Approaches-to-translation--Peter-Newmark-翻译方法

ApproachestotranslationPeterNewmarkContentsPartone:AspectsofTranslationTheory1.Thetheoryandthecraftoftranslation2.Whattranslationtheoryisabout3.CommunicativeandsemantictranslationI4.Thought,speech,andtranslation5.CommunicativeandsemantictranslationII6.Thetranslationofpropernamesandinstitutionalandculturalterms7.Thetranslationofmetaphor8.Thetranslationprocessandsynonymy9.TranslationandthemetalingualfunctionoflanguageP3.Inthepre-linguisticsperiodoftranslation,theymakenoattempttodistinguishtypesorqualityoftexts(whicharemainlyBiblicalorliterary),andwhiletheyarestrongontheory,theyareshortonmethodandpracticalexamples.Theyshowagradualtransitionfromanaturalorfreetreatmenttowardsaliteralanalysis,ifnottranslation,oftheoriginal,butthereisnodevelopmentofatheory,andmanyofthewriterswerenotawareofeachother’swork.2.TranslationTheory1.Translationtheory’smainconcernsistodetermineappropriatetranslationmethodsforthewidestpossiblerangeoftextsortext-categories.Thetheorydemonstratesthepossibletranslationproceduresandthevariousargumentsforandagainsttheuseofonetranslationratherthananotherinaparticularcontext.Notethattranslationtheoryisconcernedwithchoicesanddecisions,notwiththemechanicsofeitherthesourcelanguage(SL)orthetargetlanguage(TL).2.Translationtheoryattemptstogivesomeinsightintotherelationbetweenthought,meaning,andlanguage;theuniversal,cultural,andindividualaspectsoflanguageandbehavior,theunderstandingofcultures;theinterpretationoftextsthatmaybeclarifiedandevensupplementedbywayoftranslation.P20.Thepracticalproblems:thetranslator’sfirsttaskistounderstandthetext,soitisthebusinessoftranslationtheorytosuggestsomecriteriaandprioritiesforthisanalysis.First,theintentionofatext.Secondly,theintentionofthetranslator.Tirdly,thereaderandthesettingofthetext.Fourthly,thequalityifthewritingandtheauthorityofthetext.Ihaveproposedonlytwomethodsoftranslation:a)communicativetranslation,wherethetranslatorattemptstoproducethesameeffectontheTLreadersaswasproducedbytheoriginalontheSLreaders,andb)semantictranslation,wherethetranslatorattempts,withinthebaresyntacticandsemanticconstrainsoftheTL,toreproducetheprecisecontextualmeaningoftheauthor.Thebasicdifferencebetweencommunicativeandsemanticlanguageisthestresson‘message’and‘meaning’;‘reader’and‘author’;‘utterance’and‘thought-processes’;‘like’and‘as’-and‘how’;‘performative’and‘constative’,butthisisamatterofdifferenceinemphasisratherthankind.P26.Grammaticalmeaning&LexicalmeaningHehastointerpretgrammaticalmeaning,bothonagenerallevel,andinrelationtothedistinctionbetweenSLandTLconstructions.Grammaticalmeaningismoresignificant,lessprecise,moregeneralandsometimesmoreelusivethanlexicalmeaning.Itcansometimesbeidentifiedastextleveloratparagraphlevel.Grammaticalmeaningcanalsobeidentifiedasword-group,whichmaycompriseNida’s(1975a)entitles,events,abstracts(orqualities)orrelations.GrammaticalmeaningmayalsoberenderedbymoreorlessstandardtranspositionsfromtheSLtotheTL.Lexicalmeaningstartswheregrammaticalmeaningfinishes:itisreferentialandprecise,andhastobeconsideredbothoutsideandwithinthecontext.Furthermore,alllexicalunitshaveelementsofgrammar.Lexicaltranslationismorecomplicated.AnybilingualdictionaryappearstoimplythatmostSLwordshavepreciseTLequivalents.Onthecontrary,mostSLwordshaveavarietyofseparate,contiguous,overlapping,inclusiveorcomplementarysenses(Nida,1975a),eachofwhichconsistsofsentencecomponents.P32.Theareaoftext-linguistic,cohesionordiscourseanalysis,i.e.Linguisticanalysisbeyondthesentence,hasevidentapplicationintranslationtheory.Discourseanalysismaybemainlyanessentialpointofreferenceforestablishingthesignificanceofallconnectivesincludingpronouns,andclarifyingsemanticallyundeterminedexpressions.Translationtheoristisconcernedwithcertainparticularproblems:metaphor,synonyms;propernames;institutionalandculturalterms,grammatical,lexicalandreferentialambiguity,cliche,quotations;culturalfocus,overlapanddistance,idiolect;neologism;poetry;jargon,thefourcategoriesofkeyterms.Oftheseproblems,metaphoristhemostimportant.Neologisms,whichmaybeeitherrecentlycoinedbyothersororiginals.Theycanbecategorizedas:a)Formal--completelynewwords.Thesearerare--thelocusclassicusistheseventeenth-centuryword‘gas’(from‘chao’)--insemantictranslation.b)Eponyms--recentlybasedonpropernames,includinginventorsandnamesoffirmsandtowns.c)Derived--formedwithproductiveprefixesandsuffixesd)Newcollocations,e.g.‘urbanguerrilla’e)Phrasalnounsorverbsf)Acronymsg)Blends,i.e.Combinationsoftwowords.Highlyproductiveh)Semantic,oldwordswithnewmeaningsi)AbbreviationsP34.Theprocessofdecodingalinguisticallydifficulttexthasbeendescribedas‘decentring’(Brislin,1976).Nida(1964),followingChomsky,hasproposedseveral‘kernelsentences’asthebasisofaneutralorintermediatelanguage,logicallyconstructed,withmetaphorsconvertedtosentence,betweenSLandTL.ForEuropeanlanguages,themainproblemisoneoftheabstract‘jargon’,i.e.Wordsthatcontainthreeorfourpartsofspeechwithinthemselves.P37.Translationtheorygoeshandinhandwithtranslationmethodologyateverystage,sothatitactsasabodyofreferencebothforthe