Corpus-Based English Education and Translation of Ancient Chinese Terminology

Abstract: This paper discusses the corpus-based English education and translation of ancient Chinese terminology. An English education is an very important tool for academic translation. Only the researchers who are good at a particular academic subject and at conveying a variety of meaning in English can influence their international readers mostly.China has a long history of language and culture. The recorded history of Chinese ancient characters dates back to Banpo Times about 6000 years ago[ Guo, Mo’ruo(郭沫若). The Dialectical Development of Chinese Ancient Characters(古代文字之辩证的发展)[J],Archeology(考古),1972(03):3-14.(http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5e5e1e1a0102z3nt.html）]. The experiment of isotope carbon 14 confirms the age of the remains of Banpo Village ruins by Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1972[ Zuo, Min’an(左民安). A Detailed Study of Chinese Ancient Characters(细说汉字)[M]，CITIC Press Group(中信出版社)，2015. ]. With the development of characters, China began its language studies. A special academic subject, XIAOXUE, comes into being[ Li, Cheng’Yan(李成燕). The Evolution of the Meaning of "Xiao Xue" in Ancient China(中国古代"小学"含义的演变)[J].Journal of Guangxi Normal University( 广西师范大学学报), 2011,47(1):5.]. This subject focuses on studies of the characters’ YIN （phonological system）, XING (morphological system), YI (lexical semantic system). The language systems of Chinese are very different from those of English. The researchers who try to convey Chinese traditional messages into English expressively have to identify the difference between Chinese systems and English ones. Based on statistical data for the largest academic corpus in China (CNKI), we analyze the English translation of eight typical ancient Chinese terminologies in academic articles. The corpus-based results show that, except for the rough English translation of these traditional terminologies by researchers, there is no further mention of the potential meaning for these special words to avoid confusion. This undoubtedly prevents the greater spread of education of Chinese ancient terminologies. The present paper tries to answer the following questions: (1) What are the real obstacle to overcome when ancient Chinese terminologies are translated into English? (2)How are ancient Chinese terminologies translated into English when they function as keywords in academic articles? (3) What should be to done for English education to standardize the translation of ancient Chinese terminologies? The conclusion suggests that the ancient Chinese character has independent phonological, morphological, lexical semantic systems; a substantial corpus is effective to overcome the language barriers of translation; and it is necessary for researchers to receive English education for translation of ancient Chinese terminologies.

Keywords: Translation Education Terminology

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100867

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