学术翻译在我国引进西方先进知识成果、促进现代学科发展以及学术交流等方面始终发挥着举足轻重的作用。由于“学术”一直以来是较为笼统的概念,致使“学术翻译”具体的对象与范围不明确。对此,本文首先考察“学术”的中、英文辞源、概念及其演化过程,分别从中、西学术发展史视角分析现代学术的区别性特征,并厘清学术翻译的概念内涵与外延,最后对学术翻译概念进行广义与狭义的界定与区分。本文旨在为深入、系统地展开学术翻译研究提供概念基础,以期对进一步建构学术翻译理论体系起到一定奠基性与推动性作用。

Academic translation plays an irreplaceable role in introducing western academic achievements to China, which is promoting academic development and exchanges. Comparing with other categories of translation, studies and criticism on academic translation are relatively inadequate. The impedimental factors could be attributed to the unclear concepts, which cause blurry objects and scope in academic translation criticism and research. This article therefore chooses to investigate the source, concept and evolution of “academic” by reviewing and analyzing of the history of academic development both in china and western world. Then the distinguishing characteristics of modern academics are excavated and described, which helps to clarify the conceptual connotation and extension of academic translation. Then, in order to define and distinguish the concept of academic translation both in a broad and a narrow way, this article proposes to take academic genre as the standard for classifying academic translation. In a word, the study is expected to lay a conceptual foundation for in-depth and systematic academic translation research, and indirectly contribute to improving the quality of academic translation and inspire the theoretical studies such as translation evaluation and criticism.