Keywords: inequality; Limit; Interlanguage meaning
Translation is a language activity that spans time and space. It is to accurately and completely re-express what has been expressed in one language in another language. Eugene Nida, a contemporary American translation theorist, put forward the principle of reader's response equivalence in his early years, and pointed out in his book Translation Theory and Method, which was co-authored with Taber Charles Taber, that translation is to reproduce the information of the source language in the target language with the closest and most natural equivalence from semantics to style. Equivalence is semantic equivalence first, then stylistic equivalence. Both Fan Cunzhong's "accuracy" and tabor's and Nida's "equivalence" reflect an ideal and goal in the translation field. It is possible to re-express one language in another, but it is impossible to achieve complete accuracy and absolute equivalence. Language is the shell of thinking, and human thinking is determined by existence. Because each language has its own unique national history, national culture and national psychological background, it is self-evident that there is such a gap between Chinese and English in different language families.
1 the limit of interlanguage meaning transformation
The inequality of the conceptual meaning of 1. 1
According to traditional lexicology, word meaning includes conceptual meaning and connotative meaning. The so-called conceptual meaning is also called extended meaning.
Extended meaning or cognitive meaning Cognitive meaning is the most basic meaning of a word, and it is an abstract summary of the most basic characteristics of things represented by language symbols, which is often regarded as the definition or explanation of words in dictionaries. The so-called connotative meaning is the meaning implied or attached to the conceptual meaning. The connotation of vocabulary plays a great role in daily conversation and literary works, and it varies from country to country. English words and Chinese words are unequal to some extent, no matter from which angle they are understood. Please look at the following example:
1 Milky Way
The apple of my eye
The old man just died.
If the above sentences are directly translated into "milk road", "apple in my eyes" and "the old man just kicked the bucket", the conceptual meaning is equivalent, but the readers are confused and puzzled. At this time, he can only give up the conceptual equivalence and translate it into "Galaxy", "Baby" and "Death". Some words are equivalent in concept, but not in connotation. Due to the different ways of thinking and cultural backgrounds between English and Chinese, the connotation and meaning of the same word may be different. Chinese "wolf" focuses on lewdness, while English "wolf" focuses on ferocity; The Chinese character "dragon" is a symbol of the emperor's good fortune and a totem of our nation. We call ourselves the descendants of the dragon, and the English word "dragon" is the devil who breathes fire and spits flame. In the west, "west wind" has the connotation of "warmth, revolution and progress", while in Chinese, it has the connotation of "cold, cool, desolate and reactionary".
Inequalities in the context of 1.2
Any language is in a specific language environment, that is, context, which has special significance. In addition to contextual meaning, contextual meaning also has situational meaning or functional meaning, which is determined by the communicative purpose, communicative object and communicative occasion of language.
The bike is broken.
The bike is broken.
Don't speak ill of others behind their backs.
Don't speak ill of others behind their backs.
6 apples are rotten to the core.
These apples are rotten.
The word "bad" in the above sentence is translated into break down fault in different contexts, ill is unfriendly, rotate is rotten, and there is no corresponding English word bad at all. In addition, the simple word "father" has many translations according to the context. It can be translated as "father" in formal occasions, "father" in general occasions, and "father" and "old man" if you show some intimacy.
1.3 inequality
Form is the shell of thinking, and the choice of any language is not arbitrary and aimless, so we must pay attention to the form of the target language in translation. Only by fully understanding the form of the source language can it be faithfully transmitted to the target language. However, in actual translation, due to the differences between the two languages in different language families, syntax and usage habits, it is rare to achieve real equivalence. We often put the translation of meaning first and the translation of form second.
He was born in Felt on May 27th, 2003.
He was born in Felt on May 27th, 1923.
Londoners are great readers.
Londoners like reading very much.
His handwriting is very good.
He writes a good hand.
Example 7 changes the arrangement position of adverbials, while the arrangement in Example 8 and Example 9 is translated as verbs respectively, and the formal meanings of the source language and the target language do not constitute equivalence.
