A Study of Translationese in EnglishChinese Translation.docx

A Study of Translationese in EnglishChinese Translation.docx

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AStudyofTranslationeseinEnglishChineseTranslation

AStudyofTranslationeseinEnglish-ChineseTranslation

Abstract:

Withtheincreasingeconomic,political,andculturalexchangesintheageofglobalization,somuchattentionhasbeenpaidtotranslation,foritplaysavitalimportantroleonmutualunderstandingandcommunication.Amongmanytranslationissues,translationesehasbeengivenmoreandmoreattention.Thispaperfirstbrieflyintroducesthedefinitionsandfeaturesoftranslationese,thenexpoundsthecausesandsolutionsoftranslationese,andfinallydiscussestheacceptabilityoftranslationese.

Keywords:

translationese,unnatural,acceptability

1.Introduction

Withthedevelopmentofglobalizationandinternationalization,economic,politicalandculturalexchangesamongdifferentcountriesandregionsarebecomingmoreandmorefrequent.Translation,asatoolandbridgeofcommunication,playsasignificantroleintheprocessofcommunication.Asthedemandofalargenumberoftranslations,thequalityoftranslationhasbeenconcerned.However,theoriginaltextsmayvariousfromeachother;translatorshavedifferentpreferencesincertainwords,sentencestructures,andstyles;andtranslator'stranslatingproficiencymayindifferentlevels;andthetargetreadersmayhavedifferentrequirementsoropinionsonthetranslations.Allthesefactorsleadtoproducedifferentlevelorstyletranslationworks.Thephenomenonoftranslationeseinthetranslatedtextshasbeendrawnmoreattentions.Translationesehasbeenquiteapopulartopicinthecircleoftranslationresearch,asitdirectlyaffectsthequalityandreadabilityofthetranslatedtexts.ThispapermainlydiscussesaboutthetranslationeseinEnglish-Chinesetranslation.Thispaperfirstgivesthedefinitionsandsomedistinctivefeaturesoftranslationese,thenanalyzesthecausesoftranslationeseandputsforwardseveralstrategiesforimprovingthequalityoftranslation.Attheendofthispaper,theacceptabilityoftranslationeseisdiscussed.

2.LiteratureReview

Thispartmainlyintroducesthedefinitionsoftranslationesegivenbysomescholarsandresearchersfromhomeandabroad,andsomedistinctivefeaturesoftranslationese.

2.1Definitionsoftranslationese

Whatistranslationese?

Manyscholarsandresearcheshavealreadyairedtheirownviewsonthedefinitionoftranslationese.Thefollowingaresomeofthem:

InTheTheoryandPracticeofTranslation,Eugene.A.NidaandCharlesR.Taberdefinethetranslationeseas“formalfidelity,withresultingunfaithfulnesstothecontentandtheimpactofthemessage.”（Nida&Taber,2004:

13）.

Gellerstam（1986）holdsthatthetranslationesereferstothe“fingerprints”leftbythesourcelanguageinthetargetlanguageaftertranslation.

Newmark（2001:

75）describestranslationeseasinaccuratetranslation.Tobemoreprecise,translationeseisatranslationwordedinanabsurdhybridlanguageasaresultofatranslatinginwhichtheinterferenceofthesourcelanguageistoogreatonthetranslator.Actuallytranslationesehasbeenfoundthestyleofsometranslatingorientationssuchaswork-for-wordtranslationandliteraltranslation.

Puurtinen（2003）definestranslationeseas“atranslation-specificlanguage,whichreferstolinguisticfeaturesthatareeitherspecifictotranslationsoroccurwithasignificantlyhigherorlowerfrequencyintranslationsthanintargetlanguageoriginals.”

InDictionaryofTranslationStudies,amoreprecisedefinitionoftranslationeseispresented:

ageneralpejorativetermusedtorefertoTLusagewhichbecauseofitsobviousrelianceonfeaturesofSLisperceivedasunnatural,impenetrableorevencomical,becauseitisobviouslydifferentfromthefeaturesofTL.（Shuttleworth&Cowie,2004）

InthebookofAnAppliedTheoryofTranslation,FanZhongying（1994）devotedawholechapter,ChapterNine,tothediscussionofthephenomenonthoughheemploysanothertermtranslationsyndrome.Hereishisdefinition:

“…Yetinfact,wecanoftendiscovermanyforeignizingexpressionswhichdonotconformtothehabitualuseoflanguageintranslations.Thisisacommonfaultexclusivetotranslation.”

AccordingtoLiuMiqing（1999）,translationesereferstoatranslationstylethatreadersdonotlovetoaccept.Itistheproductofmechanicaltranslationopinionsandmethodology.TheproduceroftranslationeseusuallyneglectsthedifferencesbetweentheSLandtheTLandregardstranslationasmechanicaltransferofsurfacestructures.

SunZhili（2003:

95-103）employsthewordtranslationesetoreferto“akindoftranslatedtextwhichisawkwardandextremelyhardfortheTLreaderstoaccept.”andWangZhikui（2004:

174-184）definestranslationeseas“theunidiomaticusageoflanguageexistingintranslatedtexts.”

FangMengzhi（2004）definestranslationeseas“unnatural,unsmoothandunpolishedsentencesorexpressionsintranslatedworkswhichareusuallydifficulttoreadandhardtounderstand.”

