杂锦合辑英汉翻译讲义

2021年1月21日发(作者：单价)
E-C Translation Course Notes

Definition

Translation consists
in
reproducing

in
the
receptor

language
the
closest

natural equivalent
of the source-language
message,
first
in
terms of
meaning
and secondly
in terms of
style
.


(Eugene A. Nida)

Significance of Translation

Plays the key role in
inter
-cultural communication





1. Bringing about mutual understanding and friendliness among nations.





2. Enriching our own experiences and knowledge of the world.
The most important
media

in
international trade and
business
. ------
No translation,
no
globalization.

The Criteria of Translation

Tytler (p.5)
严复：
faithfulness, intelligibility
, and elegance(
信达雅
)
林语堂：

忠实，通顺，

美

钱钟书：

化境

傅雷：神似


The procedures of translation

Accurate comprehension
Adequate representation
Careful proofreading

Requirements on the translators

Good command of the languages
Wide scope of knowledge
Sensitive to cultural differences
Hard working and willing to sacrifice personal gains and interests
Strong sense of responsibility

Literal Vs. free translations

The former
focuses on a
word-for
-word

translation of
the source text into the target
text
; while the latter involves language
adjustment
in the process of translation.
No
matter
what
method
you
may
use,
your
translation
should
be
correct
,
comprehensible
to the target reader and close to the
original style
. Only when you keep the
meaning
and
spirit
of
the
original
sentence
structure
a
nd/or
its
figure
of
speech
can
your
translation
be
regarded
as
proper
literal
translation,
otherwise
it
is
merely
mechanical
translation.

Similarly,
only
when
change
the
original
sentence
structure
and/or
the
figure
of
speech
but
make
no
addition
or
deletion
of
the
original
meaning
and
spirit,
can
your
translation be regarded as proper translation; otherwise it is simply
random
translation.

Designative Vs. associative meanings

The
designative
meaning
of
a
word
(
指称义
)
refers
to
the
object,
people,
plant,
animal,
place, etc.
that
it
represents
; while
the associative
meaning of a word (
内涵义
)
is the
idea,
quality
, state, circumstance, etc. that it makes you
think of.


Formal vs. Functional Equivalence

Formal equivalence (
形式对等
)
focuses on the
match
between the source text and the
target text as close as possible in both
form and content
; while functional equivalence
（功
能对等）
stresses the closest parallel of the
target text to
the source text
in
communicative

function.
If the communicative
function of
the source
text can be translated
into the
target text
without
having
to change the
form of
the
former,
formal equivalence
should be strived
for;
whereas
if the strict reservation of the structure of the source text constitutes an obstacle to
the
transmission
of
the
communicative
function,
adjustment
then
needs
to
be
made
structurally for the establishment of functional equivalence.


Hypotaxis(
形合
) vs. parataxis (
意合
)

English
is
a
language
of
hypotaxis(
形
合
)
.
It
heavily
depends
on
grammar
for
constructing different linguistic parts into a sentence or an article. the

Grammatical meanings
in
the
language of
English are reflected
in such aspects as the suffix (
后缀
)
of a word (e.g.“
-s,
-ing
or
-
ed”),
the
tenses(
时态
),
the
voices(
语态
),
the
moods(
语气
),
constructions(
结构
),
and
such
functional
words
like
articles,
conjunctions,
pronouns
or
prepositions.
On
the
contrary
,
Chinese,
being
a
language
of

parataxis
(
意合
),

has
the
parts
linked
up
with
each
other
semantically or through the context.
Therefore, when English
is being
translated
into Chinese,
some
of
the
words
mentioned
above
need
to
be
omitted
out
of
grammatical
or
rhetorical
considerations.

Syntactic marking
（语法标义）
vs. semotactic marking
（语义标义）

Syntactic marking refers to those situations when the meaning of a word in a sentence is

specified by the grammatical construction of the sentence.
Semotactic marking refers to the determination of the meaning of an English word by
some
other
words
in
the
sentence,
which
form
the
semotactic
environment
for
that
word.
In
other
words,
the
context,
built
up
by
the
words
prior
to
or
following
the
word,
can
often
provide clues as to what the word means.






Syntactic marking interplays with semotactic marking in the specification of the

meaning of an English word.

Form and Content

If we assume that language is a device for communicating messages, then it follows that
language
and
linguistic
forms
are
means
to
an
end
rather
than
an
end
in
themselves.
The
content is the conceptual intent of the message, together with the connotative values the source
text wishes to communicate; it is what the message is about.
The form, on the other hand, is the external shape the message takes to effect its passage
from the source’s mind to the receptor’s mind.

In transferring the message from one language to another, it is the content which must be

preserved
at
any
cost;
the
form,
except
in
special
cases,
such
as
poetry
,
is
largely
secondary
,
since
within
each
language
the
rules
for
content
to
form
are
highly
complex,
arbitrary
,
and