We examined the multi-disciplinary literature on the noun comparison of the both sides of the Taiwan Strait. We found that the steps of the research progress and logical reasoning of the research were seldom described in the current literature. Based on the present literature, the paper introduces the organizational profiles, naming methods and orientations of the Journalism and Communication Review and Translation committees on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and summarizes the experience of the participants of the Journalism and Communication Committee for Terms in the form of a comparison table, which includes: (1)Reasoning of the term choice; (2)Term validation progress; (3)Subject characteristics. We hope to provide an example for the comparative work or serve as a scientific reference for the members of the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies.
This paper describes the condition and problems of translation of Kazakh medical terms in the development of educational process, and attempts to analyze the significance of standardization of the Kazakh medical terms for better promoting its heritage, popularity and for international communication. Moreover, this paper also points out the necessaries to establish a research team on terminology standardization for Kazakh medical terms.
This paper takes English names of military equipment as its subject and constructs a basic database covering the names of many kinds of military equipment. Through manual annotations, this paper conducts a comprehensive survey on the constructive models of English names of military equipment and the distribution of their internal composition, and also summarizes the main constructive models,constructive elements and their distribution characteristics. In this paper, the proposed constructive models are tested with the untagged datasets of English names of military equipment. The test results show that the proposed constructive models have good descriptive ability and can identify the English names of military equipment with high accuracy. Our research methods and results can not only effectively support the information processing and related teaching work in the military field, but also have important reference value for the related studies in other languages.
Preliminary to term nominalization, management and standardization, term classification enables more focused studies on a certain type of terms and helps reveal their shared features and peculiarities, which is conducive to different terminological applications. Based on such knowledge, this study describes the rhetorical features of a specific type of terms-metaphorical terms in terms of their structural forms, term productivity and emotional coloring with examples from economic studies, and explores how these rhetorical features affect the cognition and communication of metaphorical terms.
In the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China, the translation of physics terminologies was very inconsistent, which became a great obstacle for the rapid spread of modern physics in China. Since 1920, a large number of returned students had made much effort to review and approval the physics terms. They discussed and determined the translation principle of the physics terms, which laid the foundation for unifying physics terminologies. They had presided over the work Physics Group of the General Committee for Scientific Terminology and Terminology Review Committee of Chinese Physical Society, and compiled the Physics Terminologies (First Reviewed Edition), Physical Terminologies Assembly and Physics Terminologies. By 1934, under the leadership of returned students, the physics terms were basically unified and the indigenization process of western physics in China was greatly accelerated.
In terms of the research of dictionary typology, “foreign-oriented dictionary” and “domestic-oriented dictionary” are two key terms, which involves such issues as the users, compiling philosophy, and structure design of the dictionary, and so on. However, based on the relevant literature review, we find that there exists a divergence concerning the English translations of the above two terms in the field of lexicographical study. By retrieving all the literature published before the year of 2018 in the data base of CNKI, this paper firstly explores the status quo of the English translations of the above two terms, and then discusses the problems and causes, and finally proposes related suggestions so as to bring some illumination to the translation of lexicographical terms.
In the 21st century, human talents are the important resource for social and economic development and global competition. OECD and EU firstly constructed a blueprint for education in the new century, expecting future talents to develop based on competency and competence, and then all countries responded. However, the interpretation and application of the two words varied from country to country, so it is necessary to describe the two terms deeply and standardize their translations, and thus promoting educational exchange and cooperation among countries.
In view of the difficulty in understanding the Chinese translation names of English terms in eight states of decoupling analysis in the Chinese literatures published in China, we propose a new translation scheme for decoupling analysis terms. We suggest that the term “expansive coupling” be translated as “联动增长”, the term “recessive coupling” be translated as “联动衰退”, and the term “negative decoupling” be translated as “不良脱钩”.
