Translation Difficulties in Geology and Mineral Resources

1.1 Inaccurate Translation of Modern Terms

In translation, to achieve standardization and normativity in the translation of professional terminology between English and Chinese, translators are required to ensure the accuracy of the text. For example, the English word "fault" can be translated as "错误" (error) or "缺点" (defect), but in geological terminology, it means "断层" (fault). Many learners of English may not be aware that "fault" has the geological meaning of a fracture in rock. Consequently, when reading geological journals, they may misunderstand its meaning.

1.2 Extensive Use of Passive Voice

Generally, scientific English tends to describe objects, which represent objective forms of things and indicate the development process of these entities, whereas the subject refers to the researchers involved. When translating geological and mineral resource texts, frequent use of passive voice can make the text appear more objective. This way, readers can focus their attention entirely on the object and read the text as scientific material, thereby preventing subjective emotions from influencing their understanding.

2.     Research on Translation of Geological and Mineral Resource Texts

2.1 Vocabulary Translation Techniques

2.1.1 Translation of Compound Nouns, Noun Phrases, and Abbreviations

There are many instances of compound nouns in the text. For example, "trough fault" indicates a "槽断层" (trough fault), where "fault" modifies the preceding noun and acts as an adjective. When translating geological and mineral resource texts with numerous nouns, synthetic methods can be applied to form phrases, resulting in new vocabulary through the combination of two nouns. This is common in geological and mineral resource translations. Specific manifestations include:

Non-hyphenated noun phrases like "边缘地带" (borderland) and "海台" (seaknoll).

Hyphenated noun phrases such as "板块滞制" (plate-jams) and "走向滑距的" (strike-slip).

Generally, there are three common types of abbreviations in geological and mineral resource professional English translation: 1) Initialisms, 2) Shortened forms, and 3) Word contractions. For instance, "Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling" in geology represents "大陆发射剖面" (continental reflection profiling); for convenience, it is abbreviated to COCORF. As this term becomes widely used, encountering "COCORF" in geological texts allows readers to automatically interpret it as "大陆发射剖面."

Similarly, "全球洋底分析研究计划" (Global Ocean Floor Analysis and Research Project) can be succinctly represented as "GOFARP," enhancing the academic rigor of geological texts; readers can deduce its full name based on context, even if they do not immediately recall it.

2.1.2 Direct Translation, Transliteration, and Phonetic Meaning Translation Techniques

In translating geological and mineral resource texts, the following situations may require direct translation, transliteration, or phonetic meaning translation:

1)     For natural geographic terms or tectonic terminology, or when names of organizations are present, direct translation is recommended. This method translates the original terms directly into corresponding Chinese vocabulary while preserving their academic nature. For example, "活动板块" (active plate) translates "active" as an adjective meaning "lively" or "dynamic," and "plate" as a noun representing plates in geology.

2)     When transliterating English geological terms, it is advisable to follow established conventions. Many geographical names in geology are named after their discoverers, such as "安加拉古陆" (Angara), ensuring the translation maintains integrity.

3) Phonetic meaning translation in geological documents involves transliterating part of the specialized term while translating the meaning of another part. For example, the term "Wilson cycle" is rendered as "威尔逊旋回" (Wilson cycle), where "Wilson" is transliterated, and "cycle" is translated for its meaning, resulting in "旋回" (cycle).

2.2 Sentence Translation Techniques

To ensure accurate translation, it is essential to analyze the structural characteristics of sentences deeply, understand the relationships among sentence components, and apply translation techniques to restructure sentences while maintaining logical coherence and successfully expressing them in Chinese.

2.2.1 Expanding Noun Phrase Components or Transforming Verb-Object Structures

As a form of scientific English, terminology in geology and mineral resources tends to be concise and objective. It is recommended to use phrases instead of lengthy sentence structures. Translators should frequently employ nominalized phrases to enhance the academic information density of sentences.

For example, the original sentence: "The technique consists of drilling a hole in the ground, inserting a charge of dynamite, and exploding this charge in the presence of various listening devices." The sentence contains a significant amount of information, the structure of the entire sentence is very clear, and upon analysis, it can be determined that there are a total of three gerund phrases composing the object. Therefore, the nominal phrases can be transformed into verb-object structures, and the original text can be translated as: The technique involves drilling a hole underground, inserting, and causing to explode under receiving devices.

2.2.2 Passive Voice Translation

When translating geological and mineral resource texts, more than one-third of the sentences are in passive voice. The specific method for translating these sentences is as follows: to translate passive sentences into active sentences, where the English sentence is passive and the Chinese sentence is active. For example, "Based on that, the area of China is repartitioned again." Using the technique of passive voice translation, this sentence can be translated as: "在此基础之上，对中国大陆板块重新划分." 2Translating English passive sentences into Chinese passive sentences. 3Translating English passive sentences into Chinese judgment sentences.

2.3 Splitting and Combining Translations

Complex and unique long English sentences may not have corresponding expressions in Chinese during translation. In such cases, the splitting translation method can be used. The splitting translation method corresponds with the combining translation method, referring to expressing complex sentences from the original English text in single sentences during translation. This Chinese single sentence is not only concise but also able to comprehensively summarize the content of the long English sentence. Long sentences are more likely to appear in geological and mineral resource texts. Through using the combining and splitting methods, logical rigor and translation accuracy can be ensured. Main clauses in English long sentences often have subordinate clauses, with additional phrases frequently included within. This interplay can make the sentence structure seem overly complex and chaotic when read, inadvertently increasing the difficulty for translators.

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