English Ambiguous Words and Their TranslationWord文件下载.docx

English Ambiguous Words and Their TranslationWord文件下载.docx

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“Translation,essentially,isthefaithfulrepresentation,inonelanguage,ofwhatiswrittenorsaidinanotherlanguage.However,asprovedbypractice,translationcannotbeviewedasamerelylinguisticundertaking,butshouldberegardedasanaspectofalargerdomain,namely,thatofcommunication.”（ZhongShukong,1997）Fromthesentencesaboveitcanbeconcludedthatatranslatororaninterpretershouldtranslatetheoriginalfaithfully,clearlyandaccurately.However,Englishhasthelargestnumberofvocabularieswhichdiffersfromtheotherwesternlanguages,includingalotofambiguouswordswhicharecausedbypolysemicwordsandhomonymsthatattributetothewrongtranslationsinpeople’soralandwrittentranslationwork.Asisknown,translationisbasedonthecorrectunderstanding.Therefore,itiswisefortranslatorsorinterpreterstostudythecausesofambiguitysoastosolvetheproblemscausedbyambiguouswordsandgetacorrectunderstandingwhiletranslating.

2.Englishambiguityandtheproblemscausedbyambiguityintranslation

2.1BriefintroductionaboutEnglishambiguity

Ambiguityisamorecomplicatedandpervasivephenomenoninhumanlanguage.“Innaturallanguages,ambiguityisthepropertyofexpressionsthatcanbeinterpretedinseveralways,or,rather,thatcanbemultiplyspecifiedinlinguisticdescriptionfromlexical,semantic,syntactic,andotheraspects.Dependingonwhetherambiguityresultsfromtheuseofspecificlexemesorfromthesyntacticstructureofcomplexexpressions,adistinctionisdrawnbetween（a）lexicalambiguity（alsopolysemy,homonymy）and（b）syntacticambiguity（alsopolysyntacticity,constructionalhomonymy）.”（HadumodBussmann,2000:

19）“Awordorsentenceisambiguouswhenithasmorethanoneunderstanding.”（FromkinandRodman,1983）AmericanlinguistKaplan（1966）saysthatambiguityisacommonphenomenonoflanguagejustasacommoncoldofpathology.

Englishisthewidely-usedlanguageinpeople’scross-communication,somoreandmorelearnersinChinahavesetfootonstudyingEnglishambiguity.QiuShudepointsout,“Ambiguityisaspecialrelationshipbetweenlanguagestructuralformanditsmeaning.”（QiuShude,1998）Hestudiesitfromfourcases:

phonemicambiguity,semanticambiguity,grammaticalambiguityandpragmaticambiguity.“Ambiguityisthephenomenonthatsomewordsorexpressionshavetwoormoremeanings,”saidbyZhuLi,（ZhuLi,2005）whoconcludesambiguityintothefollowingaspects:

phonologicalambiguity,lexicalambiguity,syntacticambiguity,deixisambiguityandpragmaticambiguity.“Ambiguityisanidea,statementorexpressioncapableofbeingunderstoodinmorethanonesense.”（AnYan,LiShaofeng,1995）Intheiressay“ABriefAnalysisofEnglishambiguity”,theydiscussambiguityinthefollowingfourcases:

phoneticambiguity,lexicalambiguity,grammaticalambiguityandtransculturalambiguity.Duetodifferentpurposesinthestudyofambiguity,differentpeoplehavedifferentunderstandingswhichresultinthestudyfromdifferentaspects.ThispaperaimsatdiscussingEnglishambiguouswordsandtheirtranslations,sotheEnglishambiguityintwoforms,phonologicalambiguityandlexicalambiguitywillbediscussedbelow.

2.1.1Phonologicalambiguity

Phonologicalambiguityismainlycausedbytwokindsofhomonyms:

perfecthomonymandhomophone.Homonymyisatypeoflexicalambiguityinvolvingtwoormoredifferentwords.（HadumodBussmann,2000:

210）e.g.found（meaning‘establish’or‘cast’）,kitty（meaning‘fund’or‘cat’）,scour（meaning‘polish’or‘search’）.Suchwordsarecalledhomonym.Itcontainsthreekindsofwords.Thefirstkindisperfecthomonymwhichhasthesamepronunciationandspellingbutdifferentmeanings,e.g.ear1:

theorganofhearing（耳朵），ear2:

theheadofagrain-producingplantsuchascornorwheat（穗）,ear3:

（sing.）anabilitytorecognizeandcopysoundswell（灵敏的听力，辨音力）；

thesecondoneishomophonewhichhasthesamepronunciationbutdifferentspellingsandmeanings，e.g.sun（太阳）-son（儿子），sight（视力）-site（地基），meat（肉）-meet（遇见），right（正确的）-rite（仪式）-write（写）;

thelastoneishomographwhichhasthesamespellingbutdifferentpronunciationsandmeanings,e.g.lead1[led]:

achemicalelement（铅）,lead2[li:

d]:

alongpieceofleatherchainorropeusedforholdingandcontrollingadog（牵狗用的皮带,链条或绳索）;

tear1:

adropofliquidthatcomesoutofyoureyewhenyoucry（眼泪）,tear2:

todamagesomethingbypullingitapartorintopiecesorbycuttingitonsomethingsharp;

tobecomedamagesinthisway（撕裂，撕碎）.Nomatterwhichkindofhomonymy,itwillcausephonologicalambiguityinpeople’stranslationwork.Forexamples:

（1）Ihavegotsomeflour（flower）

（2）Theyeatwhattheycan,andcanwhattheycannot.