From the feedback of the three national normative terms in Chinese Terms in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy published since 2003, it can be seen that some people still use abandoned terms. One of the reasons is that obsolete terms no longer existed in database, and users cannot lookup synonymous normative terms for obsolete words. This paper mainly discusses the key technical points and core logic in the construction of synonym query database and retrieval tools of TCM terms. The establishment of the synonym query database provides technical support for promoting the better use of standardized terms in traditional Chinese medicine.
The concept of five spirits, “shen”“hun”“po”“yi ”and “zhi”, is found in Huangdi Neijing. In the full text of Huangdi Neijing, the frequency of “zhi” is just less than that of “shen” among the five terms, yet the study on the connotation and translation of “zhi” is quite inadequate. This study aims at analyzing the English translation of “zhi”. The authors firstly identified the connotation of five spirits, classified the meanings of “zhi” under different contexts, and then analyzed the English translation of one category—“qingzhi” in three English translation versions of Huangdi Neijing. There are some mistranslation of “zhi” due to misinterpretation; the same “zhi” has been translated differently in one version; the same “zhi” has been translated differently among the three versions. Correct translation of “zhi” should be based on accurate connotation and appropriate contexts of “zhi”. For the same connotation “zhi”, consistence should be kept in translation.
Different interpretations of legal terms, due to the deviation between realistic laws and idealistic laws, may give rise to inappropriate translation, which, in turn, hampers the communication with those legal terms. The term “duchuangxing”, because of such deviation, should not be translated into originality without exception. The paper, based on the analysis of the discrepancy between the Chinese term “duchuangxing” and its English counterpart, attempts to present the translation policy of its own and holds that the principle of synchronicity should be observed as well in term translation.
Dunhuang culture is extensive and profound; its grottoes and architecture are the essence of Eastern and Western culture. However, the translation of Dunhuang terms is chaotic, with different versions and problems. Taking the term translation of Dunhuang grottoes and architecture for example, this paper first summarizes standards and basic strategies and methods of term translation. Then it gives a classification of Dunhuang grottoes and architecture, and offers the corresponding versions and translation methods respectively. Based on these studies, the author focuses on how to improve the accuracy of term translation from the aspects of translator’s ability and translation quality assessment.
The Chinese names “xingxing”(orangutan),“daxingxing”(gorilla)and “heixingxing”(chimpanzee)are original loans from Japanese,but they are likely to lead to ambiguity. Now the Japanese have given up these words and switched to other words which no longer interfere with each other, while the original names are still used in Chinese.
There are four academic schools in modern terminology: German-Austrian school, Russian school, Czech-Slovakian school, and Canada-Quebec school. The term research in China is an important part of terminology in the world. This paper analyzes eight distinguished features of terminology in China, and suggests to establish the Chinese school of terminology.
This paper takes the civil engineering industry terms which are formed by abbreviation as the research object. We classified the abbreviations of civil engineering industry as three main word-formation methods: contraction method, omnibus method, and English initial word method. We also analyzed the causes of the civil engineering industry acronyms from the following four aspects: extent of simplicity, workers’ educational level, innovation of technology and management, and policy of industrial development. Furthermore, we discussed the evolution path of civil engineering industry acronyms from the perspective of system linguistics, and explained how civil engineering industry acronyms embodying the language of economics principle from the perspective of communication system model in social informatics.
“The Dunhuang Culture Chinese-English Terminology Database” focuses on the Dunhuang culture and its core terms. This paper takes this database as research object, introduces its construction and terminology management, analyzes the existing difficulties, and puts forward some suggestions for the construction of other culture terminology databases in China.
The creation and construction of Japanese for Science and Technology(JST)cannot be separated from the co-construction of its Chinese equivalent. This paper discusses the relationship between the translation of JST vocabulary and the co-construction of Chinese in light of the interdependence and the properties between Japanese and Chinese. Our results verified the contribution of Chinese to JST vocabulary through the demonstration of the co-construction of Chinese from the aspects of vocabulary, word formation, and word layers, and through the analysis of the co-construction principles via descriptions of the connotations of the concepts as well as the language materials employed.
