外国语生论汉英翻译软件的局限性.docx

外国语生论汉英翻译软件的局限性.docx

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外国语生论汉英翻译软件的局限性

论汉英翻译软件的局限性

OnLimitationsofChinese-EnglishTranslationSoftwares

WangXia

UndertheSupervisionof

ZhangChun

SchoolofForeignLanguagesandCultures

PanzhihuaUniversity

April2009

Contents

AbstractI

KeywordsI

摘要II

关键词II

Introduction1

Ⅰ.AnIntroductionofChinese-EnglishTranslation…………………………………..2

A.HistoryandPresentSituationofChinese-EnglishTranslation………………...2

a.HistoryofChinese-EnglishTranslation..2

b.PresentSituationofChinese-EnglishTranslation……………..……………5

B.CriteriaforChinese-EnglishTranslation……………………………………….6

Ⅱ.ProfileofChinese-EnglishTranslationSoftwares………………………………...8

A.HistoryofChinese-EnglishTranslationSoftwares…………………………….8

B.PresentSituationofChinese-EnglishTranslationSoftwares…………………..9

Ⅲ.LimitationsofChinese-EnglishTranslationSoftwares……………….................11

A.LimitationsofTextstobeTranslated…………………………………………11

B.HighRequirementsfortheTranslatedVersionReviser………………………12

C.LongIntervalsofDictionaryRenewing………………………………………13

D.PoorControloverQualityofTranslation……………………………………..14

a.AnalysisonTranslationfromWord-Choosing…………………...………..14

b.AnalysisonTranslationfromCulturalDifferences………………...……...16

c.AnalysisonTranslationfromGrammar…………………………..….........17

d.AnalysisonTranslationfromHandlingChineseProperNames…..……....17

e.UnintentionalOmissionsinTranslation……………………………….......18

Conclusion19

Acknowledgements20

Bibliography21

Abstract

Chinese-EnglishtranslationinChinahasalonghistoryofabouttwothousandyears.DuringthecenturiesquiteanumberofworldfamoustranslatorsinChinaappearedoneafteranotherandtheymadegreatcontributionstoChinaaswellastotheworldinthedevelopmentoftranslation.Chinese-Englishmachinetranslationresearchisstartedinthe1980s,andmanyscientificresearchunitsstartedtomakeChinese-Englishmachinetranslationresearchoneafteranother.Promotedbythelanguageknowledgeresourcesconstructionandresearchmethods,Chinese-Englishmachinetranslationresearchhasgainedagreatprogress.WiththedeepenedresearchoftheChinese-Englishmachinetranslation,translationmachinedoesnotonlytranslatethetestingsentencesbutalsosomearticlesofpracticalusage.TotranslatethewholearticleisadevelopmenttendencyofChinese-Englishmachinetranslation.ComparedwithEnglish,theChineselanguagelacksmorphologicalhallmarkofstrictmeaning,butEnglishisrichinmorphologicalchanges.So,atpresent,thelimitationsofChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwaresareobviouslyexposedbymanypeople.

KeyWords

limitation;translation;analysis;Chinese-Englishtranslationsoftwares

摘要

汉英翻译在中国已经有两千年的历史。

在此期间，先后涌现了一批又一批的翻译家，他们都为中国的翻译事业甚至世界的翻译事业作为了巨大的贡献。

而汉英机器翻译的研究开始于20世纪80年代，此后对汉英机器翻译研究的学者也是层出不穷。

受到语言知识资源建设和研究方法的影响，汉英机器翻译在技术层面上取得很大进步。

随着对汉英机器翻译的进一步深入研究，机器翻译不仅仅局限于对待测句子的翻译，而是开始向实用文章迈进。

对整篇原文的翻译是汉英机器翻译的发展趋势。

和英语相比，由于中文缺少严格意义上的形态学标志，而英语的形态变化却异常丰富，所以汉英软件翻译存在一些显而易见的局限性。

关键词

局限性；翻译；分析；汉英翻译软件

Introduction

Thisarticleisconstitutedbythreesections.Inthefirstpart,historicalandpresentsituationofChinese-Englishtranslationandtheauthor'sunderstandingofChinese-Englishtranslationcriteriaarebrieflyintroduced.CriteriainChinese-Englishtranslationaresametocriteriaoftranslationsoftwares.Chinese-EnglishtranslationcriteriaaredrawnmattingofChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwareinthesecondpart.Thesecondpartisin-depthunderstandingofChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwares,includingitshistoryandstatus,andcombineChinese-EnglishtranslationcriteriaproposedtolistaseriesofexistinglimitationsinChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwares.Inthethirdpart,thelimitationsofChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwarearedemonstratedfromfouraspects.Firstofall,notallarticlescanbetranslatedfromChineseintoEnglishbyChinese-Englishtranslationsoftwares,suchasDreamofRedMansions,RomanceoftheThreeKingdoms,TangPoemsandSongCiandTheFourBooks;theseliteraryworksofprofoundliteratureandculturecannotbetranslatedbytranslationmachine.Secondly,thiskindofsoftwearsrequiresthereviserswhopossesshighEnglishproficiency.Thatistosay,onereviseroftheversion,whichistranslatedbythesoftwares,mustpossessasolidEnglishFoundation.Thirdly,thedictionaryoftheChinese-Englishsoftwaresdoesnotrenewpromptly.Nowadays,moreandmorenewwordsareemerginglikemushrooms,thewordsindictionaryoftranslationsoftwarescannotmeettheneedofpeople,andthesenewwordsarenotcollectedandaddedintothedictionary.Lastbutnotleast,theauthoranalyzesthelimitationsfromthequalityoftheversionbytranslationsoftwears.Theanalysismainlyisfromword-choosing,culturaldifferences,grammarandthehandlingofproperChinesenames.Besides,unintentionalomissionsarefoundintranslation.

