英漢多義詞的翻譯比較

AcomparativestudyofEnglishandChinesepolysemyAbstractBeginningwiththeconceptandcharacteristicsofpolysemy,thispaperexpoundsthedifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinesepolysemy,expoundsthetranslationprincipleofpolysemy,andcomparesEnglishwithChinesepolysemytranslationthroughcomparativeanalysis,soastoeliminatethemisunderstandingthatpeopleoftenappearinpolysemytranslation.ResearchMethods(1)Thegeneralprocessofliteratureresearchmethodincludesfivebasiclinks,namely:Toputforwardsubjectorhypothesis,researchanddesign,collectliterature,collateliteratureandconductliteraturereview.Thesubjectorhypothesisofdocumentlawreferstotheideaofanalyzingandcollatingtherelevantliteraturesaccordingtotheexistingtheories,factsandneeds.Theresearchdesignmustfirstestablishtheresearchgoal,theresearchgoalistousetheoperationaldefinitionway,thetopicortheassumptioncontentdesignstheconcrete,canoperate,mayduplicateliteratureresearchactivity,itcansolvethespecializedquestionandhascertainsignificance.ThispaperinvestigatesthecurrentsituationofChina'smotorvehicleinsurancemarketbymeansofliteratureresearchandanalyzesitsproblems.(2)ThearticleenumeratestherelatedtranslationcomparisonproblemsbyenumeratingthecasesofpolysemytranslationinChineseandEnglish.Keywords:English-Chinesetranslation;polysemy;methodsoftranslating;comparison 目錄TOC\o"1-5"\h\z\u一、Introduction 1（一）Researchbackground 1（二）Researchmeaning 1二、Definitionofpolysemy 2（一）EnglishpolysemyandChinesepolysemy 2（二）Features 3三、Thetranslationprincipleofpolysemy 4四、AcomparativeanalysisofEnglishandChinesepolysemytranslation 6五、CommonpitfallsinPolysemytranslation 7六、Conclusion 11Reference 12Acknowledgements 15一、Introduction（一）ResearchbackgroundAsthenameimplies,therearetwoortwomoremeaningsofwordscalledpolysemy.Polysemyisoftenassociatedwithpolysemy.Thebasicmeaningofpolysemyiscalledtheoriginalmeaning,andothermeaningsaretheescaping,extendingorderivingmeaningsofthemeaning.Themeaningof"da"inChineseisalotofmeanings,whicharederivedfromthe"big"escapeorderivation.Forexample,thewords"big"inthesephraseshavetheirownspecialmeanings:TheGreatSavior,thebuilding,theGeneralAssemblyHalloverhaul,thegeneralelection,thefog,thebigwind,theroad,thebigdisease;Scienceisapolysemy,ithasseveralmeanings--"scientific""research"and"skill":theoriginalMeaningofscience"scientific",naturalscience"naturalScience"=sciencetheoriginalmeaningof"science",socialsciencesextendedmeaning"socialresearch";CookingScience,sportscienceextendedthemeaningof"cookingskills""sportsskills."Polysemyisawordthatismorethanrighteousness,thesamewordhasmanydifferentmeanings,suchasChinese"book"isaPolysemy,"book"in"Books"and"letters"inthemeaningofthe"book"isdifferent;Englishbookisalsoapolysemy,Text-bookbookandNote-bookinbookshavedifferentmeanings.Anotherexample,theChineseword"dozen"isapolysemy,thefollowingwords"dozen"themeaningofthewordisdifferent:Playdocuments,IOU,playBell,drums,lawsuits,dealwith,playsweaters,wells,playlanterns,polish,dozenparcels,gestures,umbrellas,playdrafts.Inaword,themeaningofpolysemydiffersfromthatofitsescaping,extending,derivingorderiving.Inthispaper,thetranslationofEnglishandChinesepolysemyiscomparedtofinditscommontranslationtrap,whichprovidessometheoreticalreferenceforEnglish-Chinesetranslation.（二）ResearchmeaningThetrapofpolysemytranslationisthefullmeaningofpolysemyinanymeaningofpolysemy.Ifscienceisapolysemy,andoneofthemeaningsis"scientific",therefore,peopleareaccustomedtousingthemeaningof"science",whichisnotascientificscience;socialscienceisnot"scientific",andsocialhasbeenmisinterpretedas"socialscience".ThegeneraltermofChineseistheuniquelanguagephenomenonofChinese,thetranslationmethodcanonlybetransliteration,suchas"sheep"isthegeneraltermofgoat,sheep,"sheep"canonlytransliterationforYang(HanyuPinyin),"TheRam"istheyearofPolysemyandgeneraltermtranslationarefullofpitfalls,thispapermainlydiscussesthetranslationproblemsinEnglishandChinesepolysemy,andcomparesthemsoastofindcommontranslationtrapssothatpeoplecanworkbetterintranslation.