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Lecture One

Lecture One. An Introduction to Translation Theory and Practice. Major points. Significance Difficulties Learning strategies Teaching methods and contents. Significance. TEM 8 GCT (postgraduate entrance examination) CATTI (China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters

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Lecture One

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  1. Lecture One An Introduction to Translation Theory and Practice

  2. Major points • Significance • Difficulties • Learning strategies • Teaching methods and contents

  3. Significance • TEM 8 • GCT (postgraduate entrance examination) • CATTI (China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters • Graduation thesis writing

  4. Difficulties • Lexical gap • Linguistic/structural ambiguity • Cultural connotation • Figurative language • Abbreviations, wordplay, idioms, long sentences, neologisms, etc.

  5. Examples: --His parent came to the school to see him. --They are entertaining women. --She was a cat. --David was in a clear majority. --My hausband took the papers to the cabinet. --She was a magpie. --A new dignity crept into his walk.

  6. Structural ambiguity Examples: --The water is still in the lake. --The storm is over there. --The man turned out an impostor. --He lives very near. --I found him out. --They are running dogs.

  7. False friends (faux amis) • Common words e.g. longlegs, blue-stocking, blue-bottle, whitecap, turnkey, Dutch wife, ladybird, etc. • Idioms and slang expressions e.g. eat no fish, the salt of the earth, Judas kiss, fig leaf, you are telling me, they are talking turkey, Jekyll and Hyde

  8. Figures of speech (e.g. euphemism) e.g. eat for two, answer the call of nature, let a breeze, under the weather • Technical terms e.g. dog’s ear, bull’s-eye • Sentences e.g. she has given heart to him; it was an old ragged moon

  9. Learning strategies • Combination of theory and practice --Importance of theory There is indeed nothing so practical as a good theory. (Wardhaugh 1969) --Importance of practice Pracitce makes perfect.

  10. Read, reflect and write (translate): an endless circle --Read what? Canonical translations: Yang Xianyi, Xu Yuanzhong, Zhang Peiji, David Hawkes, David Polard (C-E translation); Zhu Shenghao, Wang Keyi, Yang Bi, Zhang Guruo, Xia Ji’an (E-C translation) --Reflect what? Similarities, esp. changes in the translation and why?

  11. --How to translate? Apply what you have got from your reading and reflections to your own translation practice, such as those veteran translators’ good expressions and translation strategies and techniques --Translate what? Anything you think interesting, such as a moving short story in a magazine, a special or interesting or vivid phrase, sentence or paragraph in your English studies

  12. Suggested readings and translation tools --Some textbooks of translation --Some scholarly works on translation --Some magazines and journals on translation Translation tools: --<<新时代汉英大词典>>, <<中国大百科全书>>, Encyclopedia Britannica Websites: http://www.chinafanyi.com, http://en.wikipedia.org, http://dict.cnki.net, http://translate.google.cn, http://www.iciba.com

  13. Teaching contents and methods • Teaching contents --Theory: translation concepts, definition, types, principle, criteria, process, translator’s qualifications, strategies, techniques, translation of special items such as proper nouns, figures of speech, idioms, onomatopoeia, color words, culture-specific expressions, kinds of sentences and texts

  14. --Practice: eight interesting English and Chinese stories, authentic translation materials in TEM 8, passages in CATTI, translation exercises in the textbooks, etc. • Teaching methods --1st classhour: dealing with students’ translation exercise (4 students’ presentation of their translations, teacher’s comments on them, introduction of a reference translation) --2nd classhour: introducing and discussing translation theory or technique

  15. 翻译实践 原文： An Englishman who had just landed in China entered a restaurant to appease the pangs of hunger. Unfortunately he knew no Chinese and the waiter knew no English; so they were both thrown on mother wit.

  16. John Chinaman articulated “Bowwow”, to which John Bull moved his head from right to left. Then the waiter said “Quack, quack!”, to which the customer moved his head from sky to earth, and the inner man was soon satisfied.

  17. 参考译文： • 一个刚在中国登岸的英国人，因为肚子饿得发慌，便走进了一家餐馆。不幸的是，他不懂中文,而那个堂倌又不懂英文，因此他们只有凭借天生的智慧来进行交流。那个堂倌说“汪汪”，英国人听了直摇头。接着，那个堂倌又说“嘎嘎”。那位顾客听了点头不已。不久那个内在的人[1]就感到满足了。 • 注释： • [1]”内在的人”为幽默说法，指胃袋。

  18. 翻译讲评 1、to appease the pangs of hunger 转换表达方式，译为“填饱饥肠辘辘的肚子“ 2、throw on mother wit 凭借天生的智慧 3、John Chinaman， John Bull分别为中国人和英国人的绰号 4、bowwow， quack 拟声词，狗和鸭叫声 5、inner man 为幽默用法，指胃袋，需注释

  19. Questions and tasks • Why and how do we study translation? • Translate passage 1 in the TRANSLATION EXERCISE of the textbook.

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