浅析英汉翻译中的不对等性.doc

5.2 Study the Original Information Carefully…………………………………………………… 14
6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………15
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………16
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………… 17

Abstract

Eugene A. Nida, the American eminent theoretician on translation proposed the standard of translation --"functional equivalence". He advocated the translations and the originals for the equivalence on function of the language, rather than on the formal of the language. Peter Newmark, the English educator and theorist on translation also mentioned that "In my view, 'equivalent' is not so much the purpose of any translation, but a desirable result."
Both of the translation scholars mentioned above have indicated to the need for translation of "equivalent ", but in reality it is very difficult to grasp, because the translation is one of the most complex and most difficult activities, it involves people's cognitive, aesthetic, language, cultural awareness, translation knowledge and many other factors. Equivalent is just an ideal state we are in the pursuit of in the translation of practice, which could not achieve in our reality.
In this essay, I describe the inequivalence in English-Chinese translation from four aspects--the vocabulary, part of speech, thinking differences and cultural differences, and put forward the method that how to handle the relationship between inequivalence and equivalence to achieve the best results by anglicizing concrete examples.

Key words: Chinese-English translation；inequivalence；

中文摘要

美国当代著名的翻译理论家尤金.奈达（Eugene A. Nida）提出了“功能对等”（functional equivalence）的翻译标准，他主张让Translation和原文在语言的功能上对等，而不是在语言的形式上对应。英国翻译教育家和理论家彼得.纽马克（Peter Newmark）也曾提到“在我看来，‘等效’与其说是任何翻译的目的，还不如说是一种可取的结果。”这两位翻译学者都提及翻译中需要“对等”，但是在现实当中却是很难把握的，因为翻译是人类最复杂、最困难的活动之一，它涉及人的认知、审美、语言文化素养、对翻译的认识等诸多因素，这种“对等”只是人们在翻译实践活动中所追求的一种理想状态，要达到绝对的对等是不可能的。
本文主要先阐述英汉翻译中不对等性的定义，从词汇、语序、思维差异、文化差异等4个方面阐述了英汉翻译中存在的不对等现象，而且以具体实例为切入点,提出在翻译过程中如何处理好对等与不对等的辩证关系,以求达到最佳的翻译效果。

关键词：汉英翻译；不对等性；解决

1.Introduction

As we all know, translation is a kind of cross-language, cross-cultural communicative activity that uses a language to express the meaning in another language to convey them to meet the needs of communication thoughts and cultures to promote the social civilization, in particular, to promote a thriving target language culture and the English translation is an activity that the translator converts the English text written for English readers to the Chinese readers.
In a text, we can express its main significance with another language, but it is absolutely impossible to achieve 100 percent of the "equivalent" and "faithful" as any kind of language will be influenced by its specific cultural. Guan Shijie, the professor in Department of Journalism and Communication of Beijing University, mentioned that "Translation is not completely possible, and completely the impossible is not. all the world's translation activities are conducted in these two extremes. " in his book cross-cultural study.
Eugene A. Nida, the American eminent theoretician on translation proposed the standard of translation --"functional equivalence". He advocated the translations and the originals for the equivalence on function of the language, rather than on the formal of the language. His book “translation theory and method"，which written by himself and Charles R Taber，tells that the translation is from the semantic to the style in the target language using the most proximate and most natural reproduction of the original language of the other language information. Both Fan Cunzhong's" accurate "and Taber and Nida’s meaning of" reciprocity ", they only reflect a kind of translation community vision and goals. One language is completely re-express themselves possible with another language, but entirely accurate is impossible. Language is the shell of thinking, human thinking is decided by the exist. As each language has its own unique national history, national culture and national psychology background. Therefore, this gulf between the Chinese and English is self-evident.

