Analysis of Business English Translation from Translatability and Untranslatability.docx

Analysis of Business English Translation from Translatability and Untranslatability.docx

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AnalysisofBusinessEnglishTranslationfromTranslatabilityandUntranslatability

AnalysisofBusinessEnglishTranslationfromTranslatabilityandUntranslatability

1.Introduction

BusinessEnglishtranslationisoneofthemostcommon-usedapproachesindealingwiththeinternationalbusinesswork.Intheprocessoftranslation,translatabilityanduntranslatablity,whicharecausedbylanguageandculture,arethemajorcausesofmistranslation.Ifamistakewasmadewhendoinginternationalbusinesstranslation,theconsequencewouldbeafatalone.Thereisanexample:

“猫哆哩”（Net2）isaseriesoffoodmadebyTianxingFoodLimitedLiabilityCompanyYuxiYunnanProvince.Itisfoundthatthebrandnamed“酸角糕”,whichisonekindoffoodintheseries,wastranslatedintoAcidHorn（酸性的牛角）inthepacket.Actually,“酸角糕”isnothingtodowithAcidHorn,anditshouldbe“tamarindcake”.Asaresult,thecompanyreceivedagreatlossandhadnochoicebuttoabandontheoverseamarketsasfewforeignerscouldaccept“酸角糕”owingtoitsinappropriateEnglishname.

2.Translatabilityanduntranslatability

Tostudytranslationtheoriesanditsbranchesorapplications,oneshouldgetaconceptionthatwhatistranslation.Infact,I.A.Richardshasclaimedthatitisprobablythemostcomplextypeofeventinthehistoryofthecosmos.（Nida,2001:

1）Thiscomplexprocessconcernswithmanysubjects:

linguistics,sociallinguistics,literature,etc.In1968Nidaclaims“translationmeanstranslatingmeaning”.（Waard,1968:

60）Thenheadds,translation“consistsinreproducingthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnaturalequivalentofthesourcelanguagemessage,firstintermsofmeaningandsecondintermsofstyle.”（Nida,1969:

53）

However,certainwordsandphrasesinonelanguagesometimesdonothaveexactone-to-onecorrespondingequivalentsinanotherlanguage,whichmeansthatitisimpossibletofindtheexactequivalentsforsomecertainlanguagephenomena.Therefore,herecomestheissueoftranslatabilityanduntranslatability.Thefollowingfiguremadeby韩芳showstherelationshipbetweentranslatabilityanduntranslatability:

Figure1:

Therangeoftranslatabilityanduntranslatability

BusinessEnglishtextinvolvesinawidevarieties,suchastrading,finance,tax,advertising,management,etc.AsfortheprincipleofBusinessEnglishtranslation,therearemanytheories.Themostpopularoneisthe“faithfulness,idiomaticness,consistency”principleswhichwasputforwardbyLiuFagong.However,duetothespecialtyofbusinessEnglishtranslation,theprinciplesbroughtforwardbytranslatingtheoristcannotbefullyadoptedinbusinessEnglishtranslationpractice,so“theprincipleoftranslation”shouldnotbeunifiedbutbesomedifferenceaccordingtodifferentstyles.AsWangYongtaisaid:

ifitismeasuredby“faithfulness,expressiveness,elegance”,theemphasizeshouldbeputintodifferentpointsinaccordancewiththestyle.（新红,明,2006:

13）

2.1Translatability

AccordingtoLiuMiqing,the“translatability”intranslationtheoryreferstothetranslatabledegreeofsourcelanguagewhendoingbilingualtranslation.（1999:

98）

XuJunclaimedthat:

“Attheaspectofpracticing,nobodycandenythattranslationispossible.Inotherwords,“translatability”existstruly.”（2003:

263）

Althoughtherearedifferencesbetweendifferentlanguages,themostimportantfeatureofdifferentlanguagesisthatthereareresemblancesbetweenthem.Theoreticallyspeaking,thereexistbasalandbroadmeaningtransferringconditionsandwaysininterlingualtransformation,whichwasnamed“thechannelformessagetransferring”byLiuMiqing（1999:

99）.Whenthechannelformessagetransferringisavailable,translatabilitycomesintobeinganduntranslatabilityemergesinreversewhenthechanneldoesnotexistorisunavailable.

Theissueoftranslatabilityinvolvesinmanyaspects,suchastheprincipleofisomorphs,thoughtpatterns,theregularityofgrammaticaldifferences,andculturalinfiltration,etc.

2.1.1Theprincipleofisomorphs

Thesameobjectformsthesameconceptinthemindsofpeopleallovertheworldandtheconnotationofthisconceptdoesnotvaryfromlanguagetolanguage.Thoughpeoplespeakingdifferentlanguagesgivedifferentsignstoallthingsonearthconventionally,therearedifferentsignsofthesameobjectreferringtothesameconceptorconnotation.Peoplespeakingdifferentlanguagesmaysharedifferentfeaturestowardunderstandingobjectivethings.However,theyshareidenticalcognitivebasis,suchasidenticalmaterialfoundation.Thisidentityallowsthemtoformaroughbutsimilarframeworkofconceptualsystemrespectively.Thisframeworkofconceptualsystemiscalledisomorph,whichisthebasicconditionforpeoplespeakingdifferentlanguagestocarryoutmentalandemotionalcommunicationthroughinterlingualtransfer,andisthebasictheoreticalfoundationfor“translatability”andensuresthechannelformessagetransferring.

