英漢翻譯中的望文生義現(xiàn)象的研究【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　?。?0_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)</b></p><p><b>　　英語</b></p><p>　　英漢翻譯中的望文生義現(xiàn)象的研究</p><p>　　A Study of Word-for-Word Engl

2、ish-Chinese Translation</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　在中國，翻譯是一門古老而又年輕的藝術(shù)。中國的翻譯可以追溯到魏漢，而盛于隋唐，前后大概持續(xù)了一千多年。在這一千多年里，許多古今中外的專家和學(xué)者對翻譯以及翻譯的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)提出了不同的看法。這些珍貴的看法對后人在翻譯實(shí)踐時(shí)產(chǎn)生了很大的影響，他們?yōu)楫?dāng)代的翻譯事業(yè)貢獻(xiàn)了自己的

3、力量。盡管如此，還是有很多學(xué)生在做英譯漢的練習(xí)時(shí)免不了會望文生義，導(dǎo)致這種現(xiàn)象產(chǎn)生的原因是多種多樣的，主要可以歸結(jié)為兩方面的原因—主觀原因和客觀原因。主觀方面的原因大致是學(xué)生的認(rèn)識問題，而客觀方面原因就比較復(fù)雜，如，英語詞匯的一詞多義，英語句子和英語詞匯在不同上下文的不同含義，以及英語語法結(jié)構(gòu)的復(fù)雜多樣性。本文主要從英語的復(fù)雜性和多變性從著手，深入研究導(dǎo)致學(xué)生產(chǎn)生望文生義這種現(xiàn)象的主觀方面原因和客觀方面的原因，舉出一系列相應(yīng)的例子,并詳

4、細(xì)地分析了這兩方面的原因,最后提出措施以防學(xué)生在今后的翻譯中再出現(xiàn)類似的錯(cuò)誤。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：望文生義; 主要原因；翻譯策略；</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　In China, the translation is an art which is both old and young.

5、Translation can be dated back to about 1000 years ago, during which time many experts and scholars in ancient time and modern time expressed their opinions about translation and standards of translation, and they also tr

6、ied their best to make the field perfect. Those opinions are helpful and have great impacts on students. However, students still make mistakes when they do translation practice. The reasons that cause the phenomenon</

7、p><p>　　Key words: word-for-word translation; main reasons; translation strategies</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　中文摘要...................................................

8、........................................................................I</p><p>　　Abstract....................................................................................................................

9、......II</p><p>　　1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1</p><p>　　1.1 Background information..............

10、........................................................................1</p><p>　　1.2 Purpose of this thesis...........................................................................................2</p

11、><p>　　2 Theory Explanations................................................................................................2</p><p>　　2.1 The definition of translation ...........................

12、....................................................2</p><p>　　2.2 The criteria of translation.....................................................................................3 </p><p>　　2.3

13、 The main methods of translation.........................................................................4</p><p>　　3 Subjective factors of translating literally.............................................

14、..................5</p><p>　　3.1 Lack of culture consciousness.............................................................................5</p><p>　　3.1.1 Geographical culture..................

15、................................................................6</p><p>　　3.1.2 Historical culture........................................................................................6</p><p&g

16、t;　　3.1.3 Religious culture........................................................................................7</p><p>　　3.2 Lack of background infomation of the text....................................

17、....................7</p><p>　　4 Objective factors of translating literally................................................................8</p><p>　　4.1 Semantic differences between English an

18、d Chinese..........................................8</p><p>　　4.2 Lexical differences between English and Chinese.............................................9 </p><p>　　4.3 Syntactic difference

19、s between English and Chinese........................................10</p><p>　　5 Conclusion..............................................................................................................12&

20、lt;/p><p>　　Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….....13</p><p>　　Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..14</p><p>　　1 Introduction</p><p>　　1.1 Background informati

21、on</p><p>　　Translating one language into the other language has a long history in the world. The purposes of translating are to overcome the language barriers and exchange information with other countries,

22、to learn more about other countries’ culture and civilization and absorb advantages of other countries and to develop own country to a higher level, to communicate policy and economy with countries all over the world and

23、 any other purposes. The translation activity is significant. The famous translator E</p><p>　　Translating words too literally is a phenomenon that always attracts domestic and foreign experts’ attention. It

24、 is not only the trap in translation practice, but also the blind spot in learning foreign languages. Yan Fu put forward the translation standard: faithfulness, smoothness, elegance in 1989 and this translation standard

25、has been used for more than a hundred years. The phenomenon of translating English into Chinese literally, namely, students do not understand the real meaning of Englis</p><p>　　Many scholars have already do

