Basic Knowledge of Translation Theory

1. Basic Knowledge of Translation Theory • Translation • Translation criteria or principle • Prerequisites of a translator • Translation strategies • Literal translation and liberal translation • Terms

2. The definition in the old days • “译即易，谓换易言语使相解也。”——贾公彦(618-907) 唐朝 • “夫翻译者，谓翻梵天之语转成汉地之言。音虽似别，义则大同。”——法云(960-1279) 宋代 • The British scholar Dr. Samuel Johnson once said: “To translate is to change into another language, remaining the sense.”

3. The current definition(1) • Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. ---------Nida • A good translation is one which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another language as to be as distinctly apprehended and as strongly felt by a native of the country to which that language belongs as it is by those who speak the language of the original work.---------Tytler

4. The current definition(2) • The replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)----------------Prof. Huang Long Translatology

5. In summary • Translation is the information transferring between two languages and the cultural communication between two language families. • Translation is a rendering from one language into another. Translation is a science, an art, a bilingual art, a craft, a skill, an operation and communication. • Translation is a representation or recreation in one language of what is written or said in another language. • Translation is a kind of science because it was a whole set of rules governing it and certain objective laws to go by in the process of translating.

6. Varieties of translation • Interpretation and written translation • SL and TL: Interlingual translation, Intralingual translation, Intersemiotic translation • Style: political essay, practical writing, science and technology, literary translation

7. Translation Criteria or Principle • Tytler’s translation criteria • Yanfu’s translation criteria • Others translation criteria

8. Tytler’s • Essay on the Principles of Translation, 1791 • A translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work; • The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original; • A translation should have all the ease of the original composition.

9. Yanfu’s • Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance • “Faithfulness” means the full and complete conveying of the original content of thought; • “Expressiveness” demands that the version should be clear and flowing without any grammatical mistakes or confused logic and sense; • “Elegance” refers to the use of classical Chinese before the Han Dynasty.

10. Others’ translation principles (1) • Lu Xun’s: Rather be faithful (in thought) than smooth (in language) in opposition to Liang Shi-qiu’s translation principle in 1930s. • Fu Lei’s : TL should be similar to SL both in Form and in Spirit. • Liu Chongde’s : faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness. faithfulness: to be faithful to the content of the original; expressiveness: to be as expressive and smooth as the original; closeness: to be as close to the original style as possible. • Liang Shiqiu ‘s and Zhao Jingshen’s : “It’s better to have a smooth version than a faithful one.”

11. Others’ translation principles (2) • Eugene A. Nida’s : Dynamic equivalence or Functional equivalence or Equivalent-effect theory. • The translator is to produce as nearly possible the same effect on his readers as was produced on the readers of the original.

12. Others’ translation principles (3) • Peter Newmark’s : Semantic translation and Communicative translation. • Semantic translation: The translator attempts, within the bare syntactic and semantic constraints of the TL, to produce the precise contextual meaning of the author. Semantic translation focuses primarily upon the semantic content of the source text. • Communicative translation: The translator attempts to produce the same effect on the TL readers as was produced by the original on the SL readers. Communicative translation focuses essentially upon the comprehension and response of receptors.

13. Translation criteria • Faithfulness and smoothness • Faithfulnessrefers to that content and style of TL should be faithful to the SL. • Smoothness requires that version should be clear and distinct, flowing and easy to read without signs of the mechanical word-for-word translation, of obscure language, of grammatical mistakes, confused structure and logic.

14. Prerequisites of a translator • The enhancement of our political consciousness • The betterment of our command of the relevant languages • The broadening of the range and scope of our general knowledge. • By Zhou En-lai

15. Translation strategies: foreignization and domestication • Foreignization:If the translator’s preference is placed on preserving the language and cultural differences of theSource Text, we call this kind of approaches or its translation foreignizing or foreignization. • Domestication:the method or practice of adapting the translation to the norms and values of the Target Language and culture is called domesticating or domestication.