The German Association for Technical Communication ( Die Gesellschaft für Technische Kommunikation-tekom Deutschland e. V. ) is the largest Association for Technical Communication in Europe. It works as a platform for exchanges of information and experiences for its members in Germany mainly. This article tries to introduce an investigation report made by tekom in 2016 about the situation of terminology management work implemented by companies in Germany. The English version is published in the tcworld magazine on-line with the title “Tight budgets and a growing number of languages impede terminology work”. This report can be regarded as a second report after 2010. The main researchers are still professor Klaus-dirk Schmitz who takes a role as director of the German Information and Dokumentation Center for Terminology, and Dr. Daniela Straub who is responsible for surveys and studies at tekom.
Variable nomenclature of traditional Chinese medicines(TCM)causes confusion, especially when scientific reports have to be interpreted in relation to a TCM herb or using drug safely in clinical trials. Semitransparent translation cases from journals in TCM herbal nomenclature can be classified as the following aspects: homonym, synonyms, similar spellings, multiple botanical origins of a drug with overlapping names, mistranslation between Chinese and English, and conflicting name standards. Transparency and accuracy of nomenclature were elucidated by a couple of examples. we concluded that high quality of scientific reports related to a TCM herb or herbs can be achieved only when TCM herbs are appropriately provided with the corresponding Chinese Materia Medica(CMM)names according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Latin scientific names, along with Chinese pinyin, vernacular names, and proper English names.
We firstly illustrate the different translations of the concept of “二维码”by collecting its various English expressions. Then, we adopt qualitative analysis to explore the concept from the perspective of “二维码”connotation and extension as well as genre and species. We find that “QR code”, which is the most frequently seen in daily life, is not the exact translation of “二维码”; it is just one type of two-dimensional barcodes. We also summarize the difficulties in translating “二维码”into English and problems in terminology standards, and discuss the characteristic of terminology translation in daily application.
The Chinese word“坎儿井” is not only the name of the ancient and unique irrigation project in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, but also a modern Chinese word which has been included by some professional dictionaries or Chinese dictionaries. As a foreign word borrowed from the Uygur language “, kariz”, the Chinese word “坎儿井” is not only lack of initial documentary evidence, but also not unique in word construction, incorrect in structure, incorrect in transliteration, and inaccurate in meaning.
English translation of the names of “xiaoshuo” and its sub-genres is complex, and the phenomena of mistranslation are not uncommon in periodicals and dictionaries. “Fiction” and “novel” are not synonymous in English, and neither word is equivalent to “xiaoshuo” in Chinese, therefore, we need to choose the right word according to the context. There are different opinions on the classification of “xiaoshuo” in English and in Chinese literature. In terms of contemporary Chinese “xiaoshuo”, it should be divided into four sub-genres: “changpianxiaoshuo”, “zhongpianxiaoshuo”, “duanpianxiaoshuo”, “weixingxiaoshuo” or “xiaoxiaoshuo”. The names of the fourth sub-genre (“weixingxiaoshuo” or “xiaoxiaoshuo”) are diverse and confused, while the two most prevalent names are “xiaoxiaoshuo” and “weixingxiaoshuo”. We think the best name should be “weipianxiaoshuo”. Moreover, both “zhongpianxiaoshuo” and “weipianxiaoshuo” have various English translations, which differ in rationality. We can select the precise English expression for each of them on the basis of analysis.
The big data development is changing with each passing day. New demands in application and practical issues emerge in endlessly, and all sectors of the society pay an increasing attention to the basic research on big data. The Big Data Encyclopedia is a vital carrier to implement and accelerate such basic research for its knowledge category classification and overview explanation. In addition, the Big Data Encyclopedia is a tool to spread big data knowledge, so its content should be practical and novel, and its expression should be professional, accurate and precise. Considering terminology is an indispensable organic component in the Big Data Encyclopedia, we discussed features of terminology in big data fields, and proposed collection and treatment principles.
