA is the energy watch dog for the world‟s biggest oil-importing

countries (shanghai daily,december26,2003) Here oil-importing countries is

translated into “石油输入国”

3) a specially-designed device: a device that is specially designed “专门设计的装置”

4）Born into a poverty-stricken family in east china‟s Shandon Province, We

couldn‟t afford to go to school (china daily, January 4, 2004)我们出生在中国东部山东省的一个贫困家庭,负担不起上学的费用.

The phrase a poverty-stricken family is translated into “一个贫困的家庭”

Liberal (or free) translation is an alternative approach, which is used mainly to

convey the meaning and spirit of the original without trying to reproduce its sentence

patterns or figures of speech. This approach is most frequently adopted when it is

really impossible for the translator to do liter translation.

We often come across scientific and technological compounds, which are

difficult for us to deal with with the literal approaches in the process of translation.

When the literal approach cannot reach what we expected, we may consider using

methods of liberal translation, but no matter how to translate, the context must be

tallied with original text. In the following Chinese versions, we can find the liberal

(free) translation is used.

1) As reported, the system in the district worked around-the-clock to dial the

numbers printed on each advertisement, and eight such mobile phone users

surrendered to the government on the first day. (Shanghai daily, December 27, 2003)

依照报告, 系统在日夜不停的运作拨打打印在各个广告上的电话号码,八名这样移动电话用户在第一天向政府让步了。

Worked around-the-clock it is a compound which can‟t be translated literally.

But its meaning is quite clear, so we put it into “日夜不停” some more examples are

as follows:

2) an out-and-out conservative “一个彻头彻尾的保守分子”

3) a hand-to-mouth pay “温饱工资”

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3.2 Translation through semantic analysis

Semantically, English compounds are categorized into three types. They are

transparent word, divergent word, and opaque word. They have different semantic

meaning from different structures. We should put them into Chinese through semantic

analysis.

3.2.1 Transparent word: The two single words remain their original meaning.

It is not difficult to obtain the meaning of the compound by the literal meaning of

the two words..

Instant coffee 速溶咖啡 laser printer 激光打印机 minicar 微型汽车 brownst褐石 photochemistry 光化学 clay slide 粘土滑动 oilfield 油田 float stone

浮石

Noun+verb+er/or, the compound words of this kind of structure can often be used to

refer to the name and function of some apparatus or machines.

A frequency modulator‟s: ( Function is to modulate frequency) 调频器

Air compressor:( An air compressor is used to compress air) 空气压缩器

An icebreaker: (a ship used to break ice) 破冰船

If the form is verb+er/or refer to “one who does something”, (施事人).

For example, a computer designer: (one who designs computer )电脑设计师.

melting point : (A temperature at which metals melt a point that melts) 熔点

cooling water: (water used to cool machines the water that cools) 冷却水

pungent-smelling :(something that smells pungent) 气味刺鼻的.

white-painted : (something that has been painted white) 漆成白色的.

too-rapid: (excessively rapid) 超速的

dark blue: ( deep in blue color ) 深蓝色的 relaying setter: (a setter that relays

radio signal) 转播机 Bittersweet:( tasting bitter and sweet) 又苦又甜的.

3.2.2 Divergent word: one word has literal meaning, but the other loses its

literal meaning. This type of compounds is also called half transparent compounds.

To deal with this kind of compounds, one should pay great attention to the

structure and the meaning it creates in context, to make sure to reveal its current

meaning in translation.

Super gun长射程大炮 tallboy 高脚柜 green room 演员休息室 French

leave 不告而别 four-order universal filters 四阶通用滤波器 lies-casting 模铸

horse play 恶作剧 quick silver 水银 Indian meal 玉米粉

3.2.3 Opaque word: two parts both lose their literal meanings.

Generally speaking, it is the most difficult one for translators to put them into

Chinese. For the opaque words, we firstly have to get a thorough understanding

structurally, semantically and contextually, and the, present a correct expression.

green power 金钱魔力， blue-collar 体力劳动者，hotfood 恶作剧，hotwater

麻烦，make-believe 假装者， windbreak 防风林， outcome 结果， show-girl 女配角， Spanish athlete 吹牛的人， Russian Blue 瘦长，drive-in business 露天营 7

业式的企业， walk-in business 室内服务式企业， greenhouse effect 温室效应，

a red-letter day 喜庆的日子， weather-beaten 饱经风霜的 a bird-eye view of

ancient history 古代史概观， Shelter life ( the length of time a product may be stored

without deteriorating) 保存期限， Throw-weight ( a missile‟s effective loading

ability) 导弹的有效负荷.

Again, I want to take the compound green power as an example to define the

opaque word. Green power is not used to describe colorful nature, not a power is

green in color. It does not mean “no pollution in the environment”. In fact, green

power represents “power of money or wealth” here. Because in America, paper

money is colored in green. The Americans use “green” to describe wealth. This

example can completely explain “opaque word”. It expresses its profound meaning,

not a literal meaning.

Literal translation and liberal (or free) translation, however, are relative concepts.

In other words, there is no absolute “literal”, or entire “free” version in the practice of

translation, and overemphasizing either of would result in ridiculous consequences.

When we translate compounds, we have to take their formative, semantic,

grammatical and contextual characteristics into consideration.

4. Conclusion

Sci-tech English compounds discussed above are very important in English

learning. It helps us to understand and use compounds appropriately and correctly.

The compounds especially Sci-tech compounds are very productive in the

English language. They have characteristics of their own and the analysis of the

structural and semantic features may help us do well in Sci-tech compound

translation.

Sci-tech English compounds have made great contribution to the development of

science and technology. And Sci-tech development benefits from the translation of

scientific and technological. Therefore, we should translate compounds accurately to

fulfil the function of science and technology English compounds.

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Acknowledgements

It is a great honor to have studied in Xinjiang Agricultural University as an

English major student. Before I graduate from here, I will give my thanks to all the

people who gave me support and help, especially in these days, my teacher, associate

professor Xu Shichang who gave me his kindly help and instructions in the course of

my thesis writing. Then I‟d like to give my sincere thanks to my classmates who

helped me a lot with my information collecting. In the future, I will try my best to do

my job well so as to extend my thanks to all the people who helped me and all

teachers who educated and trained me to be a qualified English major student.

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