二、Definitionofpolysemy（一）EnglishpolysemyandChinesepolysemyThemeaningofpolysemycanbeobservedfromtwodimensions:DiachronicdimensionandSynchronicdimension.Fromthediachronicpointofview,awordhasameaningatfirst,weareaccustomedtocallittheoriginalmeaningoftheword.Withthedevelopmentoflanguage,accordingtotheneedsofexpression,awordderivesothermeaningsaccordingtoitsintention.Derivedmeaningisalsocalledescapingorextendingrighteousness.Everymeaningthatawordlaterhasistightlyassociatedwithitspreviousmeaning,whichisderivedfromthepreviousmeaning.Multiplederivativemeaningsexperiencerepeatedchanges,andsomecannotseetheconnectionbetweentheoriginalmeaning.StudyinghowaworddevelopsfromasingleoriginalmeaningtoPolysemyisadiachronicstudyofwordmeaning.Polysemyitselfisarchetypal,andeachofthesensesofpolysemycanbetracedtothesameword(Tianbing,2003),respectively.Thesesensescanbedescribedasanetwork-likestructure,thetwoadjacentsensesinthenetworkareconnectedbythelinguisticeffectsofrepetitioninthelexicalsystem,andthereisacognitiveasymmetryinalloftheseconnections,sincetheunderstandingofeachderivationrequiresthesupportofthemeaningonwhichitderives.FromtheDiachronicdimension,therecanbethreekindsofmacroscopicderivativestructureofwordmeaning:(a)radiationtype:derivedfromthebasicmeaning(originalmeaning)tothesurroundingradiation,andtherelativeindependenceofthederivative;(b)Chaintype:derivedfromthebasicmeaningofthesource,andderivedfromthethirdmeaning,whilethefirstandthirdisrelativelyindependent;Thetwomodesofrecombinationarederivedfromthecrossderivationofthemeaningofreproduction(WangRongpei,1997).Fromthesynchronicpointofview,thereisacertaincorrelationbetweenthemeaningsofpolysemy.Awordoftenhasacentralmeaning,isthemostessentialmeaningoftheword,thereareseveralsecondarymeaningsaroundthiscentralmeaning.Butthemultiplesensesofawordareinterrelated,notdisorganized(FangDingfang,2000).Fromthesynchronicpointofview,intheformationofpolysemy,themeaningofeachwordchangesconstantly,andsomewordsintheprocessoflanguagedevelopmentiseliminated,somemeaningfromtheoriginalmeaningtotheedgeofrighteousness,andsoon.Thewordsthatarepreservedgraduallyevolveintoapartofpolysemy.Awordinthediachronicview,mayproduceoruseormanymeanings,butinthesynchronicview,thesemeaningscannotcoexist,then,inthiscoplanarplanetheycannotconstitutethepolysemyrelation.Therefore,inthemodernChinesepolysemy,weshouldnotincludetheoldwordsandtheclassicalwords.suchas"uneven"inthe"ModernChineseDictionary"hasthreesenses:[Uneven]①length,height,sizeunevenness:unevenlevel.②about,almost:unevenis.③mistake,wasted:everynightvaries.Ofthesethreesenses,only①belongtotheChinesemeaningof"stagger",theothertwobelongtotheclassicalmeaning,sointhemodernChinesesynchronicplane,ithasonlyonesemanticbit,itisasingleword.（二）Features1.Structural.Insynchronicterms,themeaningofpolysemyhasarelativestability,whichisoftencalledfixedmeaning.Itwillnotbeusedtemporarilybecauseofspecialcontexts,butisalreadystructurallystructured.Forexample:Weoftenboastacleverwordwhensomeoneelsehasdonesomethingstupid.Atthistime,clevernessisheretodisguisetheirony.However,itcannotbecalledafixedmeaning.Whenawordhasapracticalmeaning,itstillhasavarietyofmeaningswithoutregardtotheobjectanduseoftheword,whichiscalledthemeaningoftheword.Polysemyisboundtohaveaninitialmeaningatthebeginningofitsemergence,andthengraduallyevolvethemeaningoftheextension,theseextendedmeaningisoftentemporarymeaninginthelongtermaftertheconventional,stablemeaning.Theinitialandextendedmeaningtogetherformthemeaningsystemofpolysemy.2.Networksex.ThenetworkofPolysemyismainlymanifestedinthefollowing:Allthesensesofpolysemyhavebuiltupthenetworkofinterconnectedmeanings.ThesemanticnetworkfullyembodiesWittgenstein'sfamilyresemblance.Amongthem,thebasicmeaningofpolysemyisthearchetypeinthefamilynetwork,andtheextendedmeaningistheevolutionoftheprototypeintheFamilynetwork,andthemodeofevolutioniseitherachaintypeoraradiantone.Theclosertheedge,themoreabstractthesensesdeviatefromtheprototype.Forexample:Playcanbeextendedtowar,greeting,etc.,sofar,hasbeenextendedsincethemeaning.