26、ne a lot to study this topic, and they also have drawn many important conclusions. But if the problem is probed into a little deeper, it is not surprised to find that they still do not explain completely, and these answe

27、rs are usually not so comprehensive. The reason why the phenomenon always occurs in translating English into Chinese consists of two parts. One is from subjective factors while the other derive from objective factors. Th

28、e subjective factors can be sai</p><p>　　1.2 Purpose of this thesis</p><p>　　Translation is a complicated art. Translation is not only an important process when students learn English, but also

29、a means of testing students’ understanding of English sentences and vocabularies. Students often feel difficult in comprehending English words and sentences in translating English into Chinese. These reasons are multiple

30、, such as, polysemy in English words, the different connotation of the same word or the same sentence in different text, the complexity of grammatical structure of</p><p>　　The paper explains the translation

31、 theories at the beginning. Students who want to do translation well, they should pay more attention to the translation theories. They can learn much in translation theories. And translation theories can help students do

32、 translation practice better. Then the paper talks about the subjective reasons including culture consciousness and background information about texts, and the objective reasons in detail. And in each part, the paper giv

33、es some examples. At last,</p><p>　　2 Theory explanations </p><p>　　2.1 The definition of translation</p><p>　　TheOxford English Dictionary defined translate: to turn from one lang

34、uage into another. Websiter’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language also defined translate: to turn into one’s own or another language. Although the two definitions are different in choosing words to

35、 express, the meanings are the same. </p><p>　　Nida issued a book which is called Nida On Translation, in which he explained the definition of translation: Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor

36、 language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style (Eugene A. Nida ＆ Charles R. Taber, 1982: 12). In this definition, the “equivalent” is the

37、 core, so that target text readers can get the same feeling with the original text readers by reading the translation. I</p><p>　　2.2 The criteria of translation</p><p>　　The criteria of transla

38、tion have always been the important issues of translation theories. Traditional translation theory has always stressed “ faithfulness ” both in eastern and western countries. So faithfulness has high priority in translat

39、ion standards. Unfortunately, there is no consensus view about the translation standards. Many teaching materials view faithfulness and smoothness as basic criteria of translation. In 1789, an English translator George C

40、ampbell first proposed three principl</p><p>　　The first thing ... is to give a just representation of the sense of the original ... The second thing is, to convey into his version, as much as possible, in a

41、 consistency with the genius of the language which he write, the author’s spirit and manner ... The third and the last thing is, to take care, the version have at least, so far the quality of an original performance, as

42、to appear natural and easy... (Venuti, 1995: 75) </p><p>　　Another famous translator put forward similiar principles after one year: 1. That the Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of

43、the original work. 2. That the style and the manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original. 3. That the translation should have all the ease of original composition. (Lefevere, 1992: 128)

44、 The above two standards are different in expressing, but they both put faithfullness at the first place. They both require the t</p><p>　　Yan Fu has influenced many experts and scholars more than a hundr

45、ed years. He stressed the following three points as the translation standard: faithfulness, smoothness, elegance. “Faithfulness” refers to the original text accurately convey the content of the letter to the author and r

46、eaders. It does not allow any distortion of the original text, and the translation does not allow any omissions. “Smoothness” means the use of standard Chinese to translate, the translation should be easy to unders</

47、p><p>　　Many other famous authors in China also has proclaimed their views on the criteria of translation. Lu Xun had firmly believed that the translation should be faithfulness and smoothness. He used literal

48、translation and he said translation should keep its original style. But the view of Lin Yutang is little different from the former, he believed translation should be faithfulness, smoothness and beauty.（羅新璋，1884：418）Liu

49、Chongde believed translation should be faithfulness, expressiveness and closen</p><p>　　After comparing so many translation standards, the basic criteria of translation are the same: faithfulness, smoothness

50、. </p><p>　　2.3 The main methods of translation</p><p>　　For almost two thousand years, literal translation and liberal translation are the main themes in the history of translation. Literal tra

51、nslation is to reproduce the original meaning by keeping the linguistic form as possible as students can. The advantages of literal translation are the original way of expression and the original images. Liberal translat

52、ion is to reproduce the original meaning without keeping the linguistic form. But the core issue of literal translation and liberal translation</p><p>　　The German translation theorist Schleiermacher in 1813

53、 proposed two translation methods: an approach that the translator remains the author in the place, as possible as he can, and guides readers to get closer towards him, while the other method is that the translator remai

