英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文Translating The Interpreters’ Resource Mistranslations and Solutions

1、 translating the interpreters resource: mistranslations and solutionsbyzhai chenchena thesissubmitted to the school of translation studiesof xian international studies universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree ofbachelor of arts in translationxian, chinamay 16, 2011class: 20

2、07-2 student no. 0723010227advisor: li xiangdong西安外國語大學畢業(yè)論文開題報告姓名性別女班級2007-2學號07畢業(yè)論文題目：translating the interpreters resource: mistranslations and solutions任務(wù)起止日期: 2011 年3 月10 日 至 2010 年 5 月16 日畢業(yè)論文主要內(nèi)容及參考文獻：本文是基于口譯員的資源的漢譯實踐而撰寫的一篇翻譯實踐論文。原文第六章節(jié)介紹了歐盟機構(gòu)組織語言政策、譯員招募程序、譯員雇用人數(shù)及其下屬的各實體機構(gòu)相關(guān)情況。本文重點探討作者在第六章節(jié)的翻譯

3、過程中產(chǎn)生的誤譯現(xiàn)象并提出改進建議，闡述功能理論對說明文本翻譯的指導作用；運用準確、忠實的翻譯原則對誤譯進行分析評述，希望對類似英漢翻譯方向的說明類文本具有參考價值和一定的借鑒。referenceschen xiying. (1929). on translation. amsterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company.douglas, r. (2005). western translation theory from herodotus to nietzsche. beijing: foreign language tea

4、ching and reseach press.jeremy, m. (2001). introducing translation studies theories and application. london: rout ledge.mary, s. h. (2006). the turns of translation studies. amsterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company.michael, c. (2003). translation and globalization. london: rout led

5、ge. retrieved on 25th, april, 2011 from newmark, p. (2001). approaches to translation. shanghai: shanghai foreign language education press.譚載喜. (2009) . 西方翻譯簡史（增訂版）. 北京: 商務(wù)印書館.邵志洪.（2005）. 漢英對比翻譯理論. 上海: 華東理工大學出版社.蕭立明.（2002）. 英漢比較研究與翻譯. 上海: 上海外語教育出版社.陳安定.（1998）. 英漢比較與翻譯. 北京: 中國對外翻譯出版公司.辜正昆.（2003）. 中西詩

6、比較鑒賞與翻譯理論. 北京: 清華大學出版社.指導教師 (簽名) 年 月 日this thesis, by zhai chenchen(), with lecturer li xiangdong（）as the academic advisor, is accepted in the present form by the school of translation studies, xian international studies university as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of bachelor of

7、arts in translation. _li xiandong（） academic advisor_ chair of the defense committee_ _date li ruilin） dean school of translation studies知識產(chǎn)權(quán)聲明秉承學院嚴謹?shù)膶W風和優(yōu)良的學術(shù)道德，我聲明所呈交的論文是我本人基于翻譯實踐并在導師指導下進行的研究工作所取得的成果。盡我所知，除了文中特別加以標注外，論文中不包含其他人已經(jīng)發(fā)表或撰寫的研究成果，不包含本人或他人已申請學位或其他用途使用過的成果。他人對本研究所做的任何貢獻均已在論文中作了明確的說明。申請學位論文與資

8、料若有不實之處，本人承擔一切相關(guān)責任。作者簽名：日 期： 年 月 日摘 要本文重點探討作者在第六章節(jié)的翻譯過程中產(chǎn)生的誤譯現(xiàn)象并提出改進建議，闡述功能理論對說明文本翻譯的指導作用；作者將運用準確、忠實的翻譯原則對誤譯現(xiàn)象進行分析評述，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 process of e- c translation practice. it

9、 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 translation of informative text; mistr

10、anslation; 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 between china and the rest of the world

11、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-hand materials on international tr

12、anslation 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 is a practical guide in describing

13、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 interpreters is included. the author mai

14、nly 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 the international community and the

15、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 is desperately required.in the proc

16、ess 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 dealing with the problems of mistransla

17、tion, 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 insight for translators in the future.

18、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-culturally oriented concept of translat

19、ion, 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-generation scholars. skopos theory stres

20、ses 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 interaction is determined by (or

21、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: translate/interpret/speak/write in a w

22、ay 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 adapted to target-culture behavior o

23、r 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 text with their culture-specific wo

24、rld-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).also, the theory calls for redef

25、ining 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 the tt fulfills its intended skopos

26、 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 translator to the original text. beekman

27、 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 beekman and callow (1989: 34), “only

28、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) believes that in every translation,

29、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 of the st, or in the process of co

30、nveying 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 accuracy of translation can be done in th

31、is 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/he could achieve an acceptable accu

32、racy 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 other, both linguistically and cu

33、lturally. 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 are formed mainly through amalgam

34、ation. 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 written language may contain some spoke

35、n-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 rarely happens between two langua

36、ges, 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 errors are caused by “an inadequa

37、te 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 distinguish “elementary” translat

38、ion 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 analysis the phenomenon of mistransla

39、tion 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 improper use of words or phrasesexample

40、 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. a careful translator may find th

41、at 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 special case in that they do not hav

42、e 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 phrase “be interested in” in the sl tex

43、t 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 no considering the chinese langua

44、ge 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 train of thoughts of lt readers would

45、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 also readable. but a comparison wi

46、th 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 objective tone with minor changes to co

47、mply 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 to choose the right word in any ca

48、se 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 substitutions while interpreters hardly hav

49、e 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” in which chinese translators usuall

50、y 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 possible language combinations will mea

51、n that there will probably be far greater reliance on relay.tt a: 實際上,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” and “greater reliance on relay” ar

52、e 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,” conveying a clear information with

53、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 may have to work both in and out of

54、 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，而事實上，譯員對芬蘭語并不十分了解。tt b: 當來自波蘭、匈牙利、羅馬尼亞的歐盟議會代表發(fā)言時，口譯員必須負責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

55、不承擔雙向口譯服務(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. in a-version, the sentence struct

56、ure 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 revised to reorder the sentence t

57、o 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, the translator must be competent in both the source and target language and have extensive background knowledge.firstly, the practice of translation belongs to the lingui