the meaning of a word lies in its usage in the language. In actual translation, what puzzles us is how to find the corresponding meaning in the target language. Take "Tension
is building up" as an example. Without context, "tension" and "build
up" have different interpretations. Therefore, this sentence can at least be translated into the following different Chinese: 1. The situation is tense; 2. Tension is increasing; 3. The voltage is increasing. Lexical equivalence between English and Chinese includes five corresponding situations: word equivalence, multi-word synonym, polysemy, word meaning interweaving and non-equivalent words, among which the complete equivalence of words is mainly proper names and technical words. Although no two words have exactly the same meaning between two languages, languages can use different forms to express the same meaning. For example, the phonemic and spelling differences between "Chinese people * * and China" and "the
people's Republic of China."
are obvious, but they point to the same thing. In addition, sometimes some historical and accidental similarities between languages can lead to misunderstandings. For example, demand in English and Demand in French have the same etymology, but their meanings are quite different. During World War II, the League of Nations made a mistake in a news release. French demander means "ask" or "ask
for", but the translator regards it as English demand, so many Americans mistakenly reject the most basic promise demanded by the French. Similarly, even if Japanese borrows a lot of Chinese characters, it doesn't mean that they represent the same meaning.
the Chinese meaning of "toilet paper" is toilet paper. Japanese stands for "stationery". Therefore, it is impossible to find the exact equivalent words in two languages.
Two syntactic equivalence
There is no doubt that syntactic equivalence is more complicated than lexical equivalence. In English-Chinese translation, one of the most obvious problems involves the categories of singular and plural. Chinese often uses the plural without obvious language signs, but in English, the plural is vividly reflected. In addition, grammatical markers such as sex and number will also involve the consistency of tenses in translation. Therefore, the translator should not only know whether there is such a structure in the target language, but also understand the frequency of its use. Sometimes, lexical differences will also bring translation obstacles to syntactic equivalence. For example, there are no relative pronouns in Chinese, which means that the order and combination of attributive clauses need to be considered in English-Chinese translation. What makes the reorganization of syntactic structure more complicated in the process of translation is that the Chinese attribute comes before the sentence, not after it. This is why Chinese sentences are obviously shorter than English sentences.
Three-text equivalence
Text equivalence is also called text equivalence. Discourse is a unit of language use. Therefore, in discourse analysis, we should not only analyze the language itself, but also look at how the language embodies its meaning and function in a specific context. Discourse equivalence includes three levels: contextual context, situational context and cultural context. Context: Context analysis of language is mainly based on confirming semantic components, using pragmatic presupposition reasoning in the translation process, and judging the meaning of words or semantic units in the original text on the basis of analyzing the language context, so as to determine the translation transformation of semantics. For example, he drinks his sanhua and I drink my tea. Life needs a realm: self-stability. In the face of others' success and glory, I drink my tea. I understand that the applause belongs to me, so I hurried there. There will be no success waiting for you, so I'd better create another achievement myself. I can only touch the tail of success with others forever. The translation of "green tea"
here is very laborious. Nowadays, people are impetuous, but the original text uses "drinking green tea"
as a metaphor for the nobleness of intellectuals, and keeps their inner stability in the noise of chasing fame and profit around them. China's tea culture has a long history, which is very different from tea in English. "green tea" is translated into "green
tea" and "tea served without
refresh" in the Chinese-English Dictionary (revised edition), but it is not applicable here. "Drinking green tea" means drinking tea, but the taste is the mentality of intellectuals who are willing to be poor. Clear, simple also. Green tea, plain tea: "drinking green tea"
means "being content with plain tea". "Flower wine" refers to a banquet attended by a singer. The translation provided by Chinese-English Dictionary (revised edition) is "a diner party
with singing girls in
attention", which is not suitable here either. "drinking sanhua" actually refers to the pursuit of fame, arrogance, debauchery and debauchery in the communication field, which can be translated as "winning and
dining" in combination with the context. Throughout the context, "he drinks his sanhua and I drink my tea. Life needs a realm: self-stability." Translated as "human life, it seems needs a
placidity of mind. While others may be winning and dining, I'm content with plain
tea." In the following, "I drink my green tea" actually means that in the face of others' success, I still stick to the principle, live in poverty and pursue a simple pleasure. "I drink my tea" can no longer be translated as "I'm content
with plain tea", but as "I'm 11 in my simple