54、ns readers in the place, as possible as he can, and guides the author to get closer towards them. (Venuti, 1995: 19-20) But Schleiermacher didn’t named them. Lawrence Venuti, a famous American translator, he was the firs

55、t pers</p><p>　　Foreignizing method and domesticating method as two methods in translating English to Chinese, the former caters to the intention of the original author's writing, and the latter adapts t

56、o readers requirements. There are some examples as following. The sentence “All roads lead to Rome”, if it is translated by using foreignizing method, the Chinese dmeaning is “條條道路通羅馬”; while it is translated by using do

57、mesticating method, the Chinese dmeaning is “殊途同歸”. In translation practice, the two methods </p><p>　　3 Subjective factors of translating literally</p><p>　　3.1 Lack of culture consciousness&l

58、t;/p><p>　　Language is not only a bilingual activity, but also a cross-cultural activity. Culture and language are interdependent, and translation is the conversion between English and Chinese. Language can be

59、called the carrier of culture. Language reflects the characteristics of a nation, and development of language often reflects the cultural change. It contains not only the nation’s historical and cultural background, but

60、also contains the national view of things, lifestyle and way of thinking. Languag</p><p>　　3.1.1 Geographical culture</p><p>　　The west parts of China are mountains, while the east parts of Chin

61、a are facing the ocean. When spring comes, east wind comes. When west wind comes, the weather is often cold. So the east wind often leaves people good impression. Chinese prefer east wind to west wind. But in England, ea

62、st wind refers to the cold wind coming from the northern parts of the Europe. The United Kingdom is located in the Western Hemisphere, and the west parts face the Atlantic Ocean. The climate is moderate all the ye</p&

63、gt;<p>　　Most English-speaking countries near the ocean, particularly the United Kingdom. As an island country, people are always dealing with sea. </p><p>　　(1) Be left high and dry ≠ “被留在水流達(dá)不到的地方”&l

64、t;/p><p>　　“Be left high and dry”, when students see this phrase, they maybe mistake it for “被留在水流達(dá)不到的地方”. In fact, Western countries often have the phenomenon of high tide and low tide, when the low tide happe

65、ns many fish are stranded, so they are lack of water. Based on this phenomenon, the phrase should be translated as “陷入困境”. If students are lack of this geographical culture, they may have faulty translation. </p>

66、<p>　　3.1.2 Historical culture</p><p>　　English and Chinese both have long history and each rich in culture. It is not enough to understand the words or sentences which have cultural features. Sometimes

67、, the words or sentences should be translated from the historical aspect.</p><p>　　(2) Round table ≠ “圓桌子”</p><p>　　When one of staff said “we need the round table” in the meeting. Some students

68、 may translate the sentence as “我們需要一個(gè)圓桌子”. On the surface meaning, this is right while you study it carefully you may find the question. There is nothing to do with a round table when you take part in a meeting. At fact

69、, it has a history. In case of Knights fight for an important seat when they have meetings, the King Arthur invited the round table. Then the round table means fair. So this sentence means “我們需要公平” inst</p><p&

70、gt;　　3.1.3 Religious culture</p><p>　　Because of different historical roots, there are large differences in the religious aspects between West and East. Most English people believe in God while Chinese don’t

71、. </p><p>　　(3) Doubting Tomas ≠ “托馬斯你多疑了”</p><p>　　When students read this sentence “You’re just a doubting Tomas”, they may translate this sentence as follow: “托馬斯，你太多疑了”. This is a big mistak

72、e, because “doubting Tomas” has a history in religious culture. Tomas is one of twelve disciples of Jesus and he is suspicious. Later people use “doubting Tomas” as a people who is suspicious. So this sentence should be

73、translated as “你真是個(gè)多疑的托馬斯”.</p><p>　　(4) Touch wood ≠ “摸木頭”</p><p>　　“I have been driving for 20 years and never had an accident—touch wood!”. “Touch wood” is not an action of touching wood. In

74、ancient England, people regard wood as the cross that Jesus carried on Good Friday, and people would have good luck if they touch the wood. So in modern English, “touch wood” means “擁有好運(yùn)”. </p><p>　　(5) Clea

75、n hands ≠ “干凈的手”</p><p>　　“My hands are clean. You can not blame anything on me.” “Clean hands” is from Holy Bible. The literal meaning of the phrase is clean hands but now people are used this to describe u

76、pright. It is always used in the short phrase like “come out with clean hands”, “have clean hands”, “with clean hands”. So the clean hands in Chinese is called “無辜、清白”.</p><p>　　3.2 Lack of background inform

