翻译要诀-总结-英语版.doc

Essentials of Chinese-English Translation Practice Summarized
Precepts and Principles
1. Achieve a thorough word-by-word and sentence-by-sentence understanding of the Chinese original (逐字逐句吃透原意),
2. Follow the basic precept of sentence-for-sentence translation and flexible application of different approaches (遵循句对句翻译和灵活运用各种译法的基本准则),
3. Give a contextualized treatment of cohesion and coherence (上下文文气形意贯通),
4. Lay equal stress on structure, substance, and style (形式、内容、风格三者并重),
5. Don’t rely on just one dictionary for accuracy in expression and appropriateness in style; you will have to consult, among others, at least three authoritative monolingual English dictionaries before you can make a proper choice of word, and dictionaries of English usage and collocations are always helpful to ensure idiomatic use of English; to clarify a classical allusion, or to transmit a cultural, technical, or professional point, you will have to get an encyclopedia and specialized reference books ready at hand, and the more, the better. (勤查各类辞书),
6. Don’t attempt to compensate for inadequacies in translation by making too much use of explanatory notes, or your translation will be hardly readable. Notes are a necessary evil, and the fewer, the better. (尽量少加注释),
7. Don’t hastily rule out the possibility of translating a Chinese sentence by following basically the LEFT-RIGHT sequence of message / ideas as indicated by the order of sense units. This can hardly be called “literal translation”, for, strictly speaking, “literal translation” means giving a single word in place of each original word, i.e. word-for-word translation. (能顺序译则顺序译), and
8. Don’t try to get around a difficult point always by resorting to free translation, which should be employed sparingly, and used just right for the context both linguistically and culturally. (意译须用得恰到好处).

Procedures and methods
1. Read carefully and understand adequately the Chinese text
1) Examine the use of the punctuation marks, and see to it that the sentences are properly bounded;
2) Straighten out and rearrange in your mind ungrammatical structures which are highly possible in the writings of average Chinese writers or draftsmen of speeches.
3) Try to put proper interpretations, in the light of the context, upon confusing concepts, ambiguous expressions, and incoherent ideas, as often occur in a Chinese text.
4) Consider carefully and decide how to handle those hollow and superfluous words, hackneyed and stereotyped expressions, and official and political jargons, which are characteristic of the style of modern Chinese writings and especially of official documents and formal speeches. This poses a real challenge to any translator or interpreter. Retain those that may prove to be of political consequence, just to be on the safe side.
5) Analyze long sentences, and consider the necessity and possibility of breaking up a long sentence into shorter ones, necessity being the principal factor. Do not break up longer sentences at every turn for the convenience of translation, for such practices will eventually defeat the purpose of translation as an academic, artistic or professional pursuit.
6) Leave shorter sentences alone, for an attempt to combine shorter sentences into a longer one may result in an inadequate translation.
2. Resolve the Chinese sentence into semantic units through analyzing the sentence structure:
1) Distinguish the primary message from the secondary message(s).
2) Find out the logical relationships between the semantic units, especially of the secondary massage(s) to the primary message.
3. Select an appropriate English sentence structure according to the primary-to-secondary relationship and the logical relationships between the semantic units:
1) Consider which sentence structure to use: a simple sentence structure or a multiple sentence structure;
2) Consider the necessity of using the anticipatory it and/or the introductory there;
3) Place the primary message in the main clause of a complex sentence / S-P structure of a simple sentence;
4) Place the secondary message(s) in a subordinate clause(s) or phrase(s);
5) Choose expressive means for the secondary message(s) either as a premodifier(s) or postmodifier(s):
(1) Noun phrase as appositive, adverbial, or complement
(2) Prepositional phrase as attribute, adverbial, or complement
(3) Adjective phrase as attribute, adverbial, or complement
(4) Participial phrase as attribute, adverbial, complement, or coordinate element
(5) Adverbial clause
(6) Relative clause:
As attribute
As adverbial (denoting cause or reason, condition, concession or contrast, purpose, or result, etc.)
As connective element
As coordinate element
(7) that/whether appositional clause to postmodify a nominal subject or object
4. Decide the subject-predicate order of the English sentence:
1) Normal subject-predicate order
2) Inverted subject-predicate order or passive voice out of consideration for
(1) Coherence and cohesion; the use or non-use of cohesive indicators
(2) Stylistic effect of balance, contrast, emphasis, etc.
3) Partial or full inversion for cohesion, coherence, or a certain stylistic effect.
5. Decide the positions of the minor elements of the English sentence / clause:
1) Front-position, or left-branching
2) Mid-position, or mid-branching
3) End-position, or right-branching
6. Read aloud your English sentence / text at least three times to test its effect on yourself.
7. Proof-read carefully your English translation, or, better still, get someone else you think more careful than yourself to do the proof-reading before you finalize the text.

