不可译性及其补偿方法.docx

不可译性及其补偿方法.docx

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不可译性及其补偿方法

不可译性及其补偿方法

　　【Abstract】ThispaperdiscussestheproblemofuntranslatabilitybetweenChineseandEnglish,includinglinguisticandculturaluntranslatability.EnglishbelongstotheIndo-Europeanlanguagefamily,andChinesebelongstotheSino-Tibetanlanguagefamily.Thephonemicsystem,characterstructureandfigureofspeechareallcompletelydifferent,andmostoftheseinonelanguagedonothaveequivalentintheotherlanguage.Thiscauseslinguisticuntranslatability.Differentcountryandregionhavedifferentculturalbackground,suchashistory,religionandsociety,andsoon,thesearenotexistinothercountryandregion.Soitisdifficulttotranslate.Butuntranslatabilityisnotabsolutely,weshouldunderstandtheco-existenceoftranslatabilityanduntranslatability.Baseontheunderstanding,wecanusesomemethodtocompensateinordertolessthebarrierintranslationandpromoteslanguageandculturecommunication.

【Keywords】untranslatability;linguisticuntranslatability;culturaluntranslatability;methodofcompensation

【摘要】本文讨论汉英翻译中的不可译性问题，包括语言不可译性和文化不可译性。

英语属于印欧语系，而汉语属于汉藏语系，其语音系统，文字结构和修辞方法都完全不同，这些绝大多数都无法在另一语言中找到对等语，这便造成了语言的不可译性。

不同的国家和地区有着不同的历史、宗教、社会等文化背景，这些在别的国家和地区都是不存在的，所以给翻译造成了困难。

但不可乙性并非绝对的，我们必须在理解可译性与不可译性是共同存在的，在此理解的基础上，我们可以采用补偿方法，目的在于对不可译性进行一定程度的补偿，尽量减少翻译障碍，促进语言与文化交流。

【关键词】不可译性；语言不可译性；文化不可译性；补偿方法

1.Introduction

Untranslatabilityisapropertyofatext,orofanyutteranceinonelanguage,forwhichnoequivalenttextorutterancecanbefoundinanotherlanguage.

“,acelebratedtranslationscholaroflinguisticsschool,raisedtheissueofuntranslatabilityin　arguesthatthelinguisticuntranslatabilityisduetothedifferencesinthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguage,whereascultureuntranslatabilityisduetotheabsenceinthetargetlanguageofrelevantsituationalfeatures.”[1]

“Nidapresentsarichsourceofinformationabouttheproblemofloseintranslation,inparticularaboutthedifficultiesencounteredbythetranslatorwhenfacingwithtermsorconceptsinthesourcelanguagethatdonotexitinthetargetlanguage.”

“PeterNewmarkhasoncebrieflytalkedaboutthedeviationintranslation.”

InChinatoday,manytranslationexpertsandscholarshavealsodiscussedtheproblemtosomeextentintheirpapers.

Theproblemofuntranslatabilityisalwaysadisputedissue.Nowadays,itiswellacceptedthattranslationisapossibleandfeasibletask.However,therearestillsomelanguagepointsthataredifficulttotranslate,whichiscalledthephenomenonofuntranslatability.

Linguisticandculturaldifferences,thetwocategoriesofuntranslatabilityphenomenonarecausedbydifferentfactors.Theseresultingfromthelinguisticdifferenceswillhardlychangewhilethoseresultingfromculturaldifferencesmaybecometranslatableinthefuturebyusingthemethodsofcompensationandtheskilloftranslators.

2.Linguisticuntranslatability

ProfessorLiuMiqingwroteinhisModernTranslationTheoriesthat“Thestructureoflanguagecommonlyshowsthecharacteristicsofthelanguage,thesecharacteristicsonlycanbefoundinrelativelanguage,thesimilartransferisdifficulttofindinnon-relativelanguage,foritneedtochangethecodecompletely.”P107Viewfromtheetymology,EnglishbelongstotheIndo-Europeanlanguage,butChinesebelongstotheSino-Tibetanlanguage,sothereexitthelinguisticuntranslatability,whichincludesthefollowingaspects:

phonology,character,figureofspeech,andsoon.