please". A cup of "green tea" has different translations in different contexts, and even in the same context, its semantics have changed, which shows the restrictive effect of context on translation. Situational context: Situational context refers to specific people and things involved in communication. Communication channels, as well as the mutual relationship and psychological feelings among participants. When people communicate, the exact meaning of some language phenomena can't be understood through the context, so we must refer to the events, participants and communication methods when using the language to determine its meaning. Therefore, "my sister is my great benefactor, which makes my former name clean." If my sister doesn't go with the slave, the slave is willing to stay here. I want to be a sister. Serve my sister to comb her hair and wash her face every day. I just want my sister to put in a good word for me in front of Mr. Zhong, so that I can have a place to live, and I am willing to die. " The example in A Dream of Red Mansions tells the story of Wang Xifeng cheating Second Sister You into the Grand View Garden. In order to cheat You's trust, Wang Xifeng, who has always been pungent, suddenly became gentle and sincere, full of sweet words and sweet words, and tried her best to please and flatter. Translator David
Hawkes has an insight into the changes of characters' personalities, grasps the role of situational context, reproduces the different faces of characters in different scenes, and faithfully conveys the meaning of the original text. Cultural context: Cultural context refers to the social and cultural background, historical and cultural traditions and social psychology of language use. Due to the different historical development process, geographical location and social development stage of each ethnic group in the same period, there are great differences in their values, customs and religious beliefs. Translation is a cross-cultural language communication. The content of translation is not only the transcoding of language symbols, but also the culture carried by language symbols. Therefore, translation is inextricably linked with culture. The diversity of activities and ideas of different countries, ethnic groups and different language societies leads to the diversity of their cultural contents and forms, which are the sources of cultural differences and the main factors that cause translation obstacles. Problems such as lexical gaps, cultural misunderstandings and even cultural conflicts are often encountered in translation, which are difficult to be solved by translation skills, so translators must have a deep understanding of the source language and the target language culture. Nida once said: "For truly successful translation, it is even more important to be familiar with two cultures than to master two languages, because words only have meaning in the cultural background in which they function." Look at the following example: I
was not Pygmalion; 1 was Frankenstein.
The translation difficulty here is the cultural context involved by Pygmalion and Frankenstein. Pygmalion is the king of Cyprus in Greek mythology. He carved a beautiful female image and fell in love with her involuntarily. His love came from the heart and was so loyal that even Aphrodite, the god of love, was moved by it, and she gave life to the female image, and they finally got married. Frankenstein is the hero in the novel Frankenstein by the English writer Mary
W. Shelley. He is a young medical researcher who created a monster but was eventually destroyed by it. It can be seen that Pygmalion refers to "creating beauty and enjoying beauty", while Frankenstein refers to "self-inflicted, self-inflicted".
equivalence of four styles
Different styles of translated works have their own unique linguistic features. Only by mastering the characteristics of the source language and the target language at the same time, and skillfully using both languages, can the translator create a translation that truly reflects the style of the source language. Different language styles of works mean different cultural factors. For example, the scientific genre carries fewer cultural factors, so it is far more important to accurately and truthfully transform the information content of the source language into the target language than to transform the two languages and cultures. On the contrary, in literary works, culture becomes one of the important factors to be considered in translation. If cultural factors are ignored, the translation will become a shell with no blood and no meat, just a pile of words and sentences. Therefore, excellent translators should fully consider how to deal with cultural differences in different genres of works in literary translation practice. Taking poetry as an example, poetry is a literary genre with the most cultural factors, which fully demonstrates its own cultural characteristics in both form and content. For example, English sonnets and Chinese seven-meter poems both embody their own strong cultural characteristics. In translation practice, we should not only accurately reproduce the connotation, style and the original author's thoughts, but also translate the cultural characteristics of the poem. Many translation techniques can be used to solve the cultural differences in translation, so that the target readers can fully understand the cultural style of the source language. For example, in Li Bai's Thoughts on a Quiet Night, in order to conform to the hypotaxis of English, the translator added the subject "I", the related word "if" and the predicate verb "see" according to the language model of English "subject-predicate-object" < P > structure. The translator adopts the method of interpretation to translate the poem into: "Abed, I see a silver light;
I wonder if it’s frost aground. Looking up, I find the moon bright; Bowing, in
home sickness I’m drowned. “； The first part of Xu Yuanchong's translation, "leaves are dropping down like the spray of a waterfall, while I watch the long river always rolling on" is translated as "The Boundless Forest
Sheds its leaves shower by shower, The endless river rolls its waves after
hour. "The cursive prefix is translated by repeating sh (sheds, shower), and" Three Water Points "is translated by repeating r (river,
rolls). It makes our classic poems rhyme neatly, the realm is all out, and the sound and meaning are both unique.