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1、Translating The Interpreters Resource: Mistranslations and Solutions摘 要本文重點(diǎn)探討作者在第六章節(jié)的翻譯過程中產(chǎn)生的誤譯現(xiàn)象并提出改進(jìn)建議，闡述功能理論對說明文本翻譯的指導(dǎo)作用；作者將運(yùn)用準(zhǔn)確、忠實(shí)的翻譯原則對誤譯現(xiàn)象進(jìn)行分析評述，希望對類似英漢翻譯方向的說明類文本提供參考價值和一定的借鑒。關(guān)鍵詞：說明類文本； 誤譯； 功能翻譯理論； 翻譯原則AbstractThis paper focuses on the problems and solutions of mistranslation during the proces

2、s of E- C translation practice. It analyzes the different versions of the text through translation theories, including Skopostheorie and the principles of faithfulness and accuracy. In this respect, this paper is helpful for the quality of the E-C translation of information texts.Key words: E-C tran

3、slation of informative text; mistranslation; Skopostheorie；principle of translation;Translating The Interpreters Resource: Mistranslations and Solutions1. Introduction With the rapid development and arising social status of China in the international community, the dialogues and understanding betwee

4、n China and the rest of the world have been deepened. Spanning a long history, translation activities have played a vital role in bridging the west and the east, promoting the communicating and mutual trust with each other. With regard to this, domestic translators are asked to introduce more first-

5、hand materials on international translation institutions and relevant information. From July 15 to August 10, 2010, the author translated the text of the Interpreters and Institutions of the European Union as translation practice for graduation. The entire source text was edited by Mary Phelan; it i

6、s a practical guide in describing an all-around information for interpreters at present and in the future. The whole history of the interpreting development, the interpreting ethnics, as well as the large amount of background knowledge on the international interpreting institutions recruiting interp

7、reters is included. The author mainly focuses on translating the European Union part (Chapter 6). As the source information is an explanatory text, it is inevitable that specific but complex sentence structures are frequently used. Given the fact that China has been playing an influential part in th

8、e international community and the issues under discussion are related to its national interest of development, accurate translation of such texts has become increasingly crucial for relevant sectors to refer to. As a result, a theory which could have some useful guidance on the translation process i

9、s desperately required.In the process of this translation practice, the translator have found that the Skopostheorie useful, which has provided her a new perspective to view the whole translation process. According to the Skopostheorie theory, translation must achieve equivalence in result. In deali

10、ng with the problems of mistranslation, the principle of accuracy is also provided in the paper.This paper intends to study the application of the Skopostheorie in the translation practice in dealing with the mistranslation phenomenon. The translator hopes that this experience can provide some insig

11、ht for translators in the future. 2Theoretical framework2.1 Skopos theorySkopostheorie is an approach to translation proposed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Reiss & Vermeer. Since it reflects a general shift from linguistic and formal translation theories to a more functionally and socio-cultu

12、rally oriented concept of translation, it has become “a welcome addition to translation studies” (Gentzler 2001: 71). Initially formulated by Reiss in the 1970s, the theory was enunciated by Vermeer in the 1980s, and was further developed in the 1990s by Nord, one of its most important second-genera

13、tion scholars. Skopos theory stresses the interactional, pragmatic aspects of translation, arguing that the shape of TT should above all be determined by the function or “skopos” that it is intended to fulfill in the target context. Reiss & Vermeer formulate this principle into two skopos rules: “an

14、 interaction is determined by (or is a function of) its purpose”, and “the skopos can be said to vary according to the recipient” (Reiss & Vermeer, 1984). Vermeer also mentions that, “Each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The Skopos rule thus reads as follows: tran

15、slate/interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text/translation to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function”(Vermeer, 1989). Consequently, the rule is interpreted as encouraging the version to be ad

16、apted to target-culture behavior or expectations, although the concept does not imply in this way.“In the framework of Skopostheorie, one of the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation is the addressee” (Nord 1997: 12), who is the intended receiver of audience of the target t

17、ext with their culture-specific world-knowledge, their expectations and their communicative needs. Every translation is directed as an intended audience, since to translate means “to produce a text in a target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target circumstances” (Vermeer, 1987

