搜索
Communicativeandsemantictranslation(I)1.Atranslationmustgivethewordsoftheoriginal.2.Atranslationmustgivetheideaoftheoriginal.3.Atranslationshouldreadlikeanoriginalwork.4.Atranslationshouldreadlikeatranslation.5.Atranslationshouldreflectthestyleoftheoriginal.6.Atranslationshouldpossessthestyleofthetranslation.7.Atranslationshouldreadasacontemporaryoftheoriginal.8.Atranslationshouldreadasacontemporaryofthetranslation.9.Atranslationmayaddtooromitfromtheoriginal.10.Atranslationmayneveraddtooromitfromtheoriginal.11.Atranslationofverseshouldbeinprose.12.Atranslationofverseshouldbeinverse.(TheArtofTranslation,TH.Savory,Cape,1968,p54.)Inthepre-linguisticperiodofwritingontranslation,whichmaybesaidtodatefromCicerothroughSt.Jerome,Luther,Dryden,Tytler,Herder,Goethe,Schleiermacher,Buber,OrtegayGosset,nottosaySavory,opinionswungbetweenliteralandfree,faithfulandbeautiful,exactandnaturaltranslation,dependingonwhetherthebiaswastobeinfavoroftheauthororthereader,thesourceorthetargetlanguageofthetext.Uptothenineteenthcentury,literaltranslationrepresentedaphilologicalacademicexercisefromwhichtheculturalreformersweretryingtorescueliterature.Inthenineteenthcentury,amorescientificapproachwasbroughttobearontranslation,suggestingthatcertaintypesoftextsmustbeaccuratelytranslated,whilstothersshouldandcouldnotbetranslatedatall!Sincetheriseofmodernlinguistics(philologywasbecominglinguisticshereinthelatefifties),andanticipatedbyTytlerin1790,Larbaud,Belloc,KnoxandRieu,thegeneralemphasis,supportedbycommunication-theoristsaswellasbynon-literarytranslators,hasbeenplacedonthereader--oninformingthereadereffectivelyandappropriately,notablyinNida,Firth,KollerandtheLeipzigSchool.Incontrast,thebrilliantessaysofBenjamin,ValeryandNabokov(anticipatedbyCroceandOrtegayGasset)advocatingliteraltranslationhaveappearedasisolated,paradoxicalphenomena,relevantonlytotranslatingworksofhighliteraryculture.Koller(1972)hasstatedthattheequivalent-effectprincipleoftranslationistendingtoruleoutallothers,particularlythepredominanceofanyformalelementssuchaswordorstructure.Theapparenttriumphofthe'consumer'is,Ithink,illusory.Theconflictofloyalties.thegapbetweenemphasisonsourceandtargetlanguagewillalwaysremainasthe1overridingproblemintranslationtheoryandpractice.However,thegapcouldperhapsbenarrowediftheprevioustermswerereplacedasfollows:SOURCELANGUAGEBIASTARGETLANGUAGEBIASLITERALFREEFAITHFULIDOMATICSEMANTIC/COMMUNICATIVE(Figure6)******Communicativetranslationattemptstoproduceonitsreadersaneffectascloseaspossibletothatobtainedonthereadersoftheoriginal.Semantictranslationattemptstorender,ascloselyasthesemanticandsyntacticstructuresofthesecondlanguageallow,theexactcontextualmeaningoftheoriginal.Intheory,therearewidedifferencesbetweenthetwomethods.Communicativetranslationaddressesitselfsolelytothesecondreader,whodoesnotanticipatedifficultiesorobscurities,andwouldexpectageneroustransferofforeignelementsintohisowncultureaswellashislanguagewherenecessary.Butevenherethetranslatorstillhastorespectandworkontheformofthesourcelanguagetextastheonlymaterialbasisforhiswork.Semantictranslationremainswithintheoriginalcultureandassiststhereaderonlyinitsconnotationsiftheyconstitutetheessentialhuman(non-ethnic)messageofthetext.Onebasicdifferencebetweenthetwomethodsisthatwherethereisaconflict,thecommunicativemustemphasizethe'force'ratherthanthecontentofthemessage.ThusforBissigerHundorChienméchant,thecommunicativetranslationBewareofthedog!ismandatory;thesemantictranslations('dogthatbites','savagedog')wouldbemoreinformativebutlesseffective.Generally,acommunicativetranslationislikelytobesmoother,simpler,clearer,moredirect,moreconventional,conformingtoaparticularregisteroflanguage,tendingtoundertranslate,i.e.tousemoregeneric,hold-alltermsindifficultpassages.Asemantictranslationtendstobemorecomplex,moreawkward,moredetailed,moreconcentrated,andpursuesthethought-processesratherthantheintentionofthetransmitter.Ittendstoovertranslate,tobemorespecificthantheoriginal,toincludemoremeaningsinitssearchforonenuanceofmeaning.However,incommunicativeasinsemantictranslation,providedthatequivalent-effectissecured,theliteralword-for-wordtranslationisnotonlythebest,itistheonlyvalidmethodoftranslation.Thereisnoexcuseforunnecessary'synonyms',letaloneparaphrases,inanytypeoftranslation.2Conversely,bothsemanticandcommunicativetranslationcomplywiththeusuallyacceptedsyntacticequivalents(VinayandDarbelnet's‘transpositions')forthetwolanguagesinquestion.Thus,bybothmethods,asentencesuchas'lltraversalaMancheennageant'wouldnormallybetranslatedas'HeswamacrosstheChannel'.Insemantic,butnotcommunicativetranslation,anydeviationfromSLstylisticnormswouldbereflectedinanequallywidedeviationfromtheTLnorms,butwheresuchnormsclash,thedeviationsarenoteasytoformulate,andthetranslatorhastoshowacertaintensionbetweenthewriter'smannerandthecompulsionsofthetargetlanguage,Thuswhenthewriteruseslongcomplexsentencesinalanguagewherethesentenceina'literary'(carefullyworked)styleisusuallycomplexandlongerthanintheTL,thetranslatormayreducethesentencesso