The Role of Translator in Translation

1、譯者在翻譯中的角色the role of translator in translationcontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.2ii. views on translation from different aspects.21. definitions of translation.22. theories on translation.33. my views differ from mentioned above.4iii. the roles of translator in translation.41. what is tra

2、nslator.42. the roles of translator.51) translator as mediator.52) translator serves as artist.63. summary .8iv. how to play the role of subjectivity.81. required knowledge .81) syntactic knowledge.92) semantic knowledge.93) pragmatic knowledge.92. required skills .91) problem-solving and text-proce

3、ssing.102) synthesis: writing.103) analysis: reading .10v. conclusion.11references.11the role of translator in translationabstract: the paper, through analyzing the role played by the translators, is set to present translators act (like a media) in the respect of the translators subjectivity. the tr

4、anslators role of negotiation bridges over the gap between the producer of the source-language text and the receiver of the target-language text in the translating process, and also will explain the significance of translator in this cultural and commercial world. to fulfill this work, i will employ

5、 definitions of translation made by renowned linguists at home and abroad, by comparing these definitions and theories, in this way, to analyze translators role or practical function in the process of translating activity, and ultimately achieve the aim of introducing how the translator accurately a

6、nd effectively convey the source-language text to target-language text through illustrating what essential knowledge and skills should be acquired by the translator. so as to decrease barriers in bilingual cultural communication and to promote mutually exact understanding in intercultural exchange o

7、n the international affairs. key words: translator; media; subjectivity; source-language; target-language摘 要: 這篇論文通過分析譯者在翻譯活動所扮演的角色來說明譯者在翻譯過程中以及在跨文化交流中的主體性地位。在圍繞這一中心思想的前提下，分別從譯者所扮演的媒介角色、藝術(shù)家角色、及在原語作者與目標(biāo)語授眾，以及更廣泛意義上的不同文化交流這一動態(tài)過程中起到的橋梁紐帶作用這幾方面進行了闡述，以此強調(diào)譯者的重要性。特別是在當(dāng)今日益頻繁的文化、商業(yè)、科技交流活動中，譯者的地位顯得尤為突出。文章的最后提

8、出譯者應(yīng)該掌握一定的必要知識和技能來完善、提高自身職業(yè)素質(zhì)，讓譯者在這一活動中發(fā)揮更大的作用，減少跨文化交流中的障礙，促進雙方準(zhǔn)確、有效的溝通交流。關(guān)鍵詞: 譯者；媒介；主體性；原語；目標(biāo)語i. introductionnowadays, as communication frequently takes place among human activities, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. traditional customs, values, life-styles from various cultural background

9、s, respectively, shake off restriction of cultural-boundaries, blending with each other on the international stage. the sign of language communication, as i observe, is omnipresent. nevertheless, people come to encounter enormous obstacles when they carry out their business. it is that they are unab

10、le to understand each other accurately. translation, at the same time, as a profession, plays a necessary and valuable part in the human act. essentially speaking, the indispensable role played by translators, which enables them to share a more harmonious view of the world. it has built up bridges o

11、f understanding among different societies. therefore, we hope to have shown that the translator stands at the centre of this dynamic process of communication, as a mediator between the producer of a source text and whoever are its tl receivers. the translator is the first and foremost mediator, mutu

12、al communication between two parties may not be achieved without themand this is true of translator of patents, contracts, verse, or fiction just as much as it is of the simultaneous interpreter. even the most skeptical critics cannot but admit that if it were not for translators, we would be living

13、 in a far less friendly and less interesting environment. meanwhile i hope my premature points of view i am going to present in my paper would help aspiring learners.ii. views on translation from different aspects1. definitions of translation there are varied versions about definition of translation

14、 made by different famous in this field. according to roger t bell, he defined translation as follows: translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.as the provided definit

15、ion of translation, it is easy to see, which focuses on the requirement with the content and style of the original text should be preserved as far as possible in translation text. therefore, taking into account the nature of equivalence is essential in translating activity. moreover, the term transl

16、ation is arguing by debaters has been given two meanings whether translation is the process or product. hence we can suggest that:a).translating: the process(the activity rather than the concrete object;b).a translating: the product of the process of translating;c).translation: which is totally abst

17、ract concept which consists of two partsprocess of the translating and the product of that process;clearly, translation is one ambiguous concept as mentioned above, in my paper, and then we should be selective, relating our view to the central concern of this aspect: translating as a communicative p

18、rocess which takes place within a social context.what is available for scrutiny is the end-product, the result of translation practice rather than the practice itself. bell (1987) suggested that the tendency to ignore the process involved in the act of translating lies behind the relating stagnation