18、).Also, the theory calls for redefining the relationship between ST and TT. Since a publicity text is content-focused rather than form-focused (Reiss, 2000), the translator should transmit the STs conceptual content and does not have to preserve the STs linguistic form or original style insofar as t

19、he TT fulfills its intended skopos or function. That is, the ST-TT relationship is specified by the skopos of the translation.2.2 AccuracyIn the process of translating a text, the message of the original should be preserved in the translation and this shows the fidelity or faithfulness of the transl

20、ator to the original text. Beekman and Callow (1989: 33) believe that a faithful translation is the one “which transfers the meaning and the dynamics of the original text”; and by “transferring the meaning”, they mean that the translation conveys the ST information to the TT reader. According to Bee

21、kman and Callow (1989: 34), “only as the translator correctly understands the message, can he begin to be faithful”, and it is only then that “he can translate clearly & accurately”. In fact, faithfulness and fidelity are two terms which show how much the TT reconstructs the ST.Larson (1984: 485) be

22、lieves that in every translation, accuracy, clearness and naturalness are of the great importance. Regarding the translation accuracy, she believes that in some cases, when the translator tries to get the meaning of the ST and convey it to the TT, s/he may make some mistakes, either in the analysis

23、of the ST, or in the process of conveying the meaning, and a different meaning may result; then, there is a need for a careful check regarding the accuracy of the translation. According to Khomeijani Farahani (2005: 77-78), based on what Larson proposed in 1984, the process of evaluating the accurac

24、y of translation can be done in this way, which is recognizing the key words of the ST and their equivalences in the TT and comparing how close they are; i.e. determining whether the translator could convey the same and exact meaning of the ST by selecting the best target equivalents and whether s/h

25、e could achieve an acceptable accuracy or not.Consequently, the term translation accuracy refers to the translators understanding of the message of the ST and that how accurately the translator has managed to translate a text from one language into another.English and Chinese are different from each

26、 other, both linguistically and culturally. English is an inflectional language, and the words are naturally formed through affixation. Accuracy and effectiveness at the lexical and phrasal level rely much on morphology. In contrast, the Chinese language is a completely analytical language and words

27、 are formed mainly through amalgamation. Accuracy and effectiveness rely both on word and formation and word meaning. That difference is obvious in dealing with abstract ideas. English language is an Indo European language that is partially inflectional and highly word-order dependent. English writt

28、en language may contain some spoken-like chunks, but this depends on the register and genre type. An English sentence is built in the shape of a tree while a Chinese one is formed in the shape of bamboo joints. English is subject prominent, while Chinese is topic prominent. Thus, perfect equivalence

29、 rarely happens between two languages, especially when they belong to two different language families like English and Chinese.Mistranslation is referred to the distortion of the original text or does not pertain to the meaning of the original work. In the translation process, Linguistic translation

30、 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. Since errors of this category are legion in English translations of Chinese publicity texts, it might be useful to

31、 distinguish “elementary” translation errors from “higher-level” ones. 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. Therefore, this paper is to ana

32、lysis the phenomenon of mistranslation in three aspects on linguistics, text analysis and the principle of being accuracy.3. Mistranslations and coping strategiesThe following instance suffices to show what “elementary” errors are and how rampant they are:3.1 Linguistic translation errors3.1.1 Impro

33、per use of words or phrasesExample 1ST: The following table lists the countries that have applied to join:TT A: 以下是每年申請加入歐盟的國家。TT B: 下表是已經(jīng)申請加入歐盟的國家。Here A version is acceptable in Chinese for it is comprehensible and easily understood while actually it is a wrong translating expressionmistranslation

34、. A careful translator may find that the key point is the tense (present perfect). Obviously, the translator overlooks the sentence that indicates the time “have applied to”, thus, considering this, B-version is a right choice for succinct and concisely. Example 2 ST: Freelance interpreters are a sp

35、ecial case in that they do not have to be EU nationals and SCIC may be interested in any languages worldwide, not just the official EU languages.TT A: 自由口譯員屬于特殊情況，他們不一定需要具備歐盟成員國國籍，歐盟委員會口譯司不限于歐盟官方語言，他們可能會對世界任何一種語言表示興趣。TT B: 自由口譯員屬于特殊情況，他們不一定需要具備歐盟成員國國籍，歐盟委員會口譯司不限于歐盟官方語言，他們需要任何一種語言的口譯服務(wù)。The verb phras