三、ThetranslationprincipleofpolysemyFromtheperspectiveofsociolinguistics,thechangeofwordmeaningiscloselyrelatedtothedevelopmentofsociety.Duetothecognitiveneedtousemorethanonething,inthelanguageofPolysemyisinevitable(ZhangJianli,2003).Withthedevelopmentofsociety,newthings,newideasandnewideasareconstantlyproducedandchanged.Inordertotrulyreflectthesechangesanddevelopments,eachlanguageneedstocreatenewwords,borrowedwordsfromotherlanguages,andendowoldoneswithmeaningstoenhancetheirexpressivepower.Itismostcommontogivenewmeaningtotheoriginalword,whichissimpleandeconomical.Itisimpossibletocreateaseparateentryforeachemergingthing.Itisdifficulttoimaginethepracticalityandvalidityofalanguageifitrepresentsathingoraphenomenoninasingleword.Becausetoomuchvocabularyisnotconducivetomemory,andisnotconducivetotheexpressionandcommunication,isaviolationoftheprinciplesoflanguageeconomy,sotheexistingwordstobearmoresemanticburden,derivedmoremeaning,resultinginawordpolysemyphenomenon.Polysemyhastwokindsofsituations,oneisambiguity,thatis,thedifferentmeaningsofawordplayaroleindifferentcontexts,sothatthewordproducespolysemy.Theotherisvague,thatis,thecontextofawordaddsnewinformationtoitssystematicmeaning,sothatthewordmeaningcanbeextendedandappliedtothenewcontext.Contextplaysanindispensableroleinourunderstandingofpolysemy.Therearealotofpolysemyinthereallanguage,butwecanaccomplishthecommunicativegoalsmoothly,mainlybecauseofthefunctionofcontext.Ifthereisnocontext,manysentencesinreallifeareambiguous.Contextisveryimportantforunderstandingthemeaningofwords,becausewithoutcontextwecannotdeterminetheexactmeaningthatthespeakerwantstoexpresswithaword.Mostofourdailyinteractionsarepolysemy,andwedon'tfeelthedifficultyofunderstanding,whichisacrucialcontext.Inamultiple-meaningrelationshipofaword,itiscustomarytodistinguishbetweenhomonymandpolysemy.Thesametypeofpolysemyhasthesamewritingorpronunciation,butitsdifferentmeanings,suchasthehookerofEnglishwords,onemeans"fishingboat",theothermeans"prostitute".TherearetwodifferencesbetweenPolysemyandhomonym:oneistoseewhetherthemeaningofwordsisthesamesource.Thesecondistoseewhetherthemeaningofvocabularyiscloselyrelated.Althoughtherearedifferencesbetweenhomonymandpolysemy,itisdifficulttohaveadefinitecriterion.ForexampletheEnglishwordsoletwomeaning:1.Sole,2.Afish.Historically,thesetwowordshaveoriginatedinaLatinwordSolea,whichhasenteredEnglishthroughFrenchindifferenthistoricalperiods.Butmostnativespeakersaccordingtothesenseoflanguage,willthinkthatthesetwomeaningsareirrelevant.Inthiscase,wearrangethemunderdifferenttermsinthedictionaryaccordingtothelanguagesenseofthenativespeakers.Inthelexicography,thehomonymofthesametypeofabnormalwordsiscodifiedunderdifferentterms,polysemyiscodifiedunderthesameentry,butitisdifficulttodistinguishhomonymandpolysemyclearly.Thetraditionallexicalsemantics,whentalkingaboutthecausesofpolysemy,ismoretoattributethechangeofmeaningtohistoricalandsocialfactors.Theseare,ofcourse,importantfactorsinthechangeofmeaning,buttheyareonlyexternalcauses.Withthedevelopmentoflanguage,linguistsconstantlytrytoexplaintheoriginofpolysemyinanewway.Fromtheperspectiveofcognitivelinguistics,thepolysemyofsemanticcategoryisalsotheresultofthecategorizationandconceptualizationofhumancognitiontotheobjectiveworld.Toputdifferentthingsintoonecategoryandtoexpresstheminonewordisanimportantreasonforpolysemy.