学年论文.docx

学年论文.docx

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学年论文

学号：

020901160

淮阴师范学院学年论文

奈达等值理论视角下英语习语的翻译

学院名称：

外国语学院

系科（专业）：

英语

年级班级：

09级（5）班

姓名：

王盈

指导老师：

梁志敏

2012年月10日

EnglishIdiomsTranslationfromtheperspectiveof

Nida’sequivalenceTheory

AbstractThisThesisisbasedonthestudyofmanycurrenttranslationtheoriesespeciallyNida’sEquivalenceTheoryandthecomprehensionofEnglishIdiomtranslation.Languageexchangeplaysaveryvitalroleindifferentculture,inthemeantime,languageisawaytotransmitandreflectculture.Idiomistheessenceoflanguage.Intheaspectofreflectingculturalfeatures,idiomismoretypicalandvividthananyotherlanguagecomponents.Idiomshavebeendescribedasthecrystallizationoflanguage,withoutidiomsourlanguageswouldbedullandsterile.Therefore,howtotranslateEnglishidiomproperlybetweendifferentlanguagesseemsveryimportantinlanguageexchange,whichloadthedifferentcultureofdifferentcountries.Inthecurrenttimes,withtheexpansionofeconomicdevelopmentandglobalization,itisnecessarytograsptranslationtheoriestounderstandthemeaningofidioms.

Keywords:

Englishidiomtranslation;culturaldifference;equivalencetheory；culturalcompetitiveness

摘要本文主要基于奈达的等值理论去理解英语习语的汉译。

语言交流在不同文化中起到相当大的作用，同时语言也是传达和反映文化的一种途径。

习语是语言的精髓。

从反映文化特点的角度来看，习语比其他任何语言成分都要典型和形象。

习语曾被描述成语言的结晶，没有习语的存在，语言就会变得枯燥无味！

因此，如何准确地翻译英语习语在语言交流中显得尤为重要，语言交流承载着不同国家的不同文化。

在当今这个时代，文化竞争力在综合国力中发挥越来越大的作用，掌握一些翻译理论对于理解习语的意思很有必要。

关键词：

英语习语的翻译；文化差异；等值理论；文化竞争力；

1.Introduction

2.LiteratureReview

2.1CurrentResearchesonEnglishIdiomTranslation

2.2CurrentResearchesonNida’sEquivalenceTheory

Fromtheearly1960stothe1980s,Nida’sEquivalenceTheoryisthecoreofwesterntranslationtheories.IthasagreatimpactonwesterntranslationtheoristsandenjoysgreatpopularitybothinGermanyandinUnitedStates（MaHuijuan58）.

AlthoughNida’stranslationtheorywasverypopularbefore1980s,manywesterntranslationscholarsstartedtocriticizehistheoryfrommanyvariousperspectives,Nida’sEquivalenceTheorywasrejectedbysomewesternscholars.

BassnettcitedtwoexamplesofNidatomanifestthathiscategoriesof“dynamicequivalence”and“formalequivalence”were“actuallyconflictwitheachother”andwerelooselydefined（Ma,Huijuan62）.NewmarkdisapprovedofNida’sassumptionthatalltranslatingwascommunicating,andtheoverridingprincipleofanytranslationwastoachieve“equivalenteffect”.Inhisopinion,equivalenteffectwas“thedesirableresult,ratherthantheaimofanytranslation”（Ma,Huijuan63）.

VenuticonsideredNida’s“dynamicequivalence”themosttypicaldomesticatingtheoryandNidawasaccusedofcarryingourculturalhegemonism（Ma,Huijuan68）.

WhenNida’sEquivalenceTheorywasintroducedintoChinain1980s,itwongreatpraise.ThereweresomebooksthatpromotedthespreadofNida’stranslationtheory.NidaonTranslationbyTanZaixi,aChineseversionofTowardaScienceofTranslating（1964）andTheTheoryandPracticeofTranslation（1969）.OnTranslation:

withSpecialReferencestoChineseandEnglish,co-authoredbyJinDiandNida;InSearchofthePrinciplesofEquivalenceEffectbyJinDi.