2.Literature review

English Translation of the unequal nature of the subject in a foreign country has more in research, particularly in the foreign translation industry, which on this subject more in-depth analysis and research, foreign study for this issue to focus on from the national and cultural differences, the asymmetry of language. Domestic and exotic cultural differences and try to make these differences disappear in the translation process, while in the target language to find accurate words to a foreign culture is reproduced in the target language. American contemporary translation theorists - Eugene. Nida (Eugene A. Nida) proposed the "Functional" (functional equivalence) the translation of standards on translation industry has an important influence.
Apart from cultural differences to prove unequal nature of translation, the translation of foreign scientists also from the translation style of the English translation on the equivalence of asymmetry analysis and research, a language used to express in another language is completely possible, but completely accurate and absolutely on the other is impossible.
But in China, compared with other topic, the more complete system or not, the main difference from the cultural background is also in terms of interpretation and narrative in Translation asymmetry. As each language has its own unique national history, culture, national psychology background, so in different languages of English that this gulf between the self-evident.
With the translation of research advances, right, etc. and not the evaluation of translation quality of key indicators, again in some new perspective to attract people's attention, this also increases in the vocabulary, parts of speech, word order，three aspects of the Translation of asymmetry to On, enriched in Translation asymmetry of theoretical research. Previous research which has mainly elaborated theory of translation does not exist entirely on the fact that such, but how to deal with reciprocity and asymmetry by the few. In this thesis, the practical approach of theory, from specific examples as the starting point, made in the translation process such as how to deal with not so good on the dialectical relationship, in order to achieve the best Translation Qualities.

3. The Definition of the Inequivalence in English-Chinese Translation

Translation is to use a language (target language) to another language (source language) expressed by the ideological content of an accurate and complete re-expressed in the language of the activities. Specially, finding the source language text materials of the equivalents in the target language so as to achieve the bilingual translation between the equivalents. That is to say, translation practice, the central issue is the question of translation equivalence. Between human language and world culture exist in a considerable commonality, which is translated to achieve the objective laid the foundation, but the language is self-contained, and its unique nature is different from other languages often strike a translation equivalent barriers. Although the translator largely eliminates these obstacles, but whether it is in the form or in content, or in style, translation, compared with the original, there are varying degrees of “faithfulness" of the lost. Therefore, the translation equivalent can only be relative terms, to strike a target language and source language is absolutely right and others are impossible.
Based on the above analysis, the concept of " inequivalentce" is here. What exactly is the inequivalentce in the translation of English-Chinese? With regard to the definition of the concept, it’s very difficult to search for relevant information in the press books, and even on the network. However，with the reference of some scholars’ summary of the discussion，I reach a conclusion about its concept，that’s in the process of translation，influenced by the different historical backgrounds, customs, cultural traditions, translator should understand these differences to adopt the habit of language to express the meaning of the original language，to ensure the correctness and smoothness of the translations.
In this essay, I describe the inequivalence in English-Chinese translation from four aspects--the vocabulary, word order, thinking differences and cultural differences, and put forward the method that how to handle the relationship between inequivalence and equivalence to achieve the best results by anglicizing concrete examples.

4. The Four Inequivalence in English-Chinese Translation
4.1The Inequivalence of Vocabulary in English-Chinese Translation
English and Chinese languages on the number of very different in terms of vocabulary, and along with the continuous development of society and science and technology, vocabulary is still evolving updated vocabulary between the two languages de-lattice phenomenon is inevitable. 这一点在家庭成员的称呼上能很好地体现出来。 This point is called on members of the family is well reflected. 中国有着几千年的封建家庭统治，家庭成员间也有严格的亲疏、等级之分，如父方与母方的亲属称呼是绝不可混为一谈的，“叔、伯”为嫡系血缘关系，而“姨父、舅父”则被视为亲戚。China has a centuries-old feudalistic family rule, family members also have a strict closeness, graded on a scale, such as paternal and maternal relatives called absolutely cannot be confused, "the tart, Peter" as the direct descendant blood relationship, and "uncle, uncle" were considered as relatives. 同样，“孙女”与“外孙女”也是有区别的。 Similarly, the "granddaughter" and "granddaughter" is also different. Not take into account that, regardless of all occasions to use English as the corresponding word "granddaughter” is not up to the real equivalent in the translation.

4.1.1 The Inequivalence of Vocabulary
As the smallest basic unit of language, vocabulary is a mirror of language history, which reflects the national awareness to this world in many ways, so when we translate English into Chinese, the quality of vocabulary translation would affect the whole translation. Translators should take notice of the words exact meaning during the handle a translation, but it is very difficult to grasp the significance, especially in English, whose vocabulary is great. In lexicology, vocabulary does not have its own meaning, but have one in a passage, and linguistics also shows that the meaning of vocabulary is in use.
The following are some examples:

Example：
Original：The force of habit in millions and tens of millions is the most formidable.
Translation1：几百万人和千百万人的习惯势力是最可怕的。
Translation2：千百万人的习惯势力是最可怕的。
Analysis：Translation1中，译者把millions和tens of millions逐字译成“几百万人”和“千百万人”，虽然符合“忠实”的原则，但是语意重复，过于啰嗦。Translation2中只用了“千百万人”，但涵盖了millions和tens of millions的意思，虽然词汇不对等，但是Translation依然准确，比Translation1更好。