（AnYan,LiShaofeng,1995）

Inexample

（1）,thepronunciationoftheword“flour”（面粉“afinewhiteorbrownpowder”）isjustthesameasthatoftheword“flower”（花“thecoloredpartofaplantfromwhichtheseedorfruitdevelops”）.Itwilleasilycauseambiguityinoraltranslation.Inexample

（2）,thefirst“can”isamodalverb,means“能”（itispossibleforsomebodyorsomethingtodosomething,orforsomethingtohappen）；

thesecond“can”isaverb,means“装罐头”（topreservefoodbyputtingitinacan）.Suchkindsofambiguouswordswillcauseambiguityintheinterpretationbecausetheyallhavethesamepronunciation.ItishardtodistinguishwhichworditisinoralEnglish.Therefore,thewronginterpretationcomes.

2.1.2Lexicalambiguity

Lexicalambiguityiscausedbyhomonymyandpolysemy.Onespeaksof‘polysemy’whenanexpressionhastwoormoredefinitionswithsomecommonfeaturesthatareusuallyderivedfromasinglebasicmeaning.（HadumodBussmann,2000:

371）Forexample:

thereare15meaningsof“hand”and12meaningsof“face”inOxfordAdvancedLearner’sDictionaryofCurrentEnglishwithChinesetranslation.Suchkindofwordsiscalledpolysemicwordswhichhavemorethanonemeaning.Therefore,theyareambiguouswhentranslatedintoChinese,whichcauseslexicalambiguity.

MostEnglishwordsarepolysemicwords.Forthenouns,verbs,adjectivesandadverbialwords,themorefrequentlytheyareused,themoremeaningtheyhave.Theoriginofpolysemyistheword’sderivation.Inthecauseofderivation,theoriginalmeaningisdividedintoanewmeaning,andthenthetwoormoremeaningsco-existinonewordwhichformsthepolysemicwords.Forexample,theadjective“light”means“notdark”or“notheavy”,theverb“light”means“tomovefast”or“todirectormanage”,andthenoun“bank”means“financialinstitution”or“theedgeofariver”.Someexamplesbelowwillwellillustratelexicalambiguity.

（1）Thefoodisn’thot.

（2）Letmedriveyoutothebank.

（3）HeisgoingtomarryJaneatthechurch.

（HuangHuijun,2002）

Intheabove-mentionedexamples,itisclearthateachsentencehastwotranslations.“Hot”canbeputinto“热的”（havingahightemperature）and“辣的”（containingpepperandspicesandproducingaburningfeelinginyourmouth）,for“hot”isapolysemicword,andeachmeaningseemsrightintheexample.“Bank”and“marry”arealsopolysemicwords,therefore,“bank”canbetranslatedinto“银行”（afinancialorganization）or“河岸”（thesideofariver）,and“marry”canberenderedinto“与（某人）结婚”（tobecomethehusbandorwifeofsomebody;

togetmarriedtosomebody）or“为（某人）征婚”（toperformaceremonyinwhichamanandwomanbecomehusbandandwife）.Thus,theambiguitycausedbythepolysemicwordscomes.

（4）Thetouristspassedtheportatmidnight.

（ZhangHong，2007）

“Port”isahomonym,meaning“港口”（aplacewhereshipsloadandunloadgoods）aswellas“葡萄酒”（astrongsweetwine,usuallydarkred）.Whentranslatedinto“港口”,thesentencemeans“旅游者半夜里经过了港口”（Thetouristspassedaplacewhereshipsloadandunloadgoodsatmidnight.）;

whenin“葡萄酒”,thesentencemeans“旅游者半夜里传葡萄酒”（Thetouristspassedastrongsweetwineatmidnight.）.Therefore,ithascausedlexicalambiguityhere.

Fromtheillustrationabove,itcanbeconcludedthathomonymyandpolysemyarethetwomaincausesofphonologicalambiguityandlexicalambiguityandhomonymsandpolysemicwordsarecalledambiguouswordswhichwillcauseambiguitywhentranslatedorinterpreted.However,thephonologicalambiguityandlexicalambiguitycausedbysuchkindsofwordswillcauseproblemsanddifficultiesintranslation.

2.2ProblemsanddifficultiesintranslatingEnglishambiguouswords

2.2.1Problemsanddifficultiescausedbyhomonyms

Homonymsarethewordswhichhavethesameform（pronunciationorspelling）butdifferentmeanings.Itisoneofthecausesofwrongtranslationorinterpretation.the