English and Chinese Translation

Ye+Siqi

【Abstract】This thesis compares lexical distribution between English language and Chinese language and raises three aims including free translation， semantic translation and translation containing semantic principal and context. Thus， the authentic degree of lexical translation depends on the context.

【Key words】lexis； linguistic context； situational context； cultural context； translation

1. Introduction

Translating English into Chinese and vice versa， translators are confront with unavoidable bottleneck problem..

2. Analysis

I would like to illustrate an example. “汨羅江附近的老百姓聽到屈原自殺的消息，都紛紛趕來，劃著漁船，拿著竹竿，四處打撈屈原的遺體，結果什么也沒有打撈到。”Observing this sentence carefully and analyzing a series of verbs， we need to concentrate on the Chinese phrase “打撈”and we should translate the sentence as：On hearing the news of his suicide， people who lived nearby came hurriedly in boats and attempted to retrieve his body with long bamboo poles but， to their distress， without arrival. In this way， the translation of sentence will be more naturally and logically.

2.1 Lexical conversion

The previous example illustrates lexical conversion. Nouns and verbs account for a large proportion of vocabularies among all kinds of languages. From the two previous aspects， we find that Chinese language shows obvious dynamic nature. English language shows static feature.

Translating process contains necessary lexical conversion. When translating English into Chinese， translator should convert nouns， prepositional phrases of English， etc. into relevant verbs or verb-phrases of Chinese. I will illustrate an example. “He was a clever man；a pleasant companion；a careless student；with a great propensity for running into debt， and a partiality for the tavern.” Analyzing this sentence， wed better convert nouns into verbs then translate it as “他人很聰明，容易相處，但學習粗心大意，老是借債，嗜好喝酒。”

2.2 Translation context

What is translation context？What is the relationship between lexis and context？Professor Zhuanglin Hu （1994） made a classification for lexis and context. First， Linguistic context. A word may contain several meanings. Furthermore， a word or phrase in different sentences may include more than two interpretations. Take “credit” for instance：（1） No credit is given at our shop. 本店概不賒賬。（2） The bank refused further credits to the company. 銀行拒絕再次貸款給這家公司。Second， Situational context. What is semantic translation？J. A. Fishman（1965） described it as considering time and place. Here is a title， “The Tourism of Tibet：Reveal the Mysterious Veil” . Observing the title “The Tourism of Tibet：Reveal the Mysterious Veil”， we find the key word is “veil” which contains several relevant Chinese meanings， such as “遮蔽物”， “托詞”， “面罩”， etc. It is lack of accuracy to use these words as a part of title. So translator must think about situational context of text. From the perspective of text， it is better to translate “The Tourism of Tibet：Reveal the Mysterious Veil” as “西藏旅游：揭去神秘的面紗” . Third， Cultural context. It involves social， cultural， economic， religious， political elements， etc. Take a short Chinese text as example：中國的春節在農歷一月一日，是新一年的開始。在除夕之夜，多數農村家庭仍保持著一些傳統習俗，如在兩扇門上都貼上門神和春聯。他們把“福”字倒貼在墻上和家具的門上，意思是“福到了”。It introduces Chinese traditional Spring Festival. Translator should know cultural background of Spring Festival， such as door gods， couplets， etc. and clear their implications. Chinese traditional culture shows that the aim of pasting paintings of door gods on the two doors is to protect people from invasion of evils. Painting couplets is to use characters which symbolizes simple and subtle patterns to express best wishes for future life， which is the unique literary culture of China. The Spring Festival is coming when people paste the Chinese character “福” upside down on walls and doors of the furniture. It is a homophonic feature that the upside character implies happiness has come. Hence， when translating cultural elements of vocabularies， translator must understand relevant cultural background adequately. So， we can translate it as：According to the Chinese lunar calendar， the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first month. On the New Years eve， most of the families in the countryside still keep the customs of pasting paintings of door gods on the two doors and couplets on two side of the doors. They put the Chinese character meaning “happiness” upside down and paste it on walls and doors of the furniture to mean “happiness has come.”

3. Conclusion

Translation includes three contexts， linguistic context， situational context and cultural context. When translating text， translators need to consider vocabulary and context together.

References：

[1]Peter Newmark.A Textbook of Translation[M].Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2001.

作者簡介：葉思琪（1993.9-），女，重慶師范大學外國語學院在讀碩士，研究方向：英語語言文學。