16. Examples (1) • 谋事在人，成事在天。（曹：95） • Man proposes, Heaven disposes. (Yang: 90) • Man proposes, God disposes. (Hawkes: 152)

17. Examples (2) • Unless you’ve an ace up your sleeve, we are dished. • 除非你有锦囊妙计，否则我们是输定了。 • 除非你手中藏有王牌，否则我们是输定了。

18. Examples (3) • Among Wolves one must howl. • 入乡随俗 • 在狼群中你就得嗥 • Go to law for a sheep, you lose a cow. • 捡了芝麻，丢了西瓜。（归） • 为一只羊打官司，却损失了一头牛。（异）

19. Two basic translation methods • Literal Translationmeans word-for-word translation. It takes sentences as its basic units and the whole text into consideration at the same time in the course of translation. It strives to reproduce both the ideological content and the style of the entire literary work and retain as much as possible the figures of speech. • Liberal Translation is also calledFree Translation. It is a supplementary means to mainly convey the meaning and spirit of the original without trying to reproduce its sentence pattern or figures of speech.

20. Examples (1) • To kill two birds with one stone. • 一石二鸟 • 一箭双雕，一举两得

21. Examples (2) • The worst wheel of a cart creaks most. • 最坏的车轮最会嘎吱响。 • 才学最差，叫喊最响；出力最少，抱怨最忙；能猫不叫，叫猫不能。

22. Examples (3) • 树倒猢狲散 • When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. • Members run away when the family falls. / Rats leave a sinking ship.

23. Terms (1) • Polysemy: One word has various parts of speech and various meaning. Firth said: “Each word when used in a new context is a new word.” • Examples

24. Examples (1) • I want my martini dry. • 我的马丁尼酒不要甜的。 • There are still some dry states in the United States. • 在美国尚有几洲禁酒。 • She prefers dry bread. • 她喜欢无奶油的面包。

25. Examples (2) • The cows are dry. • 这些母牛缺奶。 • He gave us a dry lecture yesterday. • 昨天他给我们作了一个枯燥无味的讲演。 • I am sure what he presented was a dry fact. • 我相信，他所列举的是铁一般的事实。

26. Terms (2) • Commendatory and derogatory words: Commendatory word means a praising word, or a word in good sense. Derogatory word means a word to lessen or impair the power or authority or a word in bad sense. • Examples

27. Examples (1) • Many people think that he is one of the most ambitious politicians of our times. • 很多人认为他是现今最有野心的政客之一。 • Although he is very young, he is very ambitious in his research work. • 他虽然很年轻，但是在研究工作中很有雄心壮志。

28. Example (2) • They incited him to go into further investigation. • 他们鼓励他做进一步的调查。 • The plotters incited the soldiers to rise against their officers. • 阴谋家煽动士兵们造军官的反。

29. Terms (3) • Diction: It means proper choice of words in translation on the basis of accurate comprehension of the original. • Examples

30. Examples (1) • We can make out the meaning of the word from the context. • 我们可以从上下文判断出这个词的意思。 • We should settle the disputes in the context of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. • 我们应当在和平共处五项原则的基础上解决这些争端。

31. Examples (2) • It is in this context that the tragedy of Sahara was born. • 撒哈拉沙悲剧正在这种情况下发生。 • We must operate within the context of the Olympian Spirit. • 我们必须按照奥林匹克精神办事。

32. Examples (3) • In this context, I’ve to call your attention to the fact that the peaceful trend in the Indo-China Peninsula is essential to peace in the world. • 就此而论，我不得不提醒大家注意这样一个事实：印度支那半岛局势的稳定对世界和平来说是至关重要的。