1.4 inequality of image meaning
Image meaning refers to the rhetorical figurative meaning of words, which can be generally divided into figurative meaning, simile meaning and exchange meaning. Image meaning can make language vivid, concrete and lively, and give people beautiful enjoyment. In English and Chinese, if we compare the metaphors commonly used in China with those commonly used in Britain, we will find many striking similarities. For example, foxes are compared to cunning, sheep to meekness, and steel to hardness. Of course, figurative images are often branded with the unique culture of each nation, so translation can't just pursue equivalence. As smart as people in Gotham translates as "as smart as Gordan", which is puzzling. In fact, Gordan is a village in England. According to legend, people there are the most stupid, so this metaphor means "extremely stupid" Similar examples are:
10 He likes talking so much that his friends call him "the magpie".
He nagged so much that his companions nicknamed him "Sparrow". The Chinese translation of "Magpie" is "Magpie", but in Chinese, the metaphor of "Magpie" means nagging and gabbing, so we take the metaphor corresponding to the association effect in Chinese, and translate it into "Sparrow" instead of "Magpie".
1 1 "Don't be afraid, chickens!" "Her voice with teasing happiness.
"Don't be afraid, you cowards!" I heard him say in a playful tone. Chicken is synonymous with cowardice and timidity in English, but chicken in Chinese can't arouse people's association, so it is replaced by mouse image.
The meaning of 1.5 inequality
Stylistic meaning refers to the meaning expressed by the style of the original text, including stylistic features and writing features used by the author. It belongs to a higher level of translation, but the style is not equivalent. One translation method in English metrical poetry translation is to give up rhythm and adopt freestyle translation. The reason for those who hold this view and follow this method is that the rhythm of the original poem has no equivalent in Chinese, and the translation of the poem focuses on conveying the charm, which is difficult to find and bound to express, so it is better to abandon it. So style equivalence is also a kind of relative. Please compare the Chinese translations of the following English sentences:
The curfew sounded the death knell of parting,
Cleisthenes's herds slowly crossed the grass,
The farmer trudged home wearily,
Leave the world to darkness and me.
The bell rings at dusk and the day is fading away.
Cattle and sheep call each other and bypass the grass path.
The farmer hobbled home with a hoe,
Leave the whole world to me and dusk.
Here, translation needs a pause, but there is no pause in the source language. Therefore, the cultural differences between English and Chinese require translators to "change their words", that is, to change their forms for spiritual similarity.
2.6 Unequal cultural background
Language and culture are closely related. Language is the carrier and mirror of culture. Once the language used to carry and express the national culture is formed, it seems to create an insurmountable obstacle to the communication between itself and other national cultures. Similar problems are also reflected in the famous translator Zhu Shenghao's version of Romeo and Juliet.
He made you a bed of mine.
But I, a dead girl-widow.
Here, Juliet is determined to go to the eve of death, looking forward to the arrival of the night, let her sweetheart climb into the boudoir and spend an intimate night with her. "tomy bed" was originally "in my bed", but Teacher Zhu deliberately changed it and translated it into "She wants you to do a similar bridge". It's not because Mr. Zhu doesn't understand the original intention, but because an unmarried daughter wants her sweetheart to "sleep with her". In the eyes of China readers, a noble lady will become a frivolous and romantic woman, which is not in line with the original intention. For another example, in the New Guinea translation of the Bible, "shepherd" is translated as "pig herder" because there are no sheep in New Guinea, only pigs. Eugene Nida does not advocate this kind of cultural translation, but he strongly advocates this kind of non-equivalent cultural translation in other places.
2 conclusion
To sum up, although the * * * between different language families provides a basis for us to do some equivalent translation, the individuality between languages makes it impossible for us to achieve absolute equivalence. The criterion of "faithfulness" widely advocated by translation scholars can only be relative faithfulness, and translators can only seek comparison rather than absolute success in translation.
References:
[1] Hua Xin compiled a practical English-Chinese course [M]. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 200 1.
[2] Zhou Zhipei. Comparison and transformation between Chinese and English in translation [M]. Shanghai: East China University of Science and Technology Press, 2003.
[3] Zhang Peng. Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University [J]. On the limit of translation equivalence, 2005 1.
[4] Nguyen. On translation equivalence in English-Chinese translation [J]. Foreign Language Teaching, 2004.
[5] Wu Yicheng. Reflections on Translation Equivalence [J]. Translation by China, 1994 1.