Ⅰ.AnIntroductionofChinese-EnglishTranslation

A.HistoryandPresentSituationofChinese-EnglishTranslation

TranslationinChinahasalonghistoryofabouttwothousandyears.DuringthecenturiesquiteanumberofworldfamoustranslatorsinChinaappearedoneafteranotherandtheymadegreatcontributionstoChinaaswellastotheworldinthedevelopmentoftranslation.Thetraditionalapproachtotranslationstudiesisobviouslycharacterizedbyitsnarrownessofthetheoreticalvisionandobservation.Restrictedbyhistoricalconditions,ittendstoregardtranslationtheoryasnothingmorethandiscussionsonthecontroversialtopicsoftranslationprinciplesandcriteria,usuallyintermsofliteralandfreetranslation.Thenarrownessinthescopeoftheoreticalstudyoftranslationthoughtlingeredonformorethan17centuriesinChina.Confinedbytheassumption,studiesoftranslationtheoryandtranslatologyareasaclosedsystemincapableofopeningupnewhorizons.

a.HistoryofChinese-EnglishTranslation

TranslationinChinahasalonghistoryofabouttwothousandyears.DuringthecenturiesquiteanumberofworldfamoustranslatorsinChinaappearedoneafteranotherandtheymadegreatcontributionstoChinaaswellastotheworldinthedevelopmentoftranslation.

AccordingtoProfessorLuoXinzhang,Chinesetranslationhistoryisdividedintothreeperiods:

thefirstperiodisfromtheendofHandynastytoMingdynasty;thesecondperiod,fromQingdynastyto1949,andthethirdperiodfrom1949tothepresent.

ThefirstperiodoftranslationhistoryismainlyconcernedwiththetranslationofBuddhistclassics.ThebiggestachievementoftranslationintheancientstageofChinaliedintheprosperoustranslationactivityofBuddhistscriptures,fromwhichmostoftheancienttranslationtheoriescameintobeing.Thoughtheearliesttheorieswerenomorethanfragmentarypersonalopinionsscatteredinprefacesofthetranslatedworks,theyindicatedthetrendofancientChinesetranslation,whichinvolvedtheproblemofstylefromtheverybeginning.Thefirsttranslationtheoristsincludedalargegroupofmonkswhodevotedandzealousinlearningandtransmittingreligiouscanons.

ThefirsteminenttranslatoreverrecordedintranslationhistoryisZhiQian,afamousandimportantscripturetranslatorinEmpireWuoftheThreeKingdomPeriod.Intheyearof224AD,ZhiQianwroteaprefacetoFajuScripturehetranslated.Inthepreface,hearguedthat“itisreallynoteasytotranslateasnamesofasamethinggivenindifferentlanguagesaresodifferent”.Notonlydidherealizethedifficultyoftranslation,butalsoheexpressedhisideasontheproblemoftranslationcriterion.IntheprefaceZhiQiansuggeststhatatranslatorofscripturesshouldtranslatetheoriginalmeaningofthescripturedirectlywithoutanyliterarymodifications,andhealreadyrealizedtheimportanceofexistenceofreadersbecausehethoughtthatthetranslatorshouldmakehistranslationeasytounderstandwithoutlosingtheoriginalmeaningofthescripturetranslated.Andthenthescripturestranslatedinthiswaycanberegardedasagoodtranslation.Surelythiswasanopinioninfavorofliteraltranslation.Healsoquotedafamoussentence,“Beautifullanguageisnotfaithfulandfaithfullanguageisnotbeautiful”（Laozi）,toprovethecontradictionbetweenfaithfulnessandbeauty.

ThisprefaceoccupiesaveryimportantpositioninthehistoryoftranslationstudyinChina.Itisthefirstessayontranslationrecorded;itraisedthefirstcriterionoftranslationandremindedothertranslatorofdifficultyoftranslation.Theprefaceisimportantnotonlybecauseitisthefirstoneofitskind,butalsobecausethetheoryitcontainsisquiteremindfulforthelatertranslatorsandtranslationtheorists.

ThesecondfamoustranslatorinhistoryisDaoAn,amonkinthetimeofEastJin,whoisproductivebothintranslationsandtranslationtheory.HewasthenappointeddirectoroftheBureauofTranslationandauthorizedtodecideonwhichstyleoftranslationtobeadopted.Underhisdirection,theSanskritwritingsweretranslatedverbatimandmechanically.Theoriginalremainedliterallyunchangedinitsversionwithmerelyoccasionalalterationsofwordorder.Amonghistheories,thetwomostimportantonesareasfollows:

“thefivesituationsinwhichthetranslationwillbetraytheoriginal”suchasthedifferentwordorderbetweenthetwolanguagesandthatof“threedifficultiesintranslation”suchasthedifferentknowledgeoftheancientscholarsandthepresenttranslators.Toovercomethesedifficulties,heraisedthesolution:

”totranslationscripturesstrictlyaccordingtotheoriginal;nowordsthatmayharmthetruthfulnessoftranslationandnovaluelesswordsarepermittedinthetranslation”.LikeZhiQianandDaoAn