English for science and technology generally refers to the English used in scientific works, papers, textbooks, scientific reports and academic presentations in natural science and engineering technology.
Chinese name
English for science and technology
Foreign name
Technical english
Form
Scientific works of natural science and engineering technology
With the development of science and technologyGlobal economic integrationWith the development of English for science and technology, English for science and technology has become more and more important. Therefore, many countries in the world have set up English for science and technology research institutions and related majors in universities.scientistQian SanqiangHe once pointed out that "scientific English has become a special new field of modern English in many countries."
main features
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1. Unlike ordinary English, English for science and technology has perceptual image thinking and no emotional color. Its purpose is to make it easy for readers to understand without too much imagination.Nor often use metaphor, parallelism, exaggeration, etcrhetorical device, but to accurately express the objective lawslogical thinkingDescribe the problem clearly.
2. The lexical meaning of scientific English is relatively specific and stable, especially for a large number of professional nouns.Even the multi meaning ordinary verbs such as do, take, and make are relatively fixed in scientific English, and their expressions are relatively easy to understand.
3. Scientific English is mainly a kind ofwritten languageIt requires preciseness and conciseness, does not require the accumulation of gorgeous words in the text, and does not require the consideration of reading and reciting.
4. Scientific English vocabulary is international.According to relevant statistics, more than 70% of scientific English vocabulary comes from Latin and Greek.Most medical and veterinary vocabulary comes from Latin and Greek.
5. Use formal written verbs instead of colloquial verbs with the same meaning orVerb phrase。
6. In terms of grammatical structure, scientific English is widely usedpassive。The use of passive voice in scientific English can reduce the subjective color of description, enhance the objectivity, and make sentences as concise as possible by hiding the personal subject.
7. Use nouns or noun phrases extensively.
8. Extensive use of non finite verb phrases and participle phrases.
9. Use It asformal subject, instead of the clause that is the real subject of the main sentence, which is led by that.
10. It is often used as the formal subject instead of the real subject after the sentenceInfinitivephrase.
11. MultipurposeprepositionPhrases refer to methods, data, materials, standards, etc.
12. Long sentences containing two or more clauses are common.
primary coverage
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vocabulary
English for science and technology reflects the development and innovation in the field of science and technology.In order to accurately and scientifically explain these new developments and theories, scientific and technological workers have made great efforts in choosing words.
The form of scientific and technological words is generally longer, and most of them originate from Greek and Latin.According to the statistics of Oscar E. Nybaken, an American expert in English for science and technology, about 46% of the 10000 ordinary English words are derived from Latin and 7.2% from Greek.This proportion is even higher, especially in the highly specialized scientific English vocabulary.For example: dynamics, electric, physics, pneumonia, etc（Li Qingming，2002）。The reason why Greek and Latin can become the basic source of scientific and technological vocabulary is that they are both "dead" languages, and will not cause changes in word meaning due to social development, nor ambiguity due to polysemy of words.
In scientific articles, the multi specialization of the meaning of the same word means that the same common English word is not only adopted by multiple majors, but also has different meanings.
Abbreviations are often used in scientific English.With the rapid development of modern science, there will be more and more abbreviations, often one abbreviation can represent dozens of word meanings.There are three types of abbreviations in EST:
