Week 3 Technical terms

Transcription

1 To-take-note for exam: 1. Format for definitions: definition-example-own opinion 2. Chinese = min 8 lines, English = min 5 lines 3. Max 1 side of a page, no need to leave line Week 3 Technical terms Descriptive SL Source Language [ 源语 ]; ST Source Text [ 原文 ] TL Target Language [ 目标语 ]; TT Target Text [ 译文 ] * there are still: Source/target audience/society/culture etc. SA/TA; SS/TS; SC/TC etc. [Non-official short hand] James Holmes Translation Studies = founding scholar of the study= =started only in the recent decade= Pure [theoretical] 1. description of the phenomena of translation 2. establishment of general principles to explain and predict such phenomena Product oriented - A theory where translators examine existing translations, by describing or analysing a single ST-TT pair, or do a comparative analysis of several TTs of the same ST. - E.g. One can refer to Tagore s Stray birds (ST), then analyse the TTs by 郑振铎, 陆普德 and 冯唐. - These smaller-scale studies can build up into a larger body of translation analysis looking at a specific period, language or text/discourse type. Translator Training Teaching methods, testing techniques, curriculum design Applied [practical] Translation Aids Tools for translation: 1. Dictionary, grammars 2. Expert informants 3. IT application: CAT tools, online databases, internet searches, corpora, machine translation Translation Criticism - Evaluation of translations - Marking of student translations - Reviewing published translations Process Oriented - Process oriented studies focus on the psychology of translation i.e. what is happening in the translator s mind - To study this, researchers had to record translators who abide to the think-aloud protocols during their translating process. 1

2 - Other new methods to track the translators thoughts include eyetracking, which can reflect the translator s object of attention with perfect spatial accuracy and perfect temporal precision. Function Oriented [sociology/historiography of translation] - Function oriented studies is also referred to as the sociology or historiography of translation, where researchers study the context of the text rather than the text itself. - For instance, the researchers may look into when and where the TT was translated, and what where the influence exerted on TT to make it the way it was. - E.g. the study of the translation and reception of Shakespeare into European languages Theoretical General Writings that seek to describe or account for every type of translation and to make generalizations that will be relevant for translation as a whole Partial Translation theories that focus on examine some aspects of translated texts, with the aid of various scopes and filters. 1. Medium restricted: - Human translation vs. Machine translation vs. mixed/machine-aided translation - Human translation = oral translation, interpreting and writing E.g. Machine translation and translation theory / edited by Christa Hauenschild, Susanne Heizmann. 2. Area restricted: - When the translators choose to focus on writings restricted to specific languages or a group of languages/ culture E.g. ST & TT of Bengali literature 3. Rank restricted: - Linguistic theories that are commonly restricted to a level of words or sentence, though there are more focus on passage/chapter restricted 2

3 study now. E.g. translation theories that focused on looking at the level of only words, or only sentences. If one looks at the sentence 今天天气很好, he/she cannot look at each individual word. - Theories that deal with discourse or texts as wholes but concern themselves with lower linguistic ranks or levels. - Traditional writings on translation focus on the rank of words, but these people decided to focus on rank of sentences. 4. Text-type restricted: - looks at discourse types and genres E.g. literary, business, the Bible and technical translation. 5. Time restricted: - theories limited to a specific time frame/period E.g Problem restricted: - tackles a specific problem that seems to have occurred rather universally in translation e.g. equivalence * Several different restrictions can be applied at any one time. E.g. Time and text-type restricted ~ a look on literary translations between s à A look on the literary poetries [text type] by Chinese immigrants [area] during the Japanese occupation in Singapore ( ) [time] Problems of Homles Study: - the separation between pure and applied is not as distinct as it is shown in the chart, as they tend to influence each other in real life. 信 Accuracy/ faithfulness/ fidelity Merits: - Clarifies the different theories and components within translation, which was formerly often confused Yan Fu 嚴復 =Chinese translator/ philosopher= 忠实于原文, 不可错译 误译或肆意添加多余的看法 为了达到信, 翻译者必须精通两方语言, 并且了解语言背景 用语和语言上的微弱差别 達 Fluency/ expressiveness 雅 Beauty/ elegance Word based TT must be understood by the readers, while maintaining the 信. 译文要明白晓畅, 因此需要时不必拘泥于原文的此举行事, 有时也可斟酌填补一些原文以外的东西 若原文句子太长, 也可切断, 分成数句以表达意思 译文文字要优美流利 若原文的内容是雅的, 那译文就是雅 若原文是俗的, 那译文就是俗的, 此刻俗即使雅 Translation made based on the sound of individual words 古筝 à Guzheng 3

