Chinese 747
Advanced Chinese
Translation Practice
Class Time: 9-11 am Wednesday
Classroom: 207-302
Teacher: Dr. Yan Ding (Lydia)
E-mail: [email protected]
Recap of Week 7
• Functionalism and Skopos
• Translation Strategy and Practice
Week 8
• Functionalism and Skopos (2)
– Text Type - Katharina Reiss
– Translation Errors – Christiane Nord
• More translation strategies and practice
Text Type – Katharina Reiss
• ‘Informative’ –content.
Facts, information, knowledge,
opinions etc./logical referential
• ‘Expressive‘ –
creative
composition and aesthetics.
Imaginative creative literature
• ‘Operative' -
appellative.
Appeals to the reader to act in a
certain way/dialogic.
• ‘Audiomedial' and audio
visual
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Descriptive
Narrative
Expository
Argumentative
Translation Error – Christiane Nord
• The traditional criterion for evaluating
mistakes in literary translations
– anything in the TT that is not "faithful" to the ST is
deemed as a translation mistake;
• Nord: the purpose of the translation process
and product:
– "a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the
translation brief";
– "If the purpose of a translation is to achieve a
particular function for the target addressee, anything
that obstructs the achievement of this purpose is a
translation error." (Nord 1997:75-78).
Translation Error
• Translation error under the functional
approach:
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Pragmatic translation error;
Cultural translation error;
Linguistic translation error;
Text-specific translation error.
3.2.1 Pragmatic translation errors
• Pragmatic translation errors are caused by "inadequate
solutions to pragmatic translation problems such
as a lack of receiver orientation." The consequences
of such errors are serious because target audiences
tend not to realize that they are getting irrelevant or
insignificant information. However, it is not very difficult
to solve pragmatic translation problems "once they have
been identified as problems." Normally they can be
identified only by a competent person comparing the ST
with its TTs in the light of the translation brief (Nord
1997:75-76).
• ST: 绍兴历代人才辈出，涌现了一大批政治家、思想家、
文学家、艺术家、科学家，远着如勾践、王允、王羲之、
陆游、徐渭等，近者如秋瑾、蔡元培、鲁迅、马寅初、竺
可桢等，人才之洋洋大观，世所罕见。
Pragmatic Error
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ST: 绍兴历代人才辈出，涌现了一大批政治家、思想家、文学家、艺术家、科学家，
远着如勾践、王允、王羲之、陆游、徐渭等，近者如秋瑾、蔡元培、鲁迅、马寅初、竺
可桢等，人才之洋洋大观，世所罕见。
TT 1: Throughout history, Shaoxing has been the home of great
talents, having turned out a great number of statesmen, thinkers,
men of letters, artists and scientists. The early ones include Gou Jian,
Wang Chong, Wang Xizhi, Lu You, Xu Wei and so on, and the more
recent ones include Qiu Jin, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Ma Yinchu, Zhu
Kezhen and many others. The multitude of her talents is rare
throughout China's history.
TT 2: Throughout the ages Shaoxing has turned out many a
statesman, thinker, writer, artist and scientist. Among the most
famous are Gou Jian, Wang Chong, Wang Xizhi, Lu You, Xu Wei, Qiu
Jin, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Ma Yinchu, and Zhu Kezhen.
• ST: 镜水稽山，钟灵毓秀，自来济济多士，卓越的学术和艺术成就，
名垂宇宙；歆动千古的逸闻韵事，踪迹历历可寻。王羲之的别业戒
珠寺，为卖扇老妪书扇的题扇桥，兰亭修葺的流觞曲水，陆游悲吟
《钗头凤》的沈园池台，徐渭的青藤书屋，鲁迅的百草园，使人流连，
目迷心醉。
• TT: "Wine Cups Floating Along the Stream" in Orchid
Pavilion with long bamboos. Ponds and terrace in Sheng
Garden, where Lu You mournfully chanted the poem
"Chai Tou Feng." The Green Vine Study of Xu Wei.
Hundred Grass Garden of Luxun. Everywhere one may
enjoy oneself very much, dazzled and fascinated.
Cultural translation errors
• Cultural translation errors are related to the question of
whether or not source-culture conventions should be
adapted to target-culture standards (Nord 1997:77).
Since the skopos theory is basically a "target textoriented paradigm" (Toury 1995:25) and "'adaptation'
of the source text to target-culture standards is a
procedure that is part of the daily routine of every
professional translator" (Nord 1991b:28), such errors
usually refer to the cases where the TT conflicts with the
target-culture customs and conventions. As a result, the
target readers might find the transmitted message
incomprehensible or unacceptable, which prevents the
TT from achieving its intended skopos and function.
• Lancaster, as a historic city, offers much in the
way of cultural entertainment and is often
referred to as the 'Cultural Capital' of
Lancashire. The city is fortunate to have
retained many fine examples of Georgian
architecture. Lancaster Castle, The Priory
Church of St. Mary and the Edwardian Ashton
Memorial are among many sites of historical
importance.
