Lec.2 -- Nature of Translation

单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,Nature of Translation,17 September, 2012,1,Nature of Translation,1.,Essence of Translation,2.,How Translation Occurs,3.,Two Aspects,4. Literal Translation,vs,. Free Translation,5. Translators Roles in Translation,2,Essence of Translation,to establish correspondence,maintaining a minimum level of acceptability,a decoding / encoding process,a reproductive activity,a creative process,Nidas definition,3,Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the original message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.,4,众人身边都有火刀、火石，随即发出火来，点起五七个火把。众人都跟着武松，一同再上冈子来，看见那大虫做一堆儿死在那里。（七十回本,水浒传,卷二十七，第二十二回）,5,The villagers had flint and steel, and they then used them to strike lights and ignite torches. They went with Wu Sung, and soon came to the top of the ridge where they were shown the dead tiger. (Jackson, p. 310),They had flint and steel and struck a fire, and lit six or seven torches. They went with him up the ridge to where the tiger lay dead in a great heap. (Shapiro, p. 358),6,Now every man had on his person flint and iron and immediately they struck out fire and lit some five or seven torches and they all went with Wu Sung and they went together up the ridge and there they saw the great beast lying there dead in a great round heap. (Buck, p. 209),BACK,7,How Translation Occurs,No one-to-one correspondence between languages,All translation, by its very nature, is paraphrastic and interpretive,Differences in wording due to numerous factors,Three questions in relation to word meaning,The presence of ambiguity,BACK,8,Two Aspects,(1) Process,a range of deliberate human activities,to convert one man-made product into another,common element therein,(2) Products,A MODEL,of Process and Product of Translation,9,Literal,vs,. Free Translation,J. P. Postgate: to translate literally or freely amounts to a basic decision on the methodology of translation which commits the translator either to a SL-oriented, retrospective, or to a TL-oriented, prospective translation approach.,10,P. Cauer: “The translation should be as literal as possible and as free as is necessary.”,be responsible (claim responsibility) for,A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.,11,Translators Roles in Translation,E. A. Nida: “Since the translator himself is the focal element in translating, his role is central to the basic principles and procedures of translating.”,12,“No translator can avoid a certain degree of personal involvement in his work. In his interpretation of the source-language message, his selection of corresponding words and grammatical forms, and his choice of stylistic equivalents, he will inevitably be influenced by his overall empathy with author and message, or his lack of it. It is quite understandable that the behavioral meanings employed by the author will affect and be affected by the translators corresponding values which in no instance will be exactly the same as the authors.”,13,The ideal translator “would be the man who knew the mind of the original author in its entirety, and was in full possession of the social, political, and spiritual background of the authors own period and people. Of course, he should know the language and thought of the present age to completion. No man can fully attain this ideal. To the extent to which he falls short of the knowledge called for by this ideal, a man inevitably fails in his work as a translator.”,14,A Translation Assignment:,Today the ancient, ancestral wisdom of the hand has been largely replaced by the simple movements of the machine operator. Our glass and china, furniture, books, and textiles are almost entirely products of the machine. That machine-made goods can be well designed and good-looking no one denies; nevertheless, there are many who believe that if the old skills of the hand-worker were to die out altogether it would be a disaster.,15,Their arguments are, roughly, three. First, that the machine is by its nature a mass producer, and that objects made in ones and twos can be made better, even cheaper, by an individual craftsman than by a machine; secondly, that the human hand with relatively simple tools can produce objects of a quality permanently beyond the reach of the machine; thirdly, that it is not good for mankind if people lose the ability to create with their hands.,16,