Techniques and conventions
1. Diction
1) Interpret and determine the true meaning of every word and expression in the original text:
(1) Complete a meaning: amplification
(2) Clarify a meaning: supplementation
(3) Ascertain a meaning: denotation or connotation
(4) Integrate two or more meanings into one: reduction or de-redundancy
(5) Separate one meaning into two or more: idiomaticalness
2) Collocation [See also Ch. XIII: 3. 1) (2) a. Collocation.]
A. Noun-centred:
Common nouns used
(1) With verbs transitive or intransitive
(2) With prepositions
(3) With adjectival premodifiers
(4) With postmodifiers
(5) With a to-infinitive
(6) With an appositional that-clause
Proper nouns / names used
(1) With the definite article
(2) With no article
B. Verb-centred:
Notional verbs used
(1) With adverbs
(2) With prepositions
(3) With clauses
Link verbs / half link verbs used
(1) With noun phrases
(2) With adjective phrases
(3) With prepositional phrases
C. Adjective-centred:
Adjectives used
(1) With adverbials
(1) With prepositions
(2) With a to-infinitive
(3) With a that-clause
3) Avoid repetition
(1) Change of appellations
(2) Use of synonyms
4) Supply the subject(s)
5) Negative treatment
2. Translation or transliteration of proper names / nouns
1) Literal translation (e.g. 黄河—the Yellow River)
2) Free and established translation (e.g. 颐和园—the Summer Palace.)
3) Established transliteration (e.g. 孙中山/孙逸仙/孙
文—(Dr.) Sun Yat-sen, 宋庆龄—Soong Ching Ling)
4) Standard transliteration: the use of Chinese pinyin (e.g. 毛泽东—Mao Zedong, 山西—Shanxi, 陕西—Shaanxi, 济南—Ji’nan, 西安—Xi’an)
5) Transliteration+literal translation (e.g. 少林寺—the
Shaolin Monastery, 天安门广场—Tian’anmen Square)
6) The habitual use or non-use of the definite article the (e.g. 山东省—the Province of Shandong, BUT Shandong Province. See also examples above.)
7) The use of dates in parentheses about a historical figure, a famous person, an important event, the title of a reigning period, or the title of a reigning dynasty.
3. Translation of minor sentences
1) Block language for signs, titles, etc.
2) Phrases for captions to pictures
4. Translation of stylistic-rhetorical features of major sentences [Also refer back to Ch. XII. Sentence Rhetoric: 5.]
A. Through syntactic schemes
From a rhetorical perspective, a Chinese sentence, simple or multiple, may be translated, according to its structural features and by following either the LEFT-RIGHT or RIGHT-LEFT or a re-arranged sequence of the original sense units, into a corresponding
1) LOOSE English sentence with RIGHT-BRANCHING as adverbial, attributive or appositional postmodification that extends from the nuclear word or sense unit of the sentence to the end of the sentence
2) PERIODIC English sentence with LEFT-BRANCHING mostly as adverbial or sometimes appositional premodification that delays the subject, and/or with MID-BRANCHING, also known as NESTLING, as parenthetical adverbial, attributive or appositional modification that delays the predicate, object or final element.
3) LOOSE-PERIODIC English sentence often long and involved with MULTI-BRANCHING: LOOSE in structure and PERIODIC in meaning
4) English sentence with two or more PARALLEL structures of the same grammatical form and function
5) English sentence with two BALANCED clauses similar in structure but contrasted in meaning
6) English sentence with inverted word / element order: partial or full INVERSION, typically, the use of the introductory there
7) EMPHATIC English sentence, typically, cleft sentence introduced by it
8) ELLIPTICAL English sentence, typically, conditional omission of the subject together with the related finite form of be from an adverbial clause
B. Through other rhetorical devices
1) Almost impossible of translation are such phonological schemes, i.e. schemes of sound, as ALLITERATION, which rarely occurs in a Chinese discourse, and HOMOPHONE also known as HOMOPHONIC PUN, which occasionally occurs in a Chinese discourse. As for RHYME, which is also a commonly employed phonological scheme in either familiar or elegant style of a Chinese text, it is very difficult if not impossible for translators to render it to a nicety, with, perhaps, Prof. Xu Yuanchong [许渊冲], a prominent translator of ancient Chinese poetry, as the only exception, who is generally believed to be a master manipulator of RHYME with surprising facility, to the admiration of readers ranging from college students to the top-grade scholar Qian Zhongshu [钱钟书].
2) Lexical schemes and tropes such as PAREGMENON (or ROOT REPETITION), PUN, etc. are very difficult if not impossible of translation.
3) Rhetorical devices such as ASYNDETON, REPETITION of all types, NEOLOGISM, UNDERSTATEMENT, UNEXPECTED COLLOCATION, etc. must necessarily find expression in the English translation.
4) PARODY and PASTICHE should preferably be realized in the English translation, but it all depends on the translator’s bilingual proficiency, social and academic experience, cultural competence, and, above all, sense of humour.
5) The remaining traditionally recognized figures of speech treated in Ch. XII, mostly tropes, can easily materialize in an English translation if the translator is linguistically proficient enough and intellectually sensitive enough to manage between the two languages.