“Raise” and “bring up” are a pair of confusing words in Chinese. The article discusses the similarities and differences between the two words on the semantic and pragmatic levels, and points out that “raise” has dual identity with terminology and generic words. When used as a legal term, “raise” has broad and narrow meanings, while as a common word, only generalized. But the meaning of “raise” is only part of the meaning of “ bring up”. According to the scope of the words and the principle of interpretation of general-purpose dictionaries, the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary only releases the generalized meaning of “raise” and the cases only reflect a generalized usage. This treatment is no problem in itself, but we can make improvements in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Based on the editing experience of chemistry manuscript and papers in Chinese scientific journals, we summarized the problems founded in the practical application of chemistry terminology and proposed the corresponding solutions. Our findings can provide reference for journal editors to grasp the correct expression of basic terms in chemistry manuscript. We think the normalization of scientific terms in chemistry could be improved gradually by checking such common problems.
Topology is a discipline in mathematics. This subject was once called“xingshi jihexue” in Chinese, which was created by mathematician Jiang Zehan, but it was not used for a long time, and later topology was translated into“tuopuxue”. Topology is a transliteration word with both sound and meaning, which may be emerged in the 1940s.
In contemporary American society popular with multiculturalism, “African American”, which can show the heritage and cultural base of Black Americans, has been accepted among the academic community as a more appropriate denomination for the race. But in the academic community in China, this label has three versions in Chinese: “美国非裔” “非裔美国人” “非裔美国黑人”. Such disagreements exist not only between different scholars but in the different works of the same scholar as well, resulting in considerable confusion. In view of the cognitive mechanism of Chinese people and the features of Chinese language as well as the conventional meaning of the Chinese character “裔” , “美国非裔” is, relatively speaking, the most proper Chinese expression. But considering the intent of the English expression and the denotation of the Chinese character “裔” , we think “美国非洲人” might be a better choice for Chinese scholars.
The new version of PLA Military Terms, as the important military terms collection that can reflect the feature of new era and China’s reform innovation, should follow the era’s development, and follow up the pace of reform and rule of law. Also, it should select terms from Xi Jinping’s thoughts on empowering the PLA, relevant expressions concerning war preparation and warfighting, words on deepening defense and military reforms, and the new military legal systems. During the course of selecting terms, principles should be followed such as following the characteristics of the era, being systematic, professional, practical and stable. Also, attention should be paid to selecting material, selecting the terms, careful categorization, so as to construct a military term system with the era characteristics and the PLA features.
With the rapid development of language technology and the diversified demands of language service market, terminology management plays an increasingly important role in translation situation. This paper expounds the significance and typical process of terminology management, and explores the main functions of terminology management tools and their selection strategies, and then analyzes the development trends of terminology management in the new era. The paper also discusses the significance of terminology management in the language service for “the Belt and Road” initiative and the talent training for national language service development.
In recent years, translation team model has gradually replaced the traditional individual translation, and strengthening the management of translation team and improving the translation quality/efficiency have become the focus of attention in the translation industry. Terminology management, a major process involved in project management, plays a significant role in optimizing team work and project management. Based on the self-built and application of terminology management system, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of using scientific means to achieve the goal of effective terminology management, explains the positive significance of terminology management system in improving the efficiency of translation projects, ensuring the quality of translation projects, maximizing the profits of stakeholders, and creating a platform for the cultivation of translators’ terminological competence.
In the translation of international business contracts, translators should deal with many terms in legal, in international trade, in insurance, and in finance. We think that in the teaching of international business contracts translation, teachers should teach not only the basic knowledge of international business contracts and its linguistic features at lexical and syntactical levels, the translation skills, but also the basic knowledge of terminology and term translation principles and skills. By learning terminology and term translation skills and principles, students’ awareness of terminology could be enhanced and then the translation of terms and international business contracts could be improved.
The 26th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) approved the revision of the international system of units (SI). The definitions of all the units of the revised SI have been linked to constants of nature, which no longer rely on any physical artifacts and guarantee their stability and universality. This paper introduces the evolution of and the content of the redefined SI.