Untranslatabilityinphonology

Anylanguagehasitsownspecialphonemicsystem,whichcannotbereplacedbyotherlanguage.TherearelargedifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglish,andmostofthepronunciationsinonelanguagedonothaveequivalentintheotherlanguage.Therefore,theycannotbetranslatedintothetargetlanguage.Forexample:

（1）“石诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮……”

Theauthorwrotethewholepassageinhomophonewords.Thisisatypicalexampleofuntranslatabilitycausedbyphonemicsystem.Seeanotherexample:

（2）“Cat,cat,cat,catchthefatratfast.”

Iftranslateitinto:

“猫，猫，猫，快抓住那只肥老鼠”thatwilllosethephonemiceffect,anditonlytranslatesthemeaning.

Untranslatabilityincharacterstructure

Chinesewordsconsistofcharactersthathavetheirmeaning,butEnglishwordsconsistofalphabetsthataremeaningless.Theyarecompletelydifferentinwriting.Chinesehasawritingskillofdescribingcharacters,forexample:

（3）“人曾为僧，人弗可以成佛，女卑为婢，女又何妨成奴”，“鸿是江边鸟，蚕是天下虫”，“琴瑟琵琶八大王，王王在上，魑魅魍魉四小鬼，鬼鬼靠边”。

TheyareallusingthespecialfeatureofChinesecharacters,todescribethecharacterstructureinpoetry,alsohavingtheirmeaning.ButEnglishhasnosuchstructuresinalphabeticalsystem,sotheyareabsolutelyuntranslatable.

SomeriddlesthatarerelativetothestructureofcharactersorEnglishwordsarealsountranslatable,forexample:

（4）“田头长草”,“Whatmakesaroadbroad?

”（TheletterB）.Ifthelatterriddleistranslatedinto:

“什么使道路变宽？

”Everybodywillfellridiculous,andnoonecanunderstandthat.

Untranslatabilityinfigureofspeech

Mostofthelanguageshavetheirownfiguresofspeech.Justbecauseoftheexistenceoffigureofspeech,thelanguagesbecomevividandinteresting.Intranslationpractice,ifthetargetlanguagecannotshowthefigureofspeechinsourcelanguagecorrectly,itisnotfaithfultothecontent,thoughtandstyleofthesourcelanguage.Althoughthemeaningsaresimilar,itwilllessthelanguageinfluenceofthesourcetext.ThepeoplewhospeakChineseandthepeoplewhospeakEnglishhavelargedifferencesinthewayofthinkingandaesthetic,sowhentheyexpressthesameconcept,theyoftenusedifferentfigureofspeech.ThesecausedtheuntranslatabilityinChinese-Englishtranslation.Ithasthefollowingmainaspects:

Puns

Punmeanshumoroususeofawordthathastwomeaningsorofdifferentwordsthatsoundthesame.Punspackseveralmeaningsintooneword,anditisextremelyunlikelythatanyotherlanguagewillpackintothesamesetofmeanings,soitisdifficulttotranslateintothetargetlanguage.Exampleone:

（5）“杨柳青青江水平，闻郎江上唱歌声，东边日出西边雨，道是无晴却有晴”

Here“晴”isapun,anditalsomeans“情”，ZhangQichuntranslateitinto“Thewillowsaregreen,green,theriverisserene.Thenceishissongraftedtome.Intheeastthesunisrising,inthewesttherainisfalling.Canyouseeifit’sfairorfoul?

”Inthistranslation,thetranslatordidverywell,especiallyin“green,serene,fairorfoul”,buthecannottranslatethepuncompletely.

Exampletwo:

（6）“Sheistoolowforahighpraise,toobrowntoafairpraise,andtoolittleforagreatpraise.”