ChengXixu（2006:

104）alsogiveshisowndefinition:

Translationeseisanunnaturalformoflanguageintranslationwhichcarriesthefeaturesofthesourcelanguagestructures,thusviolatingthehabitualuseofthetargetlanguagewithinacertainperiodoftime.

Tosumup,translationesereferstohybrid,unnaturalexpressionsinthetranslatedworksthatdoesnotconformtothelinguisticconventionsoftheTL.Inthispaper,theEnglish-Chinesetranslationwastakenasexampletoanalyzethephenomenonoftranslationese.ManyscholarsalsocalledthiskindoflanguageasEuropeanizedlanguage.

2.2FeaturesofTranslationese

AccordingtoShuttleworthandCowie（2004:

178）,inappropriateSLmetaphorsandsyntax,unnaturalwordorderandahighconcentrationofunnatural-soundingterminologyarethesortoffeatureswhicharetypicaloftranslationese.

FanZhongying（1994:

98）discussesthisphenomenonoftranslationeseinthenameof"translationsyndrome".Thecharacteristicsoftranslationsyndrome,inhisopinion,areasfollows:

（1）atranslationwithlighttranslationsyndromeisunnaturalinlanguagebutcanbeunderstood;

（2）thecollocationsdonotconformtoChineseusage;（3）metaphorsintheoriginalaredirectlytransplantedand（4）thesurfacemeaningisconsideredwithoutbotheringthedeepmeaning.

LiuMiqing（1999:

245）aimsspecificallyattheEnglish-Chinesetranslationpractice,andhesumsupthefeaturesoftranslationeseasfollows:

（1）thetranslationviolatesthelinguisticusageofTL,especiallywordorder;

（2）thesentencepatternsandlexicalpreferenceofSL（especiallythepronounsinEnglish）arefoundinTL;（3）therhetoricaldevicesofSLaredirectlytransplanted;（4）theforeigncultureisblindlyintroducedwithoutconsiderationofthenationalandtheindividualpsychologyofthereceptors;（5）SLisimitatedandthesocialfunctionandeffectsareignored.

SunZhili（2003）studiestranslationeseinthecontextofEnglish-Chinesetranslationpractice,astothefeaturesoftranslationese,hesummarizedtwoitems:

（1）unsmoothlanguagewhichnotonlyviolatesthenormofChinesebutruinsthereaders'interestsand

（2）obscuremeaningwhichconfusesthereaders'understanding.

ChengXixu（2006:

104）liststhreemainfeaturesoftranslationese:

（1）beingunnatural;

（2）carryingthefeaturesofsourcelanguagestructuresand（3）beinginviolationofthehabitualuseoftargetlanguage.

Inaword,thephenomenonoftranslationeseischaracteristicofitsformalfidelityandignoranceofthelinguisticconventions,expressionsandsentencestructuresoftheTL.Translationswithtranslationeseareunnatural,andfromwhichtheshadowofSTcanbeseen.

3.CausesofTranslationeseandtheSuggestions

Asthedefinitionsandfeaturesoftranslationesehavebeengivenbymanyscholarsandresearchers,thecausesoftranslationesehasalsobeendiscussedbythem.

FanZhongying（1994）arguesthattherearethreemajorcauses:

firstly,thetranslator'signoranceofdifferencesbetweenthetwolanguages;secondly,thetranslator'smisunderstandingof"faithfulness";thirdly,thetranslatordoesnotcomprehendthedeepmeaningofSLtext.

LiuMiqing（1999）holdsthattheproduceroftranslationeseusuallyneglectsthedifferencesbetweenSLandTLandregardstranslationasamechanicaltransferofsurfacestructures.Thetranslatordoesnotunderstandthedeepstructurethroughthesurfacestructureintheprocessofcomprehension.

AccordingtoFangMengzhi（2004:

26）,translationesedoesnotoccurbecauseofthetranslator'slimitedtargetlanguagecompetenceorpoorwritingskills.Instead,itoccursbecause"thetranslatorcannotgobeyondtheobligatoryrulesofgrammarandsurfacestructureofsyntaxinSL",thatistosay,thetranslator"keepstoorigidlytothesourcetext,andtriestoseekcompleteformalequivalenceinwording,figuresofspeechandsentencestructuresbetweenthetwolanguages,withoutknowingthatheisattemptingatsomethingimpossible,whichnodoubtwillendupinfailure.Thushistranslationwilljustcausepainforreaders".

Basedonthefindingsoftheseandotherresearchers,thecausesoftranslationesecanbesummarizedasfollows:

3.1NeglectingtheDifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglish

ChineseandEnglishbelongtotwodifferentlanguagefamilies:

ChinesebelongstoSino-Tibetanlanguagefamily,whileEnglishbelongstotheIndo-Europeanlanguagefamily.Thedifferencescanbedescribedas:

Chineseisdiffusiveandparatactic,whileEnglishiscompactandhypotactic.TherearenoconnectivesshowingtherelationbetweenChinesesentences.Incontrast,Englishsentencesarecomposedwithconnectivesindicatingtheirrelationship.Englishlaysstressonusinglogical-grammaticalconnectorsinconveying