1. Cut part of the word to form a new word, such as parachute (parachute).
2. Add the first letters of each word in the phrase to form a new word,AcronymsE.g. Unified Flying Object – UFO（UFO）。
3. Draw some letters from two words to form a new word, such as telegraph exchange – telex.
Use nouns and noun groups extensively.English uses nouns more widely than Chinese, and this phenomenon is more prominent in scientific English.For example, we can improve its performance by using superheated steam, but an improvement of its performance can be achieved by the use of superheated steam,a day and night weather observation station。
syntax
There are many grammatical structures often used in scientific English, such as passive voice sentences.This is because the main purpose of scientific articles is to describe objective phenomena, introduce scientific and technological achievements, etcPassive sentenceLess subjective than using active sentences.Therefore, in English for science and technology, it is always used when it is not necessary or impossible to point out the subject of action, or when it is necessary to highlight the object of actionpassive。For example: For separating iron from the inputs the iron ore most be measured
"It is (was)... that" is often used in scientific EnglishEmphatic sentenceE.g. It is heat that causes many chemical changes
English for science and technology is used to express scientific theories, principles, laws, overviews and complex relationships between things. Complex scientific thinking cannot be expressed in simple sentences, so long sentences with complex grammatical structures are more used in English for science and technologyThe key language means have become another important feature of EST style.For example: Laser,its creation being thought to be one of today’s wonders, is nothing more than a light ①that differs from ordinary lights only in②that it is many times more powerful and so be applied in fields ③that no ordinary light or other substance has ever been able to get in.
Literal translation rarely involves cultural differences in the content of scientific and technological articles, and the meaning of scientific and technological words is relatively specific, so many words can be translated literally by the public.For example: surfthe internet, whitecollar, gamepoint（Game Point)、 genetically-modifiedfood(transgenic food）Etc.
The transliteration method uses Chinese characters with similar pronunciation to translate. At this time, Chinese characters no longer have their original meanings, but only retain their pronunciation and writing forms.Transliteration is mainly used for the translation of proper nouns such as person names, place names, company names and trademark names.For example: mosaic, disco, Kentucky, bikini (tL~/E), etc.When translating such words, we can achieveBoth sound and meaningElegant and easy to remember effect.For example, the American cosmetics Revlon is cleverly translated as "Revlon", which reminds people of Li Bai's famous poem describing the beauty of Concubine Yang:“Yunxiang Clothes and Huaxiang AppearanceThe spring breeze blows the sill and the dew is thick. "
Semitone semimeaningWhen literal translation and transliteration cannot accurately express the scientific and technological connotation of scientific and technological neologisms, this method should be adopted. It is mainly used for compoundingLoanwordsTranslation of.For example: milkshake（Milkshake）, mini skirt, water ballet, ice cream, DoMingtape, break dance, etc.With the development of science and technology and the progress of thinking, the language reflecting reality is also developing to meet the needs of society.The most sensitive part of language is vocabulary, and this development and change is particularly prominent in scientific English vocabulary.To do a good job in the translation of scientific and technological English documents, it is necessary to carefully study the characteristics and translation skills of scientific and technological English vocabulary, understand the scientific and technological connotation behind the words, which will certainly contribute to the complex work of Chinese translation of scientific and technological terms, and guide us to study many other specific language problems
Discourse
Discourse is what we usually call a text, which is composed of a group of coherent sentences.Textualsemantic structureAnd discourse mechanism, that is, cohesive devices ensure that language is composed of sentences into discourse, thus forming an organic whole, so the analysis of this level includesjoinMeans and discourse structure (Wu Jie, 2003).
Lexical cohesion
The repetition of words can reduce the ambiguity in language transmission, make it easy for readers to correctly understand the objective facts or complex cognitive process that the author wants to discuss, and reflect the accuracy of scientific English.For example, Many stories abort the spread of AIDS are falseYou cannot get AIDS working or attending with someone who has the disease. You cannot get it by touching drinking glasses or other objects used by such persons.
Logical connection
Through the use of logical connection means, readers can understand the semantic connection of sentences, and even logically predict the semantics of subsequent sentences through the previous sentence (Hu Zhuanglin, 1994), which reflects the logical reasoning and rigor of EST.For example, Microsurgery is helping to solve all sorts of medical problems that had been thought hopelessFor example,doctors can use the technique to restore blood flow to the brain to prevent strokes. And they can reopen parts of the reproductive system so some men and women who are not fertile can have children. Eye and ear doctors have used the techniques of microsurgery since the 1920s. But it was not until the early 1970s that doctors began to develop a better understanding of the possibilities of microsurgery.