The“low”and“fair”areallpunsinthissentence.“Low”meansshortinheightandlowsocialstatus.“Fair”meanspaleskin,lightincolorandjustice.ThereisnowordorphraseinChinesehavingthetwomeaningstogether,sothetranslatorcannottranslatethetwomeaningsintoChinese,onlyadaptedonemeaning,andwilllosetheothermeaning.

Palindrome

“Thefigureofspeechofpalindromemeansaword,verseorsentencethatreadthesamewhenthecharactersorletterscomposingitaretakenthereverseorder.”P174TherearemanypalindromewordsinEnglish,suchas“Anna,dad,bob.”Englishpalindromeisbasedonletters,thelettershavenomeaning,anditreadsthesamewhentheorderisreversed.Forexample:

（7）“WasitacatIsaw?

”

（8）“AblewasIereIsawElba!

”

（9）“Madam,I’mAdam”

Iftheyaretranslatedinto“我看到的是猫吗？

”，“在我看到俄尔巴岛之前还没有倒！

”，“夫人，我是亚当。

”,theeffectarealllostwithoutanypalindrome,soitisalmostuntranslatable.

ThepalindromeinChineseisuntranslatableaswell,forexample:

（10）“客上天然居，居然天上客。

”

（11）“雾锁江心江锁雾，天连海角海连天。

”

Alliteration

Alliterationisusingthesameletterorsoundatthebeginningofthetwoormorewordsinsuccession.ItisacommonfigureofspeechinEnglish,especiallyinproverb,advertisement,novelandsoon.,andmostofthealliterationare　Forexample:

（12）Tomanyparents,thethreeGs,gays,guys,andgangshavereplacedthethreeRsasbenchmarkofschoollife.

对于许多父母来说，同性恋，枪支，帮派这三个词已经代替了读，写，算作为学校的基本尺度。

Inthistranslation,thethreeGs,gays,guys,gangsarealliteration,whichemphasizetheseriousproblemsofthegays,guysandgangs,butaftertranslatingthemintoChinese,wecannotseethiseffect.

Malapropism

“MalapropismcomesfromRichardSheridam’scomedyTheRivals,ahonoredladynameMalaprop,whooftenspeakswrongwordsorpronunciation.Malapropismisafigureofspeechusingwrongwordswithsimilarpronunciationtensionorintensiontoreachthehumorseffect.”P75Malapropismbringsdifficultiesintranslation.Forexample:

（13）“我推开澳门，看到地上铺的是巴基斯坦，桌上摆的是刚果……”

Thisisasentencefromcrosstalk,Chinesepeopleknowthehumorsnaturally,butifitistranslateditinto:

“Pushingopenthe‘Macau’,Isaw‘Pakistan’pavedonthefloorand‘Congo’onthetable.Englishreaderscannotacceptthat,for‘Macau’isnotadoor,‘Pakistan’isnotablanket,and‘Congo’isnotfruiteither.MostoftheyoungergenerationinChinahaveheardthishumoroussentence:

“我手持郑伊健，脚踏温兆轮，翻过赵本山，穿过关芝林，跨过潘长江，来到周星池……”Itisuntranslatabletoo.

3.Culturaluntranslatability

“Accordingto　Catford,instanceofuntranslatabilitycanarisefromtwosources:

oneislinguistic,andtheotherisculture.”P25

Nidaalsomentionsthatwordshavemeaningonlyintermsofthetotalculturalsetting.

Andwhatisculture,EdwardTylorgavethedefinitiontheearliestinhisthePrimitiveCulture:

“Cultureorcivilizationtakeninitswideanthro-graphicsenseisthatcompletewholewhichincludeknowledge,beliefs,art,morals,law,customandothercapabilitiesandhabitsacquiredbyamenasamemberofsociety.”P478

PeterNewmarkwroteinhisATextbookofTranslation:

“Idefinethecultureasthewayofl