4 Meaning based Translation based on the meaning of the words. 古筝 à Chinese zither Vinay & Darbelnet s Procedures 维纳和达贝尔内 Direct translation Borrowing: - Refers to the transfer of a SL word to TL, usually notating the sound of SL word with TL word. E.g. Realpolitik. Chocolateà 巧克力. Microphoneà 麦克风. Café à Cafe. 柔道 à Judo. Oblique Translation Transposition: - Refers to a change of grammatical structure of TL, due to the grammatical differences between TL and SL. Some of the changes include shifting singular words to plural, and moving the order between verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Problem: While this procedure ensures the preservation of the SL and source culture, the borrowed word stand-alone will not be understood by the receptors unless it is an already well-known term. E.g. 古筝 à Guzheng (without further explanation) = whut? Either that, or we will have multiple versions of the borrowed term from the same SL word. E.g. Trump à 特朗普 or 川普 * borrowing should be used with caution *both calque and borrowing need time for the TA to adapt to Calque: - To transfer a SL word into TL using a literal or word-for-word translation. - Brings the language expression, structure, culture and characteristics of SL into TL. - Helps to diversity the expressions of TL E.g. 丢脸 à lose face. Sweet heart à 甜心. Black market à 黑市. Sour grapesà 酸葡萄. Packed like sardines à 挤得像罐头沙丁鱼. Happy birthday à 生日快乐. 虎妈 à tiger mom. 悬崖勒马 à to rein in on the brink of the precipice E.g. Blue sky à ciel bleu the French cuisine à La cuisine française The couple are very elegant à le couple sont très élégants 笨鸟先飞 à Stupid bird flies first Potential confusion in terms of noun-number à some languages might not need to express the plural form but others do E.g. 我看着 [ 店里 ] 的苹果 à I look at the fruits [in the shop]. [ 我 ] 一点 [ 会去 ] 图书馆借书 I will go to the library [to] borrow books at one o clock. Modulation: - Refers to the variation of TT through change of viewpoint, perspective and thoughts without changing the meaning expressed in the ST. e.g. Maybe you are right à Tu n as peut-être pas tort. This is difficultà ce n est pas facile/ 这不容易. Both ce n est pas facile and Tu n as peut-être pas tort are more common expressions in French. The Song dynasty poet Su Shi ( 苏轼 ) wrote an article titled 超然台记 (remembering the Chao Ran pavilion) (or sth liddat). In the first 4

5 Problem: Target audience might not be able to understand the new term initially, as such expression did not exist in the target culture before. Literal Translation: - Translating from word for word, to sentence for sentence. E.g. un beau gardin à a beautiful garden. Problems: - Sometimes results in awkward sentence structure in TT, due to the TL s inability to accommodate the structure expressed in SL. E.g. 笨鸟先飞 à stupid bird first fly. à no such structure or expression in English - Misinterpretation of the original intended meaning, thus creating another unrelated meaning out of it: E.g. 全球 ( 性问题 )à global sex problem. 干菜 à F*ck vegetables. 四喜烤夫 ( 麸 )à four delighted roasted husbands. [vegetarian dish] - Literal translation will not be effective in expressing the intended meaning when there are cultural references expressed beyond the lines. E.g. John eats no fish and play the game. à 约翰不吃鱼, 玩游戏 Real meaning: 约翰既忠诚, 又守规矩 - To understand this, we have to trace back to the history: In the 16 th Century, the Church of England broke away from the Roman paragraph, he spoke about the pleasures of finding joy and being satisfied in small things. He ended the paragraph with a rhetorical question: 吾安往而不乐? ( 我到哪里会不快乐呢?) à there might be confusion if we translate the 不乐 to unhappy à what place makes me unhappy? /doesn t sound that rhetorical liao/ à can focus on translating the 乐 only à what place doesn t make me happy? Equivalence: To substitute a SL statement with a TL statement. Although the two statements have no formal semantic equivalence between each other, they express similar meanings. One common situation is the translation of idioms: E.g. 他身无分文 à he has no penny to his name. 全力以赴 à give it your all. 我怒发冲冠 à I blew up my top. 一将功成万骨枯 à What millions died that Caesar might be great. 多吃饭, 少开口 à Save your breath to cool your porridge. 一朝遭蛇咬, 十年怕井绳 à the burnt child dreads the fire/ once bitten twice shy. 画蛇添足 à to put a fifth wheel to the car. 雨后春笋 à spring up like mushrooms. 九死一生 à To have a hair-breadth escape. 一气呵成 à never make 2 bites out of a cherry. 一言既出, 驷马难追 à a word spoken is past recalling. Pros of equivalence: One can translate the meaning expressed in ST without having awkward syntax and weird expressions. Receptor audiences can relate better to something from their own culture too. Avoid situations like this: 5

