2.2 Previous studies on academic abstracts translation

As a matter of fact, in recent years, the abstract translation has been a heatedly discussed topic. Because of the globalization academic communication, abstracts translation becomes a must, and many scholars around the world have done a lot of researches on this. 

Many articles on the study of abstract writing and translation can be found in journals. These articles have discussed the abstract translation in many aspects. Some articles deal with the characteristics of abstract. For example, Shen Yuying (2001) introduced the types of abstracts, summarized the stylistic features of abstracts. Li Huiying (2009) discussed the features and functions of Chinese abstracts and the C-E translation principles. Some articles focus on the common errors of abstracts and the norm of abstract translation. For example, Tian Wenjuan (1999) listed some common mistakes in English abstract translation, and describes the patterns of a Standard English abstract. He Xiaoqi, Li Wenjun, Xia Wenke (2004) summarized the errors in grammar, semantic and sentence structure in the abstract translation, analyzed reasons of the errors and put forward some suggestions. Some articles discuss techniques and methods on abstract translation. For example, Lina (2007) analyzed and concluded the principles, methods and skills on translating abstracts of scientific and technological theses into English. Also, from the stylistic perspective, Yue Qiye, Liu Baojie (2008) made a survey of the translation of abstracts from Chinese into English in terms of lexicological features, syntactical features and textural features by examining the abstracts in some leading academic journals published both at home and abroad.来!自~751论-文|网www.751com.cn

After carefully comparing and analyzing these papers, the author finds out that in spite of the great amount of study on abstract translation, there are still some vacancies. There is a lack of systematic theoretical guidance and no further research on principles of abstract translation, which should be the overall strategy and guideline. Therefore, in this thesis, the author aims at establishing a theoretical framework for finding out possible problems and errors in the English abstracts based on the two approaches of functionalism: text typology and skopos theory.