Starting with the concept of translation, based on Skopostheorie and "function plus loyalty" in functional translation, this paper discusses how to solve the problem of German news translation from three aspects: pragmatics, language and cultural differences. The study shows that functional translation theory is applicable to the translation of news texts.
I. Translation Problems and Their Classification
So far, the concept of translation has not been settled in the translation field. In this paper, the classification of translation problems mainly refers to the classification methods of translation problems in the book Translation Theory and Practice-On Interpretation and Translation Teaching in Functional Translation Studies, co-authored by German translation theorists Gao and Zhu Xiaoxue. On the basis of summarizing the definition of translation types in Nord's translation-oriented discourse analysis model and combining the characteristics of Chinese and German, the two theorists creatively put forward three types of translation problems: pragmatic problems, grammatical problems and cultural problems. Its significance lies in providing some enlightenment for dealing with different translation problems in German-Chinese translation.
Second, functional translation theory and the handling of German news translation problems
Functionalist translation theory holds that translation is a communicative behavior based on a specific communicative function, and therefore puts forward the concept of "translation behavior", and the occurrence of a behavior must have its specific purpose. This provides an important theoretical basis for Felmer's teleology. In The Theoretical Basis of General Translation, co-authored with Rice, Femel introduced his teleological thought: the highest standard of all translation is its purpose. All words are conscious and purposeful expressions of the speaker. In Vermehr's view, the criterion for evaluating translation quality is not the degree to which the source text corresponds to the target text, but the degree to which the translation goal is achieved, that is, whether the function of the target text is met. The purpose of translation determines the translation method.
News translation also has a strong purpose, and the purpose of news translation is embodied in the secondary transmission of information. According to Skopostheorie, a translator should satisfy the readers' expectations to the greatest extent when writing a translation, so as to realize the communicative function. The communicative function of news translation lies in the accurate transmission of information. There are some differences between Chinese and German in pragmatics, grammar and culture. In order to realize the communicative function and make China readers accurately understand the information conveyed by foreign media news, translators should pay attention to dealing with these differences in the process of translation, so as to meet the needs of readers and achieve the purpose of communication.
Skopos theory provides a great space for translators, but does this mean that translators can ignore the original text and the author? Nord, a translator of functional translation studies, supplements and perfects the concept of "loyalty" put forward by functional translation theory. Nord put forward the concept of "loyalty" in his monograph Text Analysis Model of Translation: Theory, Method and Teaching Application. The translator's "loyalty" is loyalty to the original text and the author.
Skopos theory gives the translator great initiative, and the translator can add or delete the original content as needed, and even adjust the language style and structure of the original. However, the main function of news discourse is to convey information, that is to say, even if the author's language style and structure are adjusted to suit the readers, the authenticity of his information cannot be challenged, and the translator cannot take it for granted to tamper with the original text at will. According to Nord's theory of "function plus loyalty", translators should give consideration to the loyalty to the original author while realizing the translation function, and should make clear what needs to be preserved, changed and processed in news translation.
Thirdly, translation in the pragmatic sense.
From the discussion in the last article, we know the methods of news translation: in the process of news translation, we can make appropriate adjustments to the original text to make it more suitable for the culture and thinking habits of the receiving country. At the same time, this adjustment also has some limitations, and the translator can't take it for granted to tamper with the original text at will. In other words, in the process of translation, it is necessary to decide which contents of the original text should be "deleted", which should be "modified" and "processed" and which should be "preserved". The basis for deciding these problems is the pragmatic standard. The following is an example to illustrate how to deal with translation at the pragmatic level:
Example 1. Imstalinistitschenprunkgeb？ udeinderN？ hedesZoosfeiertdieParteidie "，wissenschaftlichePolitik " unterparteiführerhujintaoundblicktzurückaufdieletztenzehnJahre "，dieausSichtderPropagandaein，" waren "。
This is an activity topic. By visiting the Beijing Military Museum, we can look back on the development of China in the past ten years. Close-up of this genre of news text is a description of an event, so in linguistics, some journalists' personal writing characteristics are added. StalinistischerPrunkgebude appeared in the original text, which means "Stalin's house" in German, especially the buildings in Germany's pre-democratic era during the Cold War, which refers to the architectural style of the exhibition site. In China, there is no such thing. If it is directly translated into "Stalin's House", readers will not understand it. In the early days of the founding of New China, many Soviet-style buildings were built in China, so the author translated them into "Soviet-style buildings" according to his own experience, which not only retained the description of architectural style in the original text, but also made it easier for readers in China to understand, and eliminated ideological problems to some extent from culture.
Located near the Beijing Zoo, this Soviet-style exhibition hall shows the achievements of President Hu Jintao "Scientific Outlook on Development". It reviewed the great achievements made in the past decade, which was regarded as a "brilliant decade" by China media.
Four. Translation at the linguistic level
There are great differences in grammatical features between Chinese and German. There are indirect speech in German, but not in Chinese.
Take the translation of the following indirect speech as an example:
Example 2. Esmü ssesterkereswig Taufeine "Verbesserungdesdemokratishen system". A remarkable feature of German news reports is that journalists must often quote the original words of others, and sometimes even quote a lot, which is what we call quotation. There are direct speech and indirect speech in German. Both appeared in German news. In German, direct speech uses colons and quotation marks, which can be changed to Chinese colons and quotation marks in the process of processing. Indirect speech should be expressed in the first subjunctive mood. German has no first virtual form in Chinese, so some supplements should be made to the original text in translation, such as "he thinks", "he thinks" and "he says", which means to objectively report what others say.
Translation of verb (abbreviation of verb) at the Cultural Level
When discussing translation at the pragmatic level, due to different understandings of architectural style, we encounter the problem of translating "Soviet-style architecture". However, there are many similarities in language and culture between China and Germany, which also provides some convenience for translators. Take the following sentence as an example:
Example 3. amsongtastelltesichliangderpresse。 Eswareinlichtblickinerangeweilekumü berbietbaren Vernsteltatung: a communist, derWitzemacht.
The original text is a close-up of a character. German "Der Spiegel" reporter followed Liang Wengen, president of Sany Heavy Industry, to report on the deputies to the China Municipal People's Congress. Lichtblick is a compound word in German, which consists of two nouns licht and blink. Langsden Dictionary interprets it as bright, shining and comforting. There is also a "bright spot" in Chinese, which is a dazzling metaphor and basically conforms to the original text.
Liang Wengen was interviewed by the media on Sunday. This interview is undoubtedly a highlight of the boring talk show: a joking party member.
Conclusion of intransitive verbs
This paper attempts to find out the applicability and guiding significance of Skopostheorie and "function plus loyalty" theory to news style translation. According to Skopostheorie and Nord's theory of "function plus loyalty", the author "preserves" and "processes" the original text, and finally combines the "communicative function" of the translation to solve the translation problems at pragmatic, grammatical and cultural levels. The conclusions are as follows: 1. The method of "variation processing" can solve the translation problems of multiple news texts due to different contents, languages and structures; Secondly, the idea of "function plus loyalty" determines that the translator can make choices in the process of translation, because to realize the function, he has to give up, because "loyalty" has to be chosen, and the criterion of choice is the pragmatic value of the text.