搜索
Chapter4GrammaticalequivalenceGrammaristhesetofruleswhichdeterminethewayinwhichunitssuchaswordsandphrasescanbecombinedinalanguageandthekindofinformationwhichhastobemaderegularlyexplicitinutterances.4.1.GrammaticalVSlexicalcategoriesGrammarisorganizedalongtwomaindimensions:(1)morphology(2)syntax.Morphologycoversthestructureofwords,thewayinwhichtheformofawordchangestoindicatespecificcontrastsinthegrammaticalsystem.Themorphologicalstructureofalanguagedeterminesthebasicinformationwhichmustbeexpressedinthatlanguage.Syntaxcoversthegrammaticalstructureofgroups,clauses,andsentences.两者的不同点：①Choicesinlanguagecanbeexpressedgrammaticallyorlexically.Choicesmadeformclosedsystemsaregrammatical;thosemadefromopen-endedsetsofitemsorexpressionsarelexical.②Themostimportantdifferencebetweengrammaticalandlexicalchoicesisthatgrammaticalchoicesarelargelyobligatorywhilelexicalchoicesarelargelyoptional.ThesameisnottrueinChineseorJapanese,wherenumberisalexicalratherthanagrammaticalcategory.③Grammaticalstructurealsodiffersfromlexicalstructureinthatitismoreresistanttochange.Grammaticalchangesoccurscoveramuchlongertimescalethatlexicalchange.Grammaticalrulesarealsomoreresistanttomanipulatebyspeakers.4.2.ThediversityofgrammaticalcategoriesacrosslanguagesAnumberofgrammaticalcategoriesinmanylanguageswouldhardlyeverbeexpressedevenbylexicalmeans.Itisimpossibletosayanythingtoanyonewithoutindicatingtherelativedegreeofrepecttowhichthespeakerandhearerareentitledinthecommunity.Differencesinthegrammaticalstructuresofthesourceandtargetlanguagesoftenresultinsomechangeintheinformationcontentofthemessageduringtheprocessoftranslation.Thischangemaytaketheformofaddingtothetargettextinformationwhichisnotexpressedinthesourcetext.Thechangeintheinformationcontentofthemessagemaybeintheformofomittinginformationspecifiedinthesourcetext.Ifthetargetlanguagelacksagrammaticalcategorywhichexistsinthesourcelanguage,theinformationexpressedbythatcategorymayhavetobeignored.Thefactthatlexicalchoicesareoptionalgivesthemmoreweightthangrammaticalchoices.4.2.1.NumberAntranslatorworkingfromalanguagewhichhasnumberofdistinctionsintoalanguagewithnocategoryofnumberhastwomainoptions:(1)omittherelevantinformation(2）encodethisinformationlexically.Informationonnumbercanbeencodedlexically.4.2.2.GenderGenderisagrammaticaldistinctionaccordingtowhichanounorpronounisclassifiedaseithermasculineorfeminineinsomelanguages.Inmostlanguagesthathaveagendercategory,themasculinetermisusuallythedominantorunmarkedterm.Genderdistinctionsinthecaseofhumanreferentsarenotarbitrary,andthatiswhyLyonssuggeststhatwhatisimportantincommunicationisthepronominalfunctionofgenderratherthanthecategoryofgenderingeneral.Thepronominalfunctionofgenderreflectsagenuine,non-arbitrarydistinctionbetweenmaleandfemale.4.2.3.PersonThecategoryofpersonreferstothenotionofparticipantroles.Inmostlanguages,participantrolesaresystematicallydefinedthroughaclosedsystemofpronounswhichmaybeorganizedalongavarietyofdimensions.Themostcommondistinctionisthatbetweenfirstperson,secondpersonandthirdperson.Inadditiontothemaindistinctionbasedonparticipantroles,thepersonsystemmaybeorganizedalongavarietyofotherdimensionssuchasagenderornumberdimension.AlargenumberofmodernEuropeanlanguages,notincludingEnglish,haveaformalityorpolitenessdimensionintheirpersonsystem.Alllanguageshavemodesofaddresswhichcanbeusedtoexpressfamiliarityordeferenceinasimilarway.Theimportantthingisthatwelearntoappreciatetheinfluencethatthegrammaticalsystemofalanguagehasonthewayeventsarepresentedinthatlanguage.Thefamiliarityordeferencedimensioninthepronounsystemisamongthemostfascinatingaspectsofgrammarandthemostproblematicintranslation.Itreflectsthetenorofdiscourseandcanconveyawholerangeorrathersubtlemeanings.4.2.4.TenseandaspectTheformoftheverbinlanguageswhichhavethesecategoriesusuallyindicatestwotypesofinformation:timerelationsandaspectualdifferences.Timerelationshavetodowithlocatinganeventintime.Theusualdistinctionisbetweenpast.Presentandfuture.Aspectualdifferenceshavetodowiththetemporaldistributionofanevent,forinstanceitscompletionornon-completion,continuationormomentariness.Althoughthemainuseofthegrammaticalcategoriesoftenseandaspectistoindicatetimeandaspectualrelations,theydonotnecessarilyperformthesamefunctioninalllanguages..Tenseandaspectdistinctionsmayalsotakeanadditional,moresubtlemeaningsindiscourse.4.2.5.VoiceVoiceisagrammaticalcategorywhichdefinestherelationshipbetweenaverbanditssubject.Inactiveclauses,thesubjectistheagentresponsibleforperformingtheaction.Inpassiveclauses,thesubjectistheaffectedentity,andtheagentmayormaynotbespecified,dependingonthestructuresavailableineachlanguages.Theformoftheverbchangesinapassivestructuretoindicatethatitssubjectistheaffectedentityratherthantheagent.ChineseverbshavingnovoicereferstothefactthattheformoftheverbinChinesedoesnotchangetoindicateitsrelationshipwiththesubjectoftheclause.Languageswhichhaveacategoryofvoicedonotalwaysusethepassivewiththesamefrequency.Thefrequencyofuseofthepassiveinlanguageswhichhaveacategoryofvoiceusuallyexpre