Abstract:

Taking the three typical papers about correcting mistranslation of terms published in china as examples, we make a study of the translation methods of the terms. Our result show that the translation method used in case of mistranslation of the terms is just “current translation method”, but the translation method used in case of right translation of the terms is just “translation method of looking for equivalent”. In this paper, “translation method of looking for equivalent” refers to a term translation method, in which, according to the meaning of a source language term and through appropriate way, we can directly find out the corresponding target language term from target language literature, and “current translation method” refers to word-for-word translation, free translation, transliteration, etc. Source language terms, according to the presence or absence of their target language equivalents, can be divided into two categories, one is the terms having target language equivalents, and the other is the terms having no target language equivalents. In numerous literature about term translation in China, although we did not see words “translation method of looking for equivalent” and systemic analysis of it, we have seen the idea on the method frequently. “Translation method of looking for equivalent” is the gem in term translation treasure house in China. The inheritance of the method and putting it into practice are of vital importance for decreasing term mistranslation ratio and improving translation quality, so we must pay close attention to it.

Key words: term translation, major cause of mistranslation, translation method of looking for equivalent, source language term, target language term