33. Examples (4) • The traditional pattern of classroom experience at the college level brings the professor and a group of 20 to 30 students together for a 45-to-50 minute class session two or three times a week. The most common mode of instruction is the lecture. • 由一位教授和二三十名学生每周会晤两三次，每次授课时间45分钟到50分钟，是大学程度课堂教学的传统方式。最普遍的教学方式是讲课。

34. Terms (4) • Repetition: In translation we are required to repeat words over and over again for clearness, for the sake of emphasis and for attractiveness (vividness). • Examples

35. Examples • Big families had their own difficulties. • 大家庭有大家庭的难处。 • Ignorance is the mother of fear as well as of admiration. • 无知是羡慕的根源，也是恐惧的根源。

36. Terms (5) • Amplification: It means supplying necessary words in our translation work so as to make the version correct and clear. Words thus supplied must be indispensable either syntactically or semantically. • Examples

37. Examples (1) • The number of children being excluded in the area is getting out of hand. • 该地区学生被开除的现象已到了无法控制的地步。 • “According to Dr. John,” he said, “the patient’s life is still in danger. The first aid must be rendered as soon as possible.” • “根据约翰大夫的诊断，”他说，“这位患者的生命仍然处于危险之中，必须尽快采取急救措施。”

38. Examples (2) • Then a little over decade ago, Professors Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold, working at Cambridge, proposed an entirely different scheme. • 然而三十多年前，剑桥大学的霍伊尔、邦迪和哥尔德三位教授却提出了完全不同的学说。

39. Terms (6) • Omission: In the process of translation we may make proper omission of some individual words in accordance with the corresponding laws inherent in the two languages concerned in order to retain and better express the original meaning. • Examples

40. Examples • He who has never reached the Great Wall is not a true man. • 不到长城非好汉。 • As the temperature increases, the volume of water becomes greater. • 温度增高，水的体积就会增大。

41. Terms (7) • Conversion:It means that in translation a word in one language belonging to a certain part of speech is not necessarily to be turned into one of the same part of speech in another language. • Examples

42. Examples • The turning point of my life was my decision to give up a promising business career and study music. • 我生活的转折点是我决定不做发迹有望的商人而专攻音乐。 • A glance through his office window offers a panoramic view of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. • 从他的办公室窗口可以一眼看到华盛顿纪念碑和林肯纪念馆的全景。

43. Terms (8) • Inversion:By inversion in translation we mean that the constituent elements of a sentence are arranged in way different from the general rules of word order of the language in question. • Examples

44. Examples • It’s good you’ve so considerate. • 你想得这样周到很好。 • Formerly a worker himself, he was now an engineer. • 他过去是工人，现在当了工程师了。 • Send us a message in case you have any difficulty. • 万一有什么困难，请给我们一个信。

45. Terms (9) • Negation:It means in translation some words, phrases or sentences with negative expression in SL may be transformed into affirmative expression in TL. Vice versa, some affirmative expression in SL may be transformed into negative expression in TL, to make the version clearer and more explicit. • Examples

46. Examples • I wrote three books in the first two years, a record never reached before. • 我头两年写了三本书，打破了以往的记录。 • The machine is far from being complicated. • 这部机器一点也不复杂。 • Don’t lose time in cleaning this machine. • 赶快把这部机器擦好。

47. Terms (10) • Division: It means the necessary splitting of a long sentence into shorter ones. • Examples

48. Examples • There are many wonderful stories to tell about the places I visited and the people I met. • 我访问了一些地方，遇到不少人，要谈起来，奇妙的事可多着呢。 • After singing a concert in this city, he said he wanted to greet his admirers backstage as he always does. • 他在那个城市演唱了一场音乐会。音乐会结束以后，他提出要向往常那样到后台去见见他的崇拜者。

49. Change of the voice • the active and the passive • E-C : the active voice • C-E : the passive voice esp. in EST (English for Science and Technology) • Examples

50. Examples • The happy man cannot be harried. • 吉人自有天相。 • He is said to be the most respected teacher in our department. • 据说他是我们系上最受尊敬的老师。