6 Catholic Church because the former disagreed with some of the existing rules made between the latter and the government. One of the rituals that the RCC abide to is to refrain from eating fish on Fridays, in order to show their loyalty towards the government and their religion. So as a way to express their disagreement, the followers in the COE did not abide to that rule. So from the Catholics point of view, those who do not eat fish will be those who are loyal to the government, hence the phrase eats no fish became a metaphor for loyalty. - Play the game comes from the idiom play by the game, which means abiding the rules of the game. E.g. Eat your tea à 吃你的茶点, not 吃你的茶. In this case, tea refers to the meal served between 5pm-6pm, not the drink. Yet in chinese, 吃茶 means 喝茶, so the translator needs to be careful and know the right meaning. 不管七三二十一 à despite three times seven being twenty one ~ regardless of right or wrong or how and why~ Problem: - The difficulty lies in finding an accurate and equivalent substitution that can be comprehended in TL. One has to be careful of errors in understanding the original phrase. - Phrase in SL not preserved/ transferred to TT. Adaptation: Something specific to the source language or culture is expressed in a completely different way in the target language or culture, because the cultural reference in SL does not exist in TL. Often found in title of books, movies, and characters. E.g. France: Metro à Singapore: MRT. Everywhere: Football, but in US: Soccer [to differentiate from the American Football] Le Fabuleux Destin d Amélie Poulain à 天使爱美丽. 七月与安生 à Soul Mate. 导火新闻线 à The Menu. Phonological Morphological Syntactical [ 句法 ] Eugene Nida s Five correspondences =Different levels of correspondence between a ST and a TT= Correspondence to the phonology level. Phonology in SL is substituted with phonology in TL. E.g. Eugene Nida à 尤金 奈达. Singapore à 新加坡. * transliteration Morpheme: minimal formal element of meaning in language. E.g. inconceivable: in-conveive-able Correspondence to the morpheme level. E.g. 狗狗 à chienchien *chien = dog* 小猫 à kitten, not cats. 猫咪 à kitty. ß??? Correspondence between ST and TT on the level of words and phrase structure E.g. 李白 宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云 抽刀断水水更流, 举杯消愁愁更愁 6

7 American poet Erza Pound translated it to: Drawing sword, cut into water, water again flows/ raise up, quench thirst, sorrow against sorrow. Yet: Translationese~ awkward and 不中不英. Problem/ limitation: SL and TL can never correspond fully, due to differences such as grammar and word order. E.g. She married the wrong man à 她嫁错了人. English focuses on the man being wrong vs. Chinese focuses on the act of marrying being wrong I love you corresponds to je aime and te in French respectively, but the translated phrase should be je t aime. [ e in the te removed as it is placed beside the vowel a ]. Lexical [ 词汇 ] TT is also limited if the TL are grammatically gendered: E.g. Novel Rebecca by English author Daphne du Maurier: the protagonists, Maxim and his wife, have invited some relatives to their once-deserted manor in the English countryside. After dinner, Maxim's brother-in-law expresses his admiration for the meal by saying: Same cook I suppose, Maxim? Translate into French, where the nouns are gendered, it will be confusing because the ST did not explicitly state if the cook is male or female, so the TT can either be La meme cuisinière or Le meme cuisinièr. E.g. Go to the baker à Chez le boulanger or à la boulangerie Correspondence between ST and TT based on words or vocabulary of the language. 1. Complete lexical correspondences: rare, and often fall under the translation of names, geographical locations, date, numerical digits and scientific terms. - E.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday à Isnin, Selasa, Rabu in Malay. Even so, the complete-ness varies according to different TLs might be affected: E.g. Sundayà 星期天 星期日 礼拜天 If the TL is grammatically gendered: - E.g. The cook is here à 厨师来了. But in French, nouns are gendered so the cook can either be le cuisinièr or la cuisinère à this decreases the degree of complete correspondence. 2. Partial lexical correspondences: more common, word in the SL corresponds to multiple words in TL. Translator needs to choose appropriate words from TT to suit the overall context of the ST. - E.g. Look à 看, 望, 观, 视, 盼, 瞅 etc. 7