四、AcomparativeanalysisofEnglishandChinesepolysemytranslationAccordingtotheexperienceofEnglishtranslationteachingandresearch,alltranslationtheoriesandtechniquesmustbebasedoncontrastiveanalysisbetweenEnglishandChinese.Therefore,inordertoeffectivelycarryouttranslationteachingandinstructstudentstorealizethetransformationbetweenEnglishandChinese,wemustletstudentsunderstandthecharacteristicsofbilingualEnglishandChinese,andcultivatestudents'English-Chinesebilingualdifferenceideasandcontrastingconsciousness.LuShuxiang,afamousChineselinguist,haspointedoutinthebook,"TheChineseLearnEnglish".IbelievethatthemostusefulhelpforChinesestudentsistolethimknowthedifferencebetweenEnglishandChinese,ineveryspecificproblem.Lethimgetadeeperunderstandingthroughthiscomparison.Therefore,intheprocessoftranslationteaching,wemustorganicallycombinetheEnglish-Chinesecontrastivestudy.Contrastiveanalysisisoneofthemostimportantmeansoflanguageresearch,whichbegantobeusedinthecomparisonofthestructureandfunctionbetweenthelanguagesofWesternlinguistsinthelate20,butinfact,therealriseandprevalenceofcontrastiveanalysiswasinthe50's.Thebook"InterculturalLinguistics"publishedin1957byRobertLado,anAmericanlinguist,putscontrastiveanalysistheoryintopracticeandbecomesthebeginningofmodernappliedcontrastivelinguistics.InChina,theresearchofcontrastivelinguisticshasbeenpaidattentiontobyacademiasincethe1980s,andhasbeendevelopedrapidly.Manyscholarsfromthemicro-levelandmacro-leveltostudythetwolanguages,notonlyfocusontheinternalformandstructureoflanguage,butalsoexpandthefieldofvisiontolanguageresearchandcontext,socialandculturalrelations.Generallyspeaking,thecontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseatthemicrolevelfocusesonthesynchroniccontrastiveanalysisofEnglishandChinese.Itmainlyfocusesonthedifferentpointsandspecialpointsbetweenthetwolanguages,involvingthecontrastivestudyoflanguagesurface,suchasphonetics,text,words,semantics,syntaxandtext,aswellasthecontrastivestudyofexpressionsingrammar,rhetoric,styleandpragmatics.Themacro-levelcontrastivestudymainlystudiestherelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture,oranalyzeslanguagefromaculturalperspective,orinterpretsculturefromalinguisticperspective.ItincludesboththeChineseandwesternculturaldifferencesinthemeaningofthewordsandexpressionsofthecontrastivestudy,butalsoembodiestheChineseandwesternwaysofthinkingdifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinesegrammaticalcharacteristicsofthestudy,suchasEnglishreconstruction,Chineseheavymeaning,Englishsentenceinformationcenterofgravitybefore,ChinesesentenceInformationcenterofgravityback.五、CommonpitfallsinPolysemytranslationThetrapofpolysemytranslation———translatedifferentmeaningsintobasicmeanings.(a)AcoreterminWesterntranslationtheoryequivalent/equivalencethispolysemybaffledmanytranslationtheoristsinChina.E-quivalent/equivalenceisapolysemy,itsbasicmeaningisequivalence,equality,escape,extension,derivationorderivationofthemeaningofequivalent,equivalent,equal,equivalent,right,duty,equivalent...(LongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish,2004).Itssemanticshavetwodimensions:thefirstbasicmeaningis"equality",themeaningofescaping,extending,derivingorderivingfrom"equivalence"has"equivalence,equivalence,equalamount",andthebasicmeaningofthesecondlevelis"equivalent",andthemeaningof"quite"escaping,extending,derivingorderivingis"right,equivalent,duty".SomepeopleinChinesetranslationtheoristsviolatetheprincipleofpolysemytranslation,translatingalltheequivalent/equivalenceinto:"equivalence"or"equivalence".Nidaforesawthatthecoreterminologywouldbemisreadas"equivalence"or"equivalence",andhewroteatextspecificallyexplainingthatequivalent/equivalencewas"equivalent"to"duty"ratherthan"equivalence"or"equivalence"(TanCaiXI1999).Intheprocessoftranslationtherecanbenoloss,nocorruption(QianZhongshu2007).Translationcanonlyseek,nottowait,thisisthecommonsensethateveryoneknowsplainly.However,becausethetheoryoftranslationseekingisputonNida'shatandputonNida'sclothes,thetheoryofequivalencetranslationhasbecomethemainstreamtheoryinChina,rulingthetranslationtheorists.Nida'sdefinitionoftranslationisequivalent,soNida'sdefinitionistranