中国菜名的翻译策略.docx

中国菜名的翻译策略.docx

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中国菜名的翻译策略

中国菜名的翻译策略

STRATEGIESFORTHETRANSLATIONOFCHINESEDISHNAME 

摘要

在中国，烹饪是一门古老的艺术。

早在3000多年前，中国人就已经知道如何美味调配酸、甜、苦、辣、咸这五味。

在清朝年间，一些海外华人在英国和其他国家开设了中国餐馆，从那时起中国菜开始名扬世界，中国餐馆也遍布世界许多国家和地区。

中国菜做工精细，品种多样，被世界不同民族的人们所喜爱。

随着世界全球化的不断发展，中国菜会成为越来越多的国际友人了解中国的一个重要窗口。

   中国菜名本是汉语自身的问题，其文化含义也非常清楚，但是当我们将中国菜名译成英文，介绍给外国人时，就出现了语际问题。

相应地，中国菜名的文化含义也就变成了一个跨文化问题，因为翻译是一个跨文化和跨语言的问题，我们必须考虑到两种语言和两种文化的差异。

本篇论文从理论和实践两个角度分析了翻译策略，指出如何正确的翻译中国菜名，并详细讨论了一些特殊菜名。

归纳总结翻译中餐菜名的通用方法:

直译法,直译加注法，意译法，同时强调了文化在翻译和交流中的重要作用。

关键词：

奈达的翻译理论;中国菜名的翻译;翻译策略;跨文化交际

1Introduction

Chinesedishesareknownfortheirvarietyandabundance.Thedishescanbeclassifiedintofourmajorcuisines,namely,NorthernCuisine,SichuanCuisine,JiangzheCuisineandSouthernCuisine.

Withmoreandmorecontactwiththeworld,Chinesefoodhasbecomeoneofculturessymbolizingourcountry.Asonepartofourcountry’sculture,ithasalonghistoryandrichcultureessences.Whenforeignerstasteourdeliciousfood,theyalsowanttoknowthenameessenceofthedish,therawmaterial,andthecookingways.Therefore,thetranslationofChinesedishnamesplaysaveryimportantroleinintroducingdishesandspreadingourdietculture.Awell-translateddishnamewillhelpattractcustomersandinspiretheirdesirefortaste;whileadishnametranslatedimproperlysometimeswillbringnegativeeffectoreverleadtospoilageoftheimageofthedish.

Infollowingpaper,wewilldiscussspecificstrategiesforthetranslationofChinesedishnamesfromtheoreticalandpracticalperspectives.TherearemainlythreeapproachesintranslatingChinesedishnames:

literaltranslation,literaltranslationwithnotes,andliberaltranslation.

2TheTheoryAppliedtoTranslationofChineseDishNames

2.1EugeneNida

EugeneA.Nida,afamousAmericantranslatoroftheBible,iswellknownforhisworksinsemanticstructureandtranslationtheory.Nida’stheoryoftranslationdevelopedfromhisownpracticalworkinthe1940sonwardswhenhewastranslatingandorganizingthetranslationoftheBible.Histheorygenerallycontainstwoconcepts:

FormalEquivalenceandDynamicEquivalence.

2.2EugeneNida’stheoryoftranslation

2.2.1Formalequivalencetranslation

FormalEquivalenceisdefinedbyNidaasoneof“twodifferenttypesofequivalence”,which“focusesattentiononthemessageitself,inbothformandcontent”.Formalequivalenceisthusthe“qualityofatranslationinwhichthefeaturesoftheformofsourcetexthavebeenmechanicallyreproducedinthereceptorlanguage”（Nida&Taber,1969\1982:

201）.TheaimofatranslatorwhoisstrivingforformalequivalenceistoallowSTtospeak“initsownterms”ratherthantoattempttoadjustittothecircumstancesofthetargetculture;inpracticethismeans,forexample,using“FormalEquivalents”ratherthan“FunctionalEquivalents”whereverpossible,notjoiningorsplittingsentences,andpreservingformalindicatorssuchaspunctuationmarksandparagraphsbreaks（Nida,1964:

165）.Thefrequentresultofsuchstrategiesisofcoursethat,becauseofdifferencesinstructurebetweenSLandTL,atranslationofthistype“distortsthegrammaticalandstylisticpatternsofthereceptorlanguage,andhencedistortsthemessage”（Nida&Taber,1969\1982:

201）.Forthisreason,itisfrequentlynecessarytoincludeexplanatorynotestohelpthetargetreader（Nida,1964:

166）.Soageneraltendencytowardsformalthandynamicequivalenceischaracterizedby,forexample,aconcernforaccuracyandapreferenceforretainingtheoriginalwordingwhereverpossible.Inspiteofitsapparentlimitations,however,formalequivalenceissometimesthemostappropriatestrategytofollow:

besidesfrequentlybeingchosenfortranslatingbiblicalandothersacredtexts,itisalsousefulforBack-TranslationandforwhenthetranslatormayforsomereasonbeunwillingtoacceptresponsibilityforchangingthewordingofTT（Hatim&Hason,1990:

7）.

2.2.2DynamicEquivalenceTranslation

   DynamicEquivalenceisbasedonwhatNidacalled“theprincipleofequivalenteffect”where“therelationshipbetweenreceptorandmessageshouldbesubstantiallythesameasthatwhichexistedbetweentheoriginalreceptorsandthemessage”（1964:

159）.Themessagehastobemodifiedtothereceptor’slinguisticneedsandculturalexpectationand“aimsatcompletenaturalnessofexpression”.Hedefinesthegoalofdynamicequivalenceasseeking“theclosestnaturalequivalenttotheSLmessage”（1969:

12）.