19、 studies in recent years. if we treat text merely as a self-contained and self-generating entity not as a decision-making procedure and an instance of communication between language users, our understanding of the nature of translation will be impaired. the view of that underlies this paper, and reg

20、ards translation as a process, involving the negotiation of meaning between producers and receivers of text.2. theories on translation 1) translation theory of german function school: function school drive from germany claims that translation is an act. its theories focus on three aspects:a) elabora

21、te the nature of translation;b) role-analysis of participants in the translating process; c) advance function translation rules.2) polsystem theory by itamar even-zoher. polysystem refers to the entire work of correlated system-literary and extra literarywithin society. on the basis of tynjanovs the

22、ory even-zohar develops an approach called polysystem theory to attempt to explain the function of all kinds of writing within a given culture-form the central canonical texts to the most marginal non-canonical texts. this is a global term covering all the literal systems, both major and minor, exis

23、ting in a given culture.3) prague school and its translation theories: the main viewpoints of this school are:a) different functions of language must be taken into consideration when translating, such as cognitive function, expressive function and instrumental function;b) translations must attach im

24、portance to the comparison of language, including the comparison of meaning, grammar, pronunciation, language style and literature types and forms.4) london school and its theory: london schools main concept is than meaning of language is decided by the social context of situation. in other words, i

25、n terms of translation studies, whether the words in translated test are the same as the words in source text depends on if they are used in the same social context of situation.3. my views differ from the statements above after skimming over definitions, theories, and perspectives from these renown

26、ed scholars at home and abroad, all of them, apparently, failed to pay attention to the central position of the translator in translating activity. translator, in terms of my premature view of point, sets up bridge over the producer of original text and receiver of target text. for another thing, th

27、e effect generated by the product of translation works on the receivers of target language text varies according to the degree of translators capacity. if translator cannot meet the requirements they should have, misinterpretation or even misunderstanding would happen. hence, from the aspect of tran

28、slator, who must be placed in the central position in the process of translating activity. furthermore, in inter-cultural communication, the translator, is a special communicator different from normal speaker, hearer, and message receiver, and should have the bilingual cultural vision, acting as a l

29、ink in the dynamics cross-cultural communication.iii. the role of translator in translation1. what is translator?basically, all the communicators are translators such as receiverswhether listeners or readers, monolinguals or bilingualsface essentially the same trouble, they receive signals containin

30、g messages encoded in a communication system is not, by definition, identical with their own. in other words, the role of translator is different from the normal communicators. the translator has been defined as a bilingual mediating agent between monolingual communication participants in two differ

31、ent language communities, namely, the translator decodes messages transmitted in one language and re-encodes them in another.there is no difficulty to know that translator as mediator and the role of negotiation bridges over the gap between the producer of source-language text and the receiver of ta

32、rget-language text, marking the bilingual translator off from the monolingual communicator.therefore, translator plays dispensable part in the translating activity, as a leading role in translating process translator has obligation to take great effort to do well in translation work.2. the roles of

33、translator1) translator as mediain the former part, we have demonstrated that translation was regarded as a process in this paper. specifically speaking，the procedure of translating can be presented well if it were considered to be text processing. therefore, translator in text processing is thought

34、 to be a media decoding the original text in one language and then encoding the message transmitted to receiver in another language. as we refer to media, generally, two parties must be mentionedsender and receiver. we can illustrate translator as a media clearly with the following draft: language 1

35、 decode and edittranslator (media) source text target text language 2receiver senderr encodere-editapparently, the above draft contains seven steps which take us from decoding the message in language1 and recoding in language2 transmitted to receiver.(1) translator receives source text containing me

36、ssage;(2) selects language1;(3) decodes and edits source text;(4) comprehends the message;(5) translator selects language2;(6) encodes and re-edits message by means of language2;(7) transmits target text containing message;in universal sense, translation as a profession nowadays bridges the cultural

37、 gap through their translating activities leading to mutual understanding, a unity that relates to two cultures. between two cultures, there exists cultural gap as well as cultural overlap. when the american historian henry brooks adams wrote,”words are slippery,” he must have been referring to the

38、fact that language translation is difficult and subject to countless misinterpretations. translation frequently produces misunderstanding or incomprehension because of cultural orientations. for instance, the qechua language of peru uses past and future visualizing the past as being in front of or a

39、head of a person because it can be seen, and it visualizes the future as being behind one because it cannot seen. instead, americans speak of the past being behind them and the future being ahead. if this difference in cultural orientation were not known or were ignored, translations about time, the

40、 past, and the future could be incomprehensible. people could be told to look behind them for what they normally expect to find ahead of them. translation must grapple not only with structural differences between languages but also with cultural differences, which requires precision and the ability