77、ation of the text </p><p>　　When students take translation exercise, they should also pay attention to the background information of the text. </p><p>　　(6) Loneliness industry ≠ “孤獨(dú)的工業(yè)”</p&g

78、t;<p>　　“The United States has now set up a loneliness industry”. In America, “l(fā)oneliness industry” has been a kind of Welfare. There are more and more lonely elderly people in American society, because young peop

79、le don’t live with their parents nowdays. They have difficulty in life and no people would take care of them. So it has been a social problem. And America government open the social projects of service for lonely elderly

80、 people. If students are lack of this background information they may confu</p><p>　　(7) Monetary instruments ≠ “外幣儀器”</p><p>　　“We are carrying currency or monetary instruments over 10000 dolla

81、rs or foreign equivalent.” The general meaning of “Instrument” in dictionary is a tool or device used for a particular task, especially for delicate or scientific work, but the word has other meanings. Then some students

82、 may translate the sentence as “我們攜帶有貨幣或價(jià)值超過10000美元的儀器或相當(dāng)于10000美元的外幣的儀器”. In this translation, “instrument” apperally is not the general meaning. If students know the background information of the word and translat</p

83、><p>　　(8) One degree under ≠ “溫度低了一度”</p><p>　　Andy didn’t show up for the date because he was feeling one degree under. When students see this phrase, they may make mistake “one degree under” as

84、“the degree is lower” and without second thought. Whether degree is higher or lower, it means that people are not healthy rather than the degree is lower. If students can think twice, “one degree under” can be understood

85、 like something is not normal. Then students can guess the right meaning of the phrase. </p><p>　　(9) Cup of tea ≠ “一杯茶”</p><p>　　“I am afraid that is not my cup of tea.” “Cup of tea” is a simpl

86、e phrase, almost all students know this phrase’s meaning. But in this sentence, “cup of tea” do not mean that. “Not my cup of tea” is always used to portray people do not like something or do not care about something. On

87、 the other hand, “one’s cup of tea” is used to express people like or have interest in doing something. So this sentence can be translated as “我怕那個(gè)不適合我”.</p><p>　　(10) Aunt Sally ≠ “薩利阿姨”</p><p>

88、;　　“It had become an Aunt Sally at which all sides could take pot shot.” The “Aunt Sally” in this sentence is not a female’s name but the name of a game. This game is from England in 19th century, and people use a ball o

89、r a stick to throw a wooden picture of women. And later people portray somebody who is suffered blame as “Aunt Sally”. </p><p>　　4 Objective factors of translating literally</p><p>　　4.1 Semanti

90、c differences between English and Chinese</p><p>　　The French translation theorists Georges Mounin think: Translation is an art which is based on science. English and Chinese are the language that belongs to

91、 two different language systems. The words in both English and Chinese are variable. English words are Flexible, but they always don’t go far away their original meaning. They just extend depending on the context. Studen

92、ts may neglect this fact and regard translation as a simple thing. If they really don’t know the meaning about words, they c</p><p>　　(11) Freeway ≠ “免費(fèi)的路”</p><p>　　“There was an accident on the

93、 freeway.” “Freeway” in Chinese looks like the way without fare. Actually, “freeway” is America English. Its meaning is a very wide road in the US, built for fast travel, namely, “高速公路”. So this sentence can be translate

94、d as “在高速公路上有一起事故”.</p><p>　　4.2 Lexical differences between English and Chinese</p><p>　　Lexical is about dealing with words, or the study related to words, but the study is complicated. Polyse

95、my means a word has two or more different meanings. In English, the polysemy is common. It is the main reason that can cause the miastake in this part. </p><p>　　(12) She is a cat ≠ “她是一只貓”</p><

96、;p>　　“She is a cat.” The basic meaning of cat isDHP a small animal with four legs that people often keep as pets. Students should not translate this sentence as “she is an animal of cat”. “她是個(gè)心懷不軌的女人” is the right tra

97、nslation. There are some examples as follows:</p><p>　　(13) Indifferent ≠ “無差異的”</p><p>　　“He is indifferent to our plan.” In the “indifferent”, “in-” can not be regarded the negative prefix in

98、word-building, and assume “different” holds its original meaning. So “indifferent” means 冷漠的、漠不關(guān)心的. In fact, this word means that somebody is not interested in someone or something. So this sentence should be translated

99、as “他對我們的計(jì)劃很冷漠，一點(diǎn)也不關(guān)心”.</p><p>　　(14) Infamous ≠ “沒有名氣的”</p><p>　　“He is infamous by way of being extremely wicked.” The word “infamous” means well known for being bad or evil, instead of not so