翻译理论知识概要1

翻译理论知识概要第一部分：翻译术语1.DefinitionsoftranslationTranslationcanberoughlydefinedasareproductionorrecreationinonelanguageofwhatiswrittenorsaidinanotherlanguage.Beingaverycomplicatedhumanactivity,itswholepictureisnevereasytodescribe.Scholarswithdifferentacademicbackgroundshaveattemptedtodefineitfromvariousperspectives.(1).LinguisticViewsonTranslationTranslationtheoristsfromthelinguisticschoolconceiveoftranslationasalinguisticactivityandsomebelievethattranslationtheoryisabranchoflinguistics,approachingtheissuesoftranslatingprimarilyfromtheviewpointofthelinguisticdifferencesbetweensourceandtargettexts.Translationmaybedefinedasthereplacementoftextualmaterialinonelanguage(thesourcelanguage)byequivalenttextualmaterialinanotherlanguage(thetargetlanguage).(Catford,1965:20).Translatingconsistsinreproducinginthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnaturalequivalentofthesource-languagemessage,firstintermsofmeaningandsecondlyintermsofstyle.(Nida&Taber,1969:12).Translationtheoryderivesfromcomparativelinguistics,andwithinlinguistics,itismainlyanaspectofsemantics;allquestionsofsemanticsrelatetotranslationtheory.(Newmark,1982/1988:5).(2).CulturalViewsonTranslationIntheculturalapproach,translationisregardednotonlyasatransferoflinguisticsigns,butalsoasacommunicationofcultures,i.e.translationisaninterculturalcommunication;hencethetermsofinterculturalcooperation,acculturation,andtransculturation.Translationisaprocesswhichoccursbetweenculturesratherthansimplybetweenlanguages{Shuttleworth&Cowie,1997:35).Atranslatorwhousesaculturalapproachissimplyrecognizingthateachlanguagecontainselementswhicharederivedfromitsculture(suchasgreetings,fixedexpressionsandREALIA),thateverytextisanchoredinaspecificculture,andthatconventionsoftextproductionandreceptionvaryfromculturetoculture(Shuttleworth&Cowie1997:35).Fortrulysuccessfultranslating,biculturalismisevenmoreimportantthanbilingualism,sincewordsonlyhavemeaningsintermsoftheculturesinwhichtheyfunction.(Nida,2001:82).翻译不仅涉及语言问题,也涉及文化问题。译者不仅要了解外国的文化,还要深入了解自己民族的文化。不仅如此,还要不断地把两种文化加以比较,因为真正的对等应该是在各自文化中的含义、作用、范围、感情色彩、影响等等都是相当的。翻译者必须是一个真正意义的文化人。人们会说：他必须掌握两种语言;确实如此,但是不了解语言当中的社会文化,谁也无法真正掌握语言(王佐良,1989)。(3).LiteraryViewsonTranslationTranslatorswhoholdthisviewbelievethattranslationisanartisticrecreationorarecreatedart.SomemodernWesternscholarsfromtheliteraryschooltakeliterarytranslationtobethemanipulationorrewritingofthesourcetexts.文学翻译的任务是要把原作中包含的一定社会生活的映象完好无损地从一种语言移注到另一种语言中,在翻译过程中追求语言的艺术美,再现原作的艺术性。用茅盾的话说,是使读者在读译文的时候能够像读原作时一样得到启发、感动和美的感受。语言是塑造文学形象的工具,因而文学的形象性特征必然要在语言上表现出来。文学语言的特征,诸如形象、生动、鲜明、含蓄、凝练、准确、风趣、幽默、辛辣、滑稽、悦耳、民族特点、地方色彩,还有行业习语、民间的俚语、谚语等等,都是作家根据塑造形象的需要,从现实生活中提炼创造出来的。文学作品的艺术形式与思想内容是辩证统一的,翻译要保存原作风格特点,因此要求译文生动形象、形神毕肖、雅俗等同、简洁精美、词情并茂(《译学辞典》2004:291)。(4).SemanticViewsonTranslationThisviewfocusesonthesemanticequivalencebetweenthetwolanguages,aswellexpressedbyEugeneNida(1986):Translatingmeanstranslatingmeaning.Translationisrenderingthemeaningofatextintoanotherlanguageinthewaythattheauthorintendedthetext(Newmark,1988:5).Semantictranslation:thetranslatorattempts,withinthebaresyntacticandsemanticconstraintsofthetargetlanguage,toreproducetheprecisecontextualmeaningoftheauthor(Newmark,1982:22).Insemantictranslation,greaterattentionispaidtorenderingtheauthor'soriginalthought-processesintargetlanguagethantoattemptingtore-interpretsourcetextinawaywhichthetranslatorconsidersmoreappropriateforthetargetsetting(Shuttleworth&Cowie,1997:151).(5).FunctionalViewsonTranslationFunctionalistsbelievethattranslationisaspecificformofhumanactionwithacertainpurpose,akindoflinguisticserviceprovidedtothesociety.Translatorsshouldtakeintoaccounttheneedsoftheclient,thereaderaswellasthepurposeoruseofthetranslation:Itisnotthesourcetext,oritseffectsonthesource-textrecipient,orthefunctionassignedtoitbytheauthor,thatdeterminesthetranslationprocess,buttheprospectivefunctionorpurposeofthetargettextasdeterminedbytheinitiator's,i.e.client'sneeds(Baker,2001:236).(6).CommunicativeViewsonTranslationThisapproachviewstranslationasacommunicativeprocesswhichtakesplacewithinasocialcontext.Communicativetranslation:thetranslatorattemptstoproducethesameeffectonthetargetlanguagereadersaswasproducedbytheoriginalonthesourcelanguagereaders(Newmark,1982:22).Communicativetranslationisgenerallyorientedtowardstheneedsofthetargetlanguagereaderorrecipient.Atranslatorwhoistranslatingcommunicativelywilltreatsourcetextasamessageratherthanamerestringoflinguisticunits,andwillbeconcernedtopreservesourcetext'soriginalfunctionandtoreproduceitseffectonthenewaudience(Shuttleworth&Cowie,1997:21).Theaboveviewshelpustounderstandthecomplexnatureoftranslation.Sincetherearemanyfactorswhichaffectthetranslationprocess,translationisacomplicatedhumanactivity.