41、to convey the speakers or authors approach or attitude. therefore, translator, to a certain extent, functions as the role of negotiation bridges over the gap between inter-cultural communications in human practice within social context.2) translator serves as artistthe artistic feature should be rec

42、reated by the translator in the process of translation. under this circumstance, artistic quality requires that the target language version should illustrate the original version characteristics. by this way, the unique style of the original version revealed. for instance: studies serve for delight,

43、 for ornament, and for ability. their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.it followed three different chinese versions translated by liao yunfan, wang ji and wang zuoliang.the liao yunfa

44、ns sample: 人們獨居或退隱的時候,最能體會到讀書的樂趣;談話的時候,最能表現(xiàn)出讀書的文雅;判斷或處理事物的時候,最能發(fā)揮由讀書而獲得的能力。the wang jis sample: 讀書可以怡情養(yǎng)性,可以摭拾文采,可以增長才干。在幽居獨處時,最能體現(xiàn)其怡情養(yǎng)性的作用;在友朋交談中,最能體現(xiàn)其摭拾文采的作用;在處世論事之際,最能體現(xiàn)其增長才干的作用。the wang zhuoliang version: 讀書足以怡情,足以傅彩,足以長才。其怡情也,最見于獨處幽居之時;其傅彩也,最見于高談闊論之中;其長才也,最見于處世判事之際。compared with the three varied

45、 versions, three different lingua features emerged. however, mr. wang zhuoliangs version mixed with the ancient yet elegant wording as well as cast equal efforts in the form and rhythm well-matched the original sentence structure. the target chinese language selection of his version showed great eff

46、ectiveness and conciseness, by which the essence of chinese language and the target language revealed. therefore, mr. wang zhuoliangs translation as we put it, preserved the primary flavor, and futhermore peppered by translators unparallelled word choosing, showed the smoothness and nature quality o

47、f the original sentence. as such, the target lanuage (chinese) can be fully accepted by chinese readers as well as enriched the chinese language. the foundation was underlied for further interpretion as the deepened understanding of chinese readers towards the english essay. still, the real artistic

48、 features of the original work can only be conserved with painstaking effort in the target language. we can set an example by li bais brooding in the serene night:靜夜思床 前 明 月 光，疑 是 地 上 霜。舉 頭 望 明 月，低 頭 思 故 鄉(xiāng)。translation sample one:i saw the moonlight before my couch,and wondered if it were not the fro

49、st on the ground.i raised my head and looked out on the mountain moon,i bowed my head and thought of my far too off home.translation sample second:a bed, i see a silver light,i wonder if its frost aground.looking up, i find the moon bright;bowing, in homesickness im drowned.translations sample three

50、:moonlight before my bed.could it be frost instead?head up, i watch the moon.head down, i think of home.in the renowned poet li bais view, nostalgia towards ones homeland can perceive from the high-born genteel class as well as the hinterland peasants. therefore, poet focus on the essence of the poe

51、m, through barely common words were utilized, the heart-felt effect achieved with decent pattern. the sample one translated the whole meaning of this poem without missing, while it is cannot be called as a counterpart poem; it can only be dubbed as footing at most. the second draft used the balanced

52、 rhythm with brevity, while the context spoiled by the last extravagant verse. the sample three with rhythm verses shared the feature of the original version. and at the scope of the whole poem, the conciseness and plainness of the original one preserved, by which the uniqueness of wonder out of pla

53、inness obtained. from this example, we can understand that the preservation and recreation of the original works flavor and context can only be achieved by totally appreciating of the original ones and meanwhile master both the original language and the target language without the confinement of the

54、 existed literary genres. 3. summary all in all, we can spot that whatever role the translator acted, he or she must be a medium with soul and thought. as a tool or technique method, the overlapped place is both of them should be neutral, created by man and manipulated by man too. to the contrary, a

55、 translator medium as flesh creature formed his own faith and philosophy in the process of socialization can affected by the mood, for translators knowledge structure, cultural cultivation and behavior orientation is in a dynamic state without static. so in the procedure of dissemination, translator

56、s subjectiveness will be illuminated in the contents he spread and the way he spread to gain the effects he envisioned beforehand.iv. how to play the role of subjectivity of translator in the forgoing part of my paper i have mainly discussed the varied roles the translator plays in translating activ

57、ity and even in the inter-cultural communication. it follows i am going to analyze the knowledge and skills translator must acquire in translation work. 1. required knowledgeinitially, we intend to address the question, “what is it that communicators need to know in order to process texts?” and then go on to address the related question, what do commun