36、e “be interested in” in the SL text reflects the distinctive expression and thinking pattern of the west in which it shows a positive attitude or feeling towards something, but, in the process of translating this part, the translator found that the literal meaning in the context can not be used with

37、 no considering the Chinese language culture in expressions as well as the situation of the context. “Be interested in” simply suggests the indication and the fact that all languages in the world are welcomed by SCIC. Suppose the phrase were rendered as “歐盟委員會口譯司對任何一種語言表示興趣” In the context, the trai

38、n of thoughts of LT readers would gaze at the awkward unnatural Chinese characters“表示興趣,” feel disappointed for the translation does not meeting that set of requirements, failing to keep on reading the words below. This faithfully follows the structure and expression of the SL, and the rendering is

39、also readable. But a comparison with the latter one reveals its mediocrity. In B-version, forms are cast away with less questionable expression, “需要” more concisely express the intended meaning. Therefore, the translator abandons the surface meaning and illustrates its plain one, conveying the objec

40、tive tone with minor changes to comply with the initial meaning. Therefore, choose the right word is strongly suggested in the cases. At the level of words, problems can only be solved if the translator works hard to cumulate both his English and Chinese competency to a level that he or she is able

41、to choose the right word in any case to produce a natural and right translation. 3.1.2 Incomprehensible expression The rendering of written texts from one language into another requires high accuracy and smoothness. Translation tasks allow considerable time for translators to find the best substitut

42、ions while interpreters hardly have time to consider the wording and structure carefully. Incomprehensible expressions of the context could easily result in inaccuracy. Inaccuracy in translation, therefore, needs to be studied more cautiously than those in interpreting. There are potential “traps” i

43、n which Chinese translators usually find themselves caught. They are the relative clauses, time adverbials; etc. This paper would concentrate on the main types of mistakes concerning the incomprehensible expressions that lead to inaccuracy at sentence level. Example 3SL: In practical terms the possi

44、ble language combinations will mean that there will probably be far greater reliance on relay.TT A: 實(shí)際上,可能出現(xiàn)的語言組合將意味著下屆譯員需有更高的語言素質(zhì)。TT B: 從實(shí)際情況看,眾多的口譯語言組合意味著翻譯服務(wù)將大大依賴接力口譯。The SL is brief enough with one sentence, but it is not easy to be completely understood, for the phrases “l(fā)anguage combinations”

45、and “greater reliance on relay” are difficult to define. Based on the dictionary, the terms are rendered as “語言組合” and “依賴接力” respectively, which, obviously, do not compatible with the context. Compared with the A, the B-version sets a good example, specifically, “relay” is translated into “接力口譯,” c

46、onveying a clear information with professional terms that are easily understood by the reader, avoiding the possibility problems of misunderstanding and obscurity. Example 4SL: Clearly there will be problems when Members of the European Parliament from Poland, Hungary or Romania speak interpreters m

47、ay have to work both in and out of their mother tongue as happened in the Finnish booth when there were problems finding interpreters with Finnish.TT A: 來自波蘭、匈牙利或羅馬尼亞的歐洲議會在演講環(huán)節(jié)時很明顯會出現(xiàn)一些問題-如發(fā)生在芬蘭語同傳箱內(nèi)，口譯員可能需要同時譯入譯出他們的母語，而事實(shí)上，譯員對芬蘭語并不十分了解。TT B: 當(dāng)來自波蘭、匈牙利、羅馬尼亞的歐盟議會代表發(fā)言時，口譯員必須負(fù)責(zé)母語譯入外語與外語譯入母語的雙向口譯服務(wù)，這與提供

48、芬蘭語口譯服務(wù)的譯員十分相似，在沒有找到合適譯員的情況下，他們也不得不承擔(dān)雙向口譯服務(wù)的任務(wù)。The SL sentence is a bit of long, presenting too much information for the reader to swallows immediately. Fortunately, the connotative meaning between the sentences and the use of hyphen perfectly run through the paragraph, making it clear and coherent.

