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hair conditioner：护发素; conditioning hairdressing/hairdressing gel/treatment：焗油膏;
Mousse：摩丝; styling gel：发胶; hair color：染发; perm/perming formula：冷烫水.
2.2 Theory of Linguistic Adaptation and Translation
Jef Verschueren proposed the Theory of Linguistic Adaptation, which proposes that language use is a continuously language selection process which happens during talking and explaining (Verschueren, 2003). The reason why people can make choices continuously is that natural language of human beings has three basic attributes: variability, negotiability and adaptability.
Variability decides the possible range of selection of linguistic identity. For example, we can use “lotion” instead of “moisturizer”.
Negotiability means selection is not mechanical but guided by some flexible principles and strategies. For example, we can translate “whitening” into “美白” or “亮白”in different situations.
Adaptability is that the selected expression chosen from a series of possibilities by human beings, in order to satisfy the needs of communication. Linguistic adaptability is that language adapts the environment or the environment adapts the language or they adapt each other. For example, the word “gel” in “hairdressing gel” and “styling gel” is the same in English. But we have to translate it into different words in Chinese because of the different linguistic habits. The first “gel” is “膏” and the second one is “胶”.
Proper and successful communication is a process of adaption. Verbal communication is actually the persistent adaption. During the process of adaption, the speaker’s choice can be conscious or unconsciousness, influenced by verbal or nonverbal factors. And the choice can happen in every layer of language structure such as voice, form, sentence structure, vocabulary, semantic, etc. Under the frame of Theory of Linguistic adaptation, Translation as adaptation and selection says: “adaptation” and “selection” is the instinct of translator and the essence of the process of translation. Translators not only should select but also adapt during the process of translation. Therefore, the process of translation is actually the rotation of adaption and selection. It means the whole world which presented by original text and words including language, communication, culture, society, author, principal, etc. Translation of environment is the basis and premise of multidimensional adaption and adaption selection. According to it, this paper will discuss how to make choice while adapting in order to translate the cosmetic.
Translation problems are classified into four types，pragmatic translation problems，convention-related translation problems，linguistic translation and source text，a translator could pinpoint the functional elements in both texts and build a profile of the intended target text. The “contrast between the ST material and the requirements of the target situation reveals the translation problems.”(蒋磊,2008)Pragmatic translation problems arise when differences between source text situation and target text situation appear. This kind of problem can be identified by carefully studying translation commission. Convention-related translation problems arise from culture-specific habits，norms and conventions.Linguistic translation problems appear because of the structure differences of two languages，particular in lexis and sentence structures.Text-specific translation problems occur in a particular in lexis and sentence structures.Text-specific translation problems occur in a particular text like figures of speech and inpidual creations and can not be classified as pragmatic，convention-related or linguistic.(蒋磊,2008)
3 Adaptive translation of cosmetic instruction book
3.1 Language environment
English phonological system is very different from Chinese system. The language structure of English is strict and accurate. It’s an analytical and comprehensive language. But Chinese is diffused with loose structure which emphasizes on a neat and orderly rhetoric and phrasing (Whitelock and Chung, 1989). Therefore, translators should pay attention to these differences.