Example：
Original：The delegate of a certain country challenged the other developed countries to match his country’s contribution.
Translation1：某国代表向其他发达国家挑战，做出数额相当的捐款。
Translation2：某国代表向其他发达国家叫板，也做出了数额相当的捐款。
Analysis：英语的“challenge”在汉语中一般翻译为“挑战”，但实际上challenge主要是指个体对个体的挑战，而不是个体对集体的挑战，在汉语中，“挑战”并没有这种区别，所以原文中的challenge不能直接译成“挑战”，而是译成“叫板”或者“攀比”会比较好。
An English word not only has a clear concept of the meaning, but also may have some associated meaning. In English-Chinese translation, if do not understand the vocabulary thoroughly, we may easily lead to the translation ambiguity, distortion or even error. Therefore, the translator must take a high literary accomplishment, and constantly expand their knowledge in order to translate a high-quality work.

4.1.2The Inequivalence of Part of Speech
In English-Chinese translation, the inequivalence of vocabulary will affect the quality of translation; the inequivalence of part of speech will have a certain impact on the translation, either.
Chinese and English on the division between the parts of speech is basically the same, but there is no definite article and prepositions in the Chinese language. There are some differences in syntax, and sometimes the translator would convert part of speech to ensure the fluency of the passage or be impacted by the habit of thinking, such as nouns in English, when translated them into verbs, adjective to noun and so on.
The following are some examples:

Example:
Original：In his five consecutive speeches，Mark indulged in violent attacks on the government.
Translation1：在五次一连串的演讲中，马克沉浸在对政府的攻击当中。
Translation2：在五次一连串的演讲中，马克一味地对政府进行猛烈的攻击。
Analysis：Translation2中把原文中的动词indulge（沉浸…沉迷于…）译成了副词“一味地做…”，既把马克一直攻击政府表现了出来，还体现了攻击的程度，讲动词的效果生动传神地展示出来。

Example:
Original：The more carbon the steel contains，the harder and stronger it is.
Translation1：钢的含碳量越高，它就越强越硬。
Translation2：钢的含碳量越高，强度和硬度就越大。
Analysis：形容词hard和strong前面加上定冠词the用来表示钢的两种性质。
All in all, part of speech conversion is a very flexible in the English-Chinese translation, there is no fixed format. If applied mechanically, it can only deviate from their way. Language is not only the primary way that people communicate, but also an art. Language translation in the conversion of the part of speech should be to achieve the purpose of communication.

4.2The Inequivalence of Word Order
Word order is another syntactic phenomenon we should pay attention to. Generally speaking, the main structure of English and Chinese languages are the same, that’s "subject, predicate, object (predicative)".However, the difference between these two language is that English word order is more flexible for its morphological changes, in the interjectional sentence , inverted sentence, interrogative sentence, negative sentence , emphatic sentence and other sentences have their own word order inversion phenomenon to a certain degree. In other words, Chinese word order structure is relatively fixed for the absence of morphological changes, and the inverted sentence is rare, and sometimes only the object would be in advance just to strengthen the tone. So during the English-Chinese translation, we generally use the normal “subject, predicate " structure and the object should be advanced.
English and Chinese have great differences between vocabulary and grammar, which cause difference in word order. For more complex sentences, the form to get one to one correspondence is difficult, even in the 即使是简单句也是如此，例如：“Is she a doctor?”译成汉语为“她是(一位)医生吗?”英语的一般疑问句必须把助动词或系动词提到句首，即倒装， 而汉语中则语序不变，但须在句尾加上“吗”、 “呢”、“么”等疑问词，而冠词则可要可不要； 这又涉及到中西方人们思维方式上的差异， 英语注重数量，而汉语更注重esimple sentences. The following are some examples:
Example:
Original：With the last hours of the afternoon went her hopes，her courage and her strength.
Translation1：随着那天最后的几个小时过去，她的希望、勇气和力量一起消失了。
Translation2：她的希望、勇气和力量都随着那天下午的最后几个小时一起消失了。
Analysis：Translation1按原句次序来翻译，不符合汉语表达习惯，致使句子文理不通，而Translation2采用了还原成正常语序，既表达了原文的意思，又符合汉语的表达方式。

Example:
Original： Following the roar，out rushed a tiger from among