49、 In A-version, the sentence structure remains largely unchanged based on the original description, and the hyphen is retained, but it is precisely to achieve accuracy and correctness that clutter the sentence with obscuring the meaning. To avoid ambiguity and confusion, in B-version, the sentence is

50、 revised to reorder the sentence to make a contrast between two stances first and then show the result, this clearly shows the meaning, also is suitable to the Chinese way thinking.A translation of high quality must be the work of a skillful translator. To be able to produce excellent translation, t

51、he translator must be competent in both the source and target language and have extensive background knowledge.Firstly, the practice of translation belongs to the linguistic realm. Thus, the primary reason of a poor translation must be the insufficiency of the translators language competence. The in

52、competence may be of Chinese, the foreign language of English Chinese translation, and/ or of English, the source language. It is suggested that before being a translator, one must be a good writer. It is to say that he is capable of using his mother tongue effectively to express the idea, incompreh

53、ensible expressions, inaccurate translation, hence, is most of the time direct consequence of a poor or insufficient target language competence. Language incompetence can be observed in two broad areas: the vocabulary and the grammatical structures, particularly, the Chinese learning process is rela

54、tive long filled with hardships; insufficient knowledge on either side of the professional areas may lead to translations of poor quality as well. Also, a translator needs to flexibly compare and contrast, be aware of the differences between the two languages so that he can easily find an equivalent

55、 whenever necessary or at least know how to make himself/herself understood when encountering some difficulties. It is crucial for a translator to fully understand all the denotations and connotations of a word so that he or she can avoid making any loss of connotational meanings as in examples abov

56、e. To do that, it is asked to be flexible in the use of words for a translator and does not translate mechanically according to an English Chinese dictionary; this also belongs to the skills and competence of language. The art of translation requires a lot, the basic one is the proficiency in langua

57、ges. 3.2. Text-specific mistranslation In terms of effect, a translator, like an imitated painting, should seek after resemblance in sprit rather than in form (Fu Lei, preface to the retranslation of Le Pere Goriot, 1951.) Changes in meaning owing to context and positioning are of the utmost importa

58、nce in literature, in referring to this; the practical translation also demands the translator to consider the specific context and situation as well. “Contextual meaning” is something not always obtainable from dictionaries, but from careful consideration of the immediate textual context. Indiffere

59、nce to the context situation will thus lead to the mistranslation of the whole text for a translator; one who lacks training in translating and reads carelessly will have difficulty in understanding this kind of explanatory text meaning thoroughly, or contribute to mistranslation in the end. “My tra

60、nslation attempts to present its profound thought. It does not follow the exact order of words and sentences of the original text but reorganizes and elaborates. However, it does not deviate from the original ideas. It is more an exposition than a translation as it seeks to elaboratea unorthdox way

61、of transmission. ” (Yan Fu, 1898)Due to the translators poor awareness of the TTs skopos and its target readers, Text-specific mistranslation are seen everywhere. Besides, text-specific translation errors arise from text-specific translation problems and can usually be evaluated from a functional or

62、 pragmatic perspective (Nord, 1997: 76). As discussed above, a publicity text differs from the other text types because its function is primarily informative. Therefore, the intended informative function should be achieved and given priority over the other functions in the translation. Otherwise, it

63、 will not be evaluated as a good translation for not being functional or adequate to the purpose (Nord, 1997: 73), hence a text-specific translation error. Moreover, another reason behind is the lack of academic preparation. Although necessary background knowledge is learned, the little bit of every

64、thing that the translator knows is of little use when it comes to practical application. Since this translation work is written about the various international interpreting organizations, it is naturally related to politics, economics, geography, and history. Certain difficulties may be overcome thr

65、ough research on the internet, library, but due to regional and cultural and language differences, the translator may not be able to make the reader understand what one has understood oneself. Example 5SL: Gross National Product each country makes a contribution in proportion to its GNP. This is subject to a cap in 1999 the ceiling was 1.27% of total Community GNP.TT A: 國民生產(chǎn)總值每個國家致力于發(fā)展本國經(jīng)濟(jì)。這是一個上限問題1999年最高限度達(dá)到整個共同體國民生產(chǎn)總值的1.27%。TT B: 國民生產(chǎn)總值：各國根據(jù)國民生產(chǎn)總值多少繳納數(shù)量不等的資金，資金數(shù)額不超過規(guī)定上限額,1999年，上限額為國民生產(chǎn)總值的1.27%。The SL is an example to show the features of the English varieties. The hyphens here a