Fromthelate1980s,moreandmoreChinesetranslationscholarsbegantodenyNida’stranslationtheory,especiallyitsapplicablilitytotranslatingpracticebetweenChineseandforeignlanguages.Thedebatesfocusontheresponseofreaders.AnotherproblemscholarsconsideredistheculturalfactorsthatNida’sTranslationTheoryinvolved（XuJun）.WuYicheng,LiuYingkai,LiuJun,Wang,DongfengaretherepresentativeswhodeniedNida’stheory.

Toconclude,Chinesescholars’attitudestowardNida’sTheoryhavechangedastimegoeson.

3.BriefIntroductionofNida’sEquivalenceTheory

EugeneA.NidaisafamousAmericantranslationtheoristaswellasalinguist.HistranslationtheoryhasagreatimpactontranslationstudiesinbothwesternandChina.AlthoughmanyscholarscriticizeevenrejectNida’stheory,histranslationtheoryhasgainedtremendouspopularityallovertheworld.

3.1NidaandHisMajorTheory

EugeneA.Nidadevotedhiswholelifetothestudyoftranslationandlinguisticsandhis“scienceoftranslation”,“dynamicequivalence”,“functionalequivalence”makegreatcontributiontotheworldtranslationfield.

3.1.1AboutEugeneA.Nida

EugeneA.NidawasborninOklahomaCityCentralSouthoftheUnitedStates,onNovember11,1914.HewasintenselyinterestedinChristandlanguages.AftergraduatingfromtheUniversityofCaliforniain1936,heattendedCampWycliffe,whereBibletranslationtheorywastaught.In1937,hestudiedintheUniversityofSouthCalifornia,whereheobtainaMasterDegreeinNewTestamentGreekin1939.In1943,NidareceivedhisPh.D.inLinguisticsfromtheUniversityofMichigan,andinthesameyear,hecommencedhiscareerasalinguistintheAmericanBibleSociety.HewasquicklypromotedandthenworkedasExecutiveSecretaryforTranslationsuntilhisretirement.

3.1.2Nida’sMajorTheories

ThedevelopmentofNida’stranslationideasconsistsofthreestages:

thelinguistictheoryintheearlystage,thecommunicativetranslationtheoryandsocialsemioticstheoryinthelatestage.

ThefirststagebeganwithhisdoctoraldegreedissertationEssentialsofEnglishGrammarandendedwithprinciplesofTranslationasExemplifiedbyBibleTranslationinBrower’sDissertationCollectionOnTranslationin1959.Duringthisperiod,hestudiedtranslationmainlyintermsofsyntax,morphologyandsemanticmeaning.

3.2EssenceofEquivalenceTheory

InTowardaScienceofTranslating（1964）,Nidadistinguishestwokindsofequivalence:

formalequivalenceanddynamicequivalence.

AnimportantconceptinNida’stranslationtheory“dynamicequivalence”wasfirstputforwardinTowardaScienceofTranslating（1864）andelaboratedinTheTheoryandPracticeofTranslation（1969）indetail.Lastly,itwassubstitutedwith“functionalequivalence”.dynamicequivalencederivedfrom“theprincipleofequivalenceeffect”postulatedbyRieuandPhillips（Nida,1964:

159）.

InNida’sbookTheTheoryandPracticeofTranslation,Nidadefinedtranslationasfollow:

“Translatingconsistsinproducinginreproducinginthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnaturalequivalentofthesourcelanguagemessage,firstintermsofmeaningandsecondlyintermsofstyle.”（Nida,Taber,196912）

Fromthedefinition,wecaninferthatthe“closest”equivalenceandthe“natural”equivalencearetheessenceofEquivalenceTheory.The“closestequivalence”canbeseenfromtherespectofform.Formisanimportantpartintranslation,andifitreproducedsuccessfully,theclosestequivalencebetweenthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguagewillberealized.Thenaturalequivalencecanbeseenfromtherespectofmeaningandstyle.