LiuMiqingillustratestheprinciplesofisomorphsinbilingualism（1999:

100）:

2.1.2Theidentityofthoughtpatterns

Thebasicpatternsandgeneralfeaturesofthinkingactivitiesofhumanareidentical.Nomatterwhatkindsoflanguagepeoplespeak,thebasicformsofthinkingareanalysis,synthesis,andgeneralization.Furthermore,peoplewhospeakvariouslanguagesalwaysthinkbythesimilarlogic,whichmakestheinformationtransferredpossible.Whenpeopleexpressacomplexsentencestomanifesttherelationofcauseandeffect,nomatterwhatkindoflanguagepeoplespeaksandwhethertheyexpressthe“reason”firstortheyspeakthe“result”first,the“reason”isalwaysthe“reason”andthe“result”isalwaysthe“result”.Forinstance,thesentence“becausethecompanybrokethecontract,werequirethecompensation”inChinesewillnotchangeto“becausewerequirethecompensation,thecompanybrokethecontract”inEnglish.

Thecommunicationofthinkingcannotbeseparatedfromlanguagesincelanguageisthecarrierofthought.Thoughlanguagesaregrammaticallydifferentandhavevariousstructures,thelawsofthinkingarethesame.Therefore,theidentityofthoughtpatternsisanotherimportantconditionthatensuresthepossibilityoftranslatability.

2.1.3Theregularityofgrammaticaldifferences

Sincethecontentandformofhumanthoughtarefundamentallyidentical,languagesintheprocessoftransferringaretranslatable.Twolanguagesmaybedifferentfromeachotheringrammaticalstructure,however,ononehand,thebasicelementsandfunctionsofgrammararesimilar:

theybothhavesubject,predicate,object,adverbialmodifier,andattributive;ontheotherhand,thecollocationsofgrammaticalelementsshowcertainregularity.Therefore,inlanguagetransferring,therearesimilarandcorrespondingstructuresofgrammarbetweendifferentlanguages.Differentlanguagesaresimilartoandcorrespondingwitheachotherinthebasicframeworkandinconnotation,whichprovidesinterlingualtransferringwiththepossibilityandmaterialconditionsforthechannelofmessagetransferring.Sincethestructuresoflanguagesandthecollocationsofgrammaticalelementsshowcertainregularity,comparativestudiesonlanguagescanbecarriedoutandthewaystofindoutchannelsformessagetransferringcanbeexplored,soastomakethepossibilityintoreality.

2.1.4Culturalinfiltration

Languageisthetoolofsocialcommunication.（壮麟,2001:

3）Themorethesocietydevelops,themorelanguagecontactsoccurandthemorenotablyculturalinfiltrationhappens.

Theopennessofsocietyhasapositiveeffectonthedevelopmentoflanguage,anditisself-evidentthatthemorethesocietyopenstooutside,themorenativelanguagecancontactwithforeignlanguage,sothattherearemoreinfiltrationsandsimilaritiesbetweentwolanguages,andnaturally,thepossibilityoftranslationisgreater.Withthedevelopmentofinformationtechnologyandcommunication,someculturesarespreadingandbeingacceptedandabsorbedinotherculturesandbecomepartsofothercultures.Duetotheopennessandcompatibilityfeaturesofculture,onecanseethatthecommonleave-takingEnglishword“Bye-Bye”wastranslatedintoChinese“拜拜”.

2.2Untranslatability

Incontrastwithtranslatability,untranslatalibityreferstothenatureofmeaningthatcannotberelativelytransferredintranslation.

Asforthelimitsoftranslatability,Catfordsuggeststhat“translatabilityappearsintuitivelytobeaclineratherthanabsolutelytranslatableoruntranslatable…Translationequivalencedependsontheinterchangeabilityofthesourcelanguage（SL）andtargetlanguage（TL）textsinthesamesituation-ultimatelyonrelationshipofSLandTLtextstothesamerelevantfeaturesofsituation-substance.”（1965:

93）Heconsideredthatthereexistinglinguisticuntranslatabilityandculturaluntranslatabilityinthefieldoftranslation.Linguisticuntranslatability:

“failuretofindaTLequivalentisdueentirelytodifferencesbetweenthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguage”（Catford,1965:

98）.Culturaluntranslatabilityarises“whenasituationalfeature,functionallyrelevantfortheSLtext,iscompletelyabsentfromthecultureofwhichtheTLisapart”（Catford,1965:

99）.

Inacertainextent,linguisticuntranslatabilitycanbeconsideredtobeabsoluteuntranslatability,andculturaluntranslatabilitytoberelativeuntranslatability.

Aswediscussedabove,themostimportantandkeytheoreticalbasisoftranslatabilityistheprincipleofisomorphs.Languageisthecarrierofthoughtandthoughtisthereflectionoftherealworldinpeople’sbrain.Itisthereasonwhydifferentlanguagesaresimilarinnature.However,fordifferentpeoplewhospeakdifferentlanguages,thewa