Inotherwords,adynamicallyequivalenttranslationisonewhichhasbeenproducedinaccordancewiththethreefoldprocessofAnalysis,Transfer2,andRestructuring（Nida&Taber,1969\1982:

200）;formulatingsuchatranslationsillentailsuchproceduresassubstitutingTLitemswhicharemoreculturallyappropriateforobscureSTitems,makinglinguisticallyimplicitSTinformationexplicit,andbuildinginacertainamountofRedundancytoaidcompression.Inatranslationofthiskindoneisthereforenotsoconcernedwith“matchingthereceptorlanguagemessagewiththesourcelanguagemessage”;theaimismoreto“relatethereceptortomodesofbehaviorrelevantwithinthecontextofhisownculture”（Nida,1964:

159）.Nida&Taberarguethata“highdegree”ofequivalenceofresponseisneededforthetranslationtoachieveitspurpose,althoughtheypointoutthatthisresponsecanneverbeenidenticalwithelicitedbytheoriginal（Nida&Taber,1969\1982:

24）.

2.3CommentsontheTheory

Nidaplayedanimportantroleinpointingtheroadawayfromstrictword-for-wordequivalence.Hisintroductiontotheconceptsofformalanddynamicequivalenceiscrucialinintroducingareceptor-based（orreader-based）orientationtotranslationtheory.However,boththeprincipleofequivalenteffectandtheconceptofequivalencehavecometobeheavilycriticizedforanumberofreasons.Lefevere（1993:

78）considerequivalentorresponsetobeimpossible.OneofNida’sfiercestcriticsisEdwinGentzler,whodenigratesNida’sworkforitstheologicalandproselytizingstandpointwiththeconceptthatdynamicequivalenceservesthepurposeofconvertingthereceptors,nomatterwhattheirculture,tothedominantdiscourseandideasofProtestantChristianity.However,Nidahas“achievedwhatfewofhispredecessorsattempted”andhisinfluenceintranslationstudiesspansfivedecadesandhasleftanindeliblemarkinthefieldoftranslation（Munday,2001:

43）.

3Cross-culturalCommunication

3.1RelationshipbetweenCultureandtranslation

Whenlearningalanguage,asayingis“learningalanguageisakindoflearningthecultureandhabitofthecountrywherethelanguageisspoken”.Intranslation,wemaysaythattranslatingasourcelanguagetextisakindoftranslatingthesourcelanguagecultureandhabitofthecountrywherethesourcelanguageisspoken. 

3.1.1TheDefinitionofCulture

   Whatdoestheword”culture”mean?

Itmaymeanmanythings.Forexample,wesometimessaythatpeoplewhoareabletoreadandwriteorwhoknowaboutart,musicandliteraturearecultured.Fordifferentpeople,thewordhasadifferentmeaning.

   Infact,cultureisreallyalargeandevasiveconcept,verycomplexanddifficulttodefine.Itissaidthattherehavebeenatleastover150definitionsofculture,butnoneofthemseemstobeabletotelluseverythingaboutculture.Thefollowingdefinitionsarejustsomeofthewell-knownones.

   “Culturemaybedefinedaswhatasocietydoesandthinks”（Sapir,1921）.

   “Whatreallybindsmentogetheristheirculture—theideasandthestandardstheyhaveincommon”（R.Benedict,1935）.

“Cultureisman’smedium;thereisnotoneaspectofhumanlifethatisnottouchedandalteredbyculture.Thismeanspersonality,howpeopleexpressthemselves,includingshowsofemotion,thewaytheythink,howtheymove,howproblemsaresolved,howtheircitiesareplannedandlaidout,howtransportationsystemsfunctionandareorganized,aswellashoweconomicandgovernmentsystemsareputtogetherandfunction”.（EdwardT.Hall,1959）

3.1.2TheDefinitionofTranslation

   Translationisalsoanincrediblybroadnotionwhichcanbeunderstoodinmanydifferentways.

AsJakobsondefinestranslationas“aninterpretationofverbalsignsbymeansofsomeotherlanguage”（1959\1966:

233）.AnapproachbasedontheimportanceofpreservingtheeffectoftheoriginalisreflectedinNida&taber’sdefinition:

“translationconsistsinreproducinginthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnationalequivalentofthesource-languagemessage,firstintermsofmeaningandsecondlyintermsofstyle”（Nida&taber,1982:

12）.Vermeer,rejectingnotionsoftranslationasatwo-stageprocessofdecodingandrecording,offersasimilarlynon-normativedefinitionoftranslationas“informationaboutasourcetextinanotherlanguage”（1982:

97）.ThisapproachengendersaviewoftranslationinwhichthewayaTTfunctionsinaspecificculturalcontextisparamount:

“translationistheproductionofafunctionaltargettextthatisspecifiedaccordingtotheintendedordemandedfunctionofthetargettext（translationskopos）”（Nord,1991:

28）.

3.1.3RelationshipbetweenCultureandTranslation

   Herewewillintroduceanotherterm“cross-culturaltranslation”.Thistermreferstotypesoftranslationwhichfunctionasatoolforcross-culturaloranthropologicalresearch,orindeedtoanytranslationwhichissensitivetoculturalaswellaslinguisticfactors.

   Mosttranslatorsrecognizethateachlanguagecontainselementswhicharederivedfromitsculture,thateverytextisanchoredinaspecificculture,andthatconventionsoftextproductionandreceptionvaryfromculturetoculture（Koller,1979\1992:

59-60）.Anawarenessofsuchissuescanattimesmakeitmoreappropri