• ST: 绍兴是首批中国历史文化名城、首批中国优秀旅游城市、国家
环保模范城市、国家卫生城市、国家园林城市、全国创建文明城市
先进单位，历史文化、山水风光和轻纺产业闻名遐迩。
• TT: Shaoxing is one of China's first authorized historical
and cultural cities and excellent tourist cities. It is also a
national model city in terms of environmental
protection, a national sanitary city, a national gardenlike city, and a national city advanced in the building of
cultural and ideological progress. Its historical culture,
landscapes and light textile industry are known far and
near.
• On one of those sober and rather melancholy
days, in the later part of Autumn, when the
shadows of morning and evening almost
mingle together, and throw a gloom over the
decline of the year, I passed several hours in
rambling about Westminster Abby.
• 时方晚秋，气象肃穆，略带忧郁，早晨的阴影和黄昏的
阴影几乎连接在一起，不可分别，岁将云暮，终日昏暗，
我就在这么一天，到西敏大寺去散步了几个钟头。（夏
济安译）
Linguistic translation errors
• Linguistic translation errors are caused by "an
inadequate translation when the focus is on language
structures" (Nord 1997:75). They represent deviations
from standard target-language paradigms and usages.
• “Elementary" translation errors from "higher-level"
errors. The former refer to glaring mistakes in terms of
spelling, punctuation marks, choice of words, word
order, etc. and the latter to complex ones involving
sentence structure, logic, tense, and voice.
• ST:“中国兰亭书法节”是纪念当年东晋大书法家王羲之
撰书《兰亭集序》的一项书法活动，主要活动包括晋圣、
修葺、曲水流觞、书法展览等。
• TT: The Orchid Pavilion Calligraphy Festival is
a calligraphy activity for memorizing the
"Orchid Pavilion Preface" of calligrapher Wang
Xizhi in those years. The activities mainly
include calling on sadu, Zigzaging Water
Flowing With Cups Of Wine, calligraphy show
and so on.
• ST: 北京中華世紀壇的40個中華名人雕塑中，紹興名
人占了4位，他們分別是王羲之、蔡元培、魯迅、馬寅初。
• TT: Among the 40 Chinese celebrities erected
as statues below the China Century Monument
in Beijing, four came from Shaoxing and they
are Wang Xizhi, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun and Ma
Yinchu.
Text-specific translation errors
• Text-specific translation errors arise from textspecific translation problems and can usually
be evaluated from a functional or pragmatic
perspective (Nord 1997:76).
• ST: 毛泽东同志曾赋诗称绍兴为“鉴湖越台名士乡”。
• TT1： The late Chairman Mao Zedong, in one of
his poems, praised Shaoxing as hometown to
celebrities.
• TT2： The late chairman Mao Zedong praised
Shaoxing with the following words: "Jian Lake
and the Terrace of Yue State, home of
celebrities."
许渊冲教授的数学公式法
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加词 2+1=2 加词不加意
减词 2-1+2 减词不减意
换词 2+2=3+1 变换符合不变换意思
移词 1+2=2+1 前后移位
分译 4=2+2 一分为二
合译 2+2=4
深化 1：2=2：4 具体化
浅化 2：4=1：2 抽象化
等化 2+2=2x2 灵活对等
一分为四 4=1+1+1+1 woe 悲欢离合
合四为一 1+1+1+1=4 管它冬夏与春秋 I don’t care what season
it is
Practice
• Clinton is the first Black president.
• The president is now on a poverty tour.
• The kiss represents the symbolic loss of the
most famous American child.
• This is a thought-provokingly different
explanation.
• There are scenes of all sorts, some dreadful
combats, some grand and lofty horse-riding,
some scenes of high life, and some of very
middling indeed; some love-making for the
sentimental, and some light comic business.
• As the manager of the performance sits before
the curtain on the boards, and looks into the
Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes
over him in his survey of the bustling place.
• (领班的坐在戏台幔子前面，对着底下闹哄哄的市场，
瞧了半晌，心里不觉悲惨起来。)
• What could marriage mean if we did not feel
ourselves capable of love?
• He shouldn’t have taken advantage of her
sextually.
• My father was not wrong in judging me too young to
manage business of importance.
• The president of the university has watched soaring
real-estate prices in Silicon Valley prompt a steady
exodus of his staff.
• Macroeconomics stabilisation quickly became a major
focus of transition policy, however, with varying degrees
of success, often due to political pressure for credits and
subsidiaries for the enterprise sector coupled, in some
cases, with uncontrollable growth of credit in the from
of inter-enterprise arrears.
• This single stick, which you now behold
ingloriously lying in that neglected corner, I
once knew it a flourishing state in a forest. It
was full of sap, full of leaves and full of
boughs.
• I knew every spot where a murder or robbery
had been committed or a ghost seen.
Trope Translation
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Literal translation
Adaption into target cultural
Literal translation with explanation
Abandon the metaphor, and express the
meaning by using plain language.
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Mother-in-law’s tongue
蛇兰/虎尾兰/长舌妇
A flash in a pan
Have one foot in the grave
Spring up like mushrooms
• The tongue is a fire
• 口舌如火，火能伤人，口舌亦然。
• Wall street is a dog-eat-dog place