8 - E.g. play.chess/tennis/football/truant à 下棋 / 打网球 / 踢足球 / 逃学 Dynamic 动态对等 Wrong choice of words leads to wrong interpretation: E.g. 古诗十九首 迢迢牵牛星 迢迢牵牛星, 皎皎河汉女 à 河汉 refers to 银河, or the galaxy. But English sinologist Arthur Waley ( ) misinterpreted 河汉 to be The Han River. The translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original text in such a way that the TL wording will trigger the same impact on the TC audience as the original wording did upon the ST audience. This response can never be completely identical, for the cultural and historical settings are too different, but there should be a high degree of equivalence of response, or the translation will have failed to accomplish its purpose. (Nida, 24) Aka. TA and SA respond in identical ways when reading TT and ST respectively. E.g. 他身无分文 à he has no penny to his name. 全力以赴 à give it your all. 我怒发冲冠 à I blew up my top. * refer to examples under equivalence But there are still phrases that are difficult to translate, like phrases involving puns etc. E.g. In Chinese, certain messages can be expressed by removing and regrouping parts of the radical: 拆字人曾为僧, 人弗可以成佛 à the man who has been a monk cannot become a Buddha 女卑是婢, 女又何妨称奴 à the girl who is a bond maid may be called a slave. Addition There s also the use of Palindrome: 回文, which an be difficult to translate Able was I ere I saw Elba à 不到俄岛我不倒 by 许渊冲 Was it a cat I saw? Madam, I m Adam. à 夫人, 我是亚当天上龙卷风卷龙上天 Eugene Nida s Five techniques =Techniques to translate= Transliteration, literal translation, free translation, mixed translation and communicative translation. Translator adds a word/ word combination to specify meaning expressed in ST. E.g. I am looking forward to the holidays à 我在期待假期 ( 的道来 ) 8

9 Subtraction Alteration Footnote Adjustments of language Histories make men wise; poets witty; mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; morality grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. à 历史使人聪明 ; 诗人 [ 使人 ] 遐想 ; 数学 [ 使人 ] 精细 ; 自然哲学 [ 使人 ] 深沉 ; 伦理 [ 使人 ] 庄严 ; 逻辑和修辞 [ 使人 ] 能够争论. Translator removes a word/ word combination to specify the meaning expressed in ST E.g. A book is useful à 书是有用的. As it happens, we did not meet there à 我们在那里里并没有碰头 Sunday is the day when I am least busy à 星期天我最不忙 Refers to the variation of TT through change of viewpoint, perspective and thoughts without changing the meaning expressed in the ST. e.g. Maybe you are right à Tu n as peut-être pas tort. This is difficultà ce n est pas facile/ 这不容易. * similar to modulation Using footnote to explain/ supplement the intended meaning expressed in ST, that was unable to be carried forward to TT due to the lack of such a language or cultural reference present in TL/TC. E.g. A quick glance at the book 中英对照读唐诗宋词 by 施颖洲 and one could observe many of such techniques. 无题 李商隐 相见时难别亦难, 东风无力百花残 春蚕到死丝方尽, 蜡炬成灰泪始干 晓镜但愁云鬓改, 夜吟应觉月光寒 蓬山此去无多路, 青鸟殷勤为探看 Untitled Li Shang-yin To meet is hard, to part as hard to fare. The East Wind being faint, all flowers sear. Spring silkworm, dead at last, stops yielding silk*; Wax candles, burned to ash, dries then its tear. In night chant, brunt of moonlight chill she d beard. Blue bird, be kind to visit oft my dear! * The word silk in Chinese language is a pun which sounds also like the word longing. There is a double meaning in the line 春蚕到死丝方尽 丝 and 思 are both pronounced as sī or [sʅ ] 55,so the sentence is not just saying that the silkworm has stopped yielding silk, but the imagery is also used to express how the longing thoughts of the protagonist has been cut off. The English translation can only account for the literal meaning, but the translator managed to include the underlying meaning with the use of footnotes. Translator needs to consider the target audience and target culture, and then adjust the ST to fit TT, so that the TA can understand the TT, or change and replace when appropriate. 9