3.3ThecontentsofEquivalenceTheory

LiuMiqinghasmentionedthatNida’sresearchofequivalencewasbasedonthetranslationofTheBible.HesaidthatNida’sequivalencecamefrom“aestheticsofreception”andemphasizedontheresponseofreceivers.

3.3.1FormalEquivalence

3.3.2FunctionalEquivalence

4.ABriefDescriptionofEnglishIdioms

Idiomistheessenceoflanguage.Itconsistsofplentifulsocialandculturalconnotation.Itisknowntoallthatidiomsaremainlyformedbypeopleduringtheirdailylifeandexperience.Forexample,“ploughthesand”isinnatureaboutagriculture;“neckandneck”isfromhorseracing;“aliveandkicking”isoutoffishing.

4.1DefinitionsofEnglishIdiom

AccordingtotheOxfordAdvancedLearner’sDictionary,idiomis“phraseorsentencewhosemeaningisnotobviousthroughknowledgeoftheindividualmeaningoftheconstituentwordsbutmustbelearntasawhole.”Generallyspeaking,“idiomconsistsofsetphraseandshortsentences,whicharepeculiartothelanguageinquestionandloadedwithnativecultureandideas”（Zhang162）.

4.2CharacteristicsofEnglishIdiom

4.2.1长期的实用性

Idiomisaspecialkindoflanguagethatwasformedfrompeople’spracticeanddailylife.Wecanfindthatmanyidiomsemergedfromalongtimeago,evenfromtheancienttime.Althoughtheyare“old”,westillusethemfrequentlyinourcommunication.Forexample,

Romewasnotbuiltinaday.伟业非一日之功

worthone’ssalt称职

GodafflictsthosewhomHeloves（彭庆华27）.

Englishidiomsarecustomarypractice，Forexample,靠记忆是byheart而不是bymemory,becausetheGreeksthinkthattheheartisnotonlythefeelingsbelongtobutalsotheplacewhereintelligenceandmemorylocated.

4.2.2结构的固定性

ThefixityofstructureinEnglishidiomsmeansthateveryelementoftheidiomsarefixed,andtheycannotbeseparatedorreplaced.Forexample,livefromhandtomouth（勉强糊口），而不能写成livefromthehandtothemouth,或者写成livefromahandtoamouth.

4.2.3语义的整体性

Idiomsareusuallytheunitsofoverallmeaning.Theyarenotthewholemeaningofeachpartofthewholephraseorsentence.TheoverallmeaningofEnglishidiomsoriginatefrom英语习语的转义，mainlyrefertofigurativemeaningandassociativemeaning.Forexample,flyoffthehandle发脾气；onthenose准确无误。

4.2.4语义的多义性

ThemeaningofEnglishidiomsarepolysemy,whichdependonthecontext.Forexample,haveafieldday一般指特别忙绿，或特别愉快，但在不同的语境中，意义有所差别。

如：

（1）Whenthescandalfinallycameout,thepresshadafieldday.在丑闻最终被揭露时，新闻媒体紧张的忙碌了一阵。

（2）Thechildrenwerehavingafielddayatthebeach,swimminganddigging.孩子们在海滩上玩的非常开心，又是游泳又是挖沙坑的。

（3）Inaddressingamassmeeting,hehadafieldday.他在群众大会上发言，获得了意外成功。

（4）Nooneelselikedstrawberries,sowehadafieldday.别的人都喜欢吃草莓，所以我们吃的很痛快。

4.3EquivalenceTheoryEmbodiedinEnglishIdiomsTranslation

Translationinvolvesthetransmissionofculturalinformation,anditisbeneficialforthelanguagedevelopment.Itwillbeverydifficultfortranslatorstotranslat