10 to experience Correspondence 完全对应 - E.g. 秋天来了. For US vs. UK audiences, US: Fall came. UK: Autumn came - 水仙 à for chinese culture = purity. But in western mythology, the plant, like it s name Narcissus, is named after the vain Greek God Narcissus. If the translator does not wish to supplement additional information to prevent misunderstanding, he can replace with 水仙 maybe lilies, daisies or gardenia idk. - To express timidity, chinese use mouse, angmo use chicken - 笑面虎 à wolf in a sheep s clothing - E.g. Eat your tea à 吃你的茶点, not 吃你的茶. In this case, tea refers to the meal served between 5pm-6pm, not the drink. Yet in chinese, 吃茶 means 喝茶, so the translator needs to be careful and know the right meaning. Liu Miqing s Four levels of Equivalence ~ Close to a 100% correspondence between ST and TT. Both meaning and structure are largely transferred. Mostly under the following few categories: 1. Pronouns 2. Numbers and functions 3. Scientific and professional terminologies 4. Names of people, things and places etc. 5. Conventional greetings E.g. I love music à 我爱音乐. He is a Canadian à 他是加拿大人. Similarity 不完全对应 [80%] Approximity [40%] Nonequivalence in e.g. 舍弃 =abandon. Wording and structure of TL has to be sacrificed to embrace ST, but the similarity can still be seen. 舍己为人 =sacrifice one s own interest for the sake of others. To ensure readability, translators have to: 1. adjust TT according to ST, SL and demands of TL 2. regard the contextualization of readers 3. only disregard equivalence when there is absolutely no way to translate using that way. Faint shadow of equivalence. Refer to V&D s modulation Red rust, pink, ruby, cognac, tiger lily, rosy, mahogany. 红 - 洋红, 橙红, 褐红, 淡红, 嫣红, 深红, 粉红 Arises from the clash between SL and TL, where the TT is of no similarity in terms of the word or structure to the ST, but meaning is still transferred. Similar to idiomatic translations. Refer to V&D s equivalence. 10

11 form 无对应 Localisation in translation Context à Strategy à Procedure Adapting the TT from ST to the context of the Target Culture, by varying both the cultural and function content. E.g. In Tagore s poem collection Stray birds, there is a poem titled the champa flower. A champa is an Indian sacred tree that blossoms golden flowers. Having this context in mind, when 郑振铎 translate this poem, he gose to translate the flower to 金色花, following the fruit of the flower, instead of a transliteration (borrowing) to terms such as 金箔花 or something. He then explained the context of the 金色花 in the footnotes. Cultural content: 1. Colors, shapes, sizes, styles 2. Societal codes: Myths, etiquettes, rituals, humor 3. Societal values: power, relationships, beliefs Functional content: 1. Date and time format, telephone numbers 2. Weights, measurements, geographical references E.g. Coca Cola Share a coke campaign: In other countries à printed first names [personal names] on coke labels e.g. John Mary Lucie. But in China, since the combination and variation of first names is way to diverse and complicated to be printed on coke canes, this system was replaced with popular catchphrases such as 闺蜜粉丝吃货大咖纯爷们男神 E.g. in English, you represents both formal and informal usage, but in French, it varies between tu and vous, in mandarin it varies between 你 and 您. E.g. in other parts of the world they use Degree Celsius, but in US they use Fahrenheit, so when one translates it, they have to alter the numeric temperature too. E.g. Soccer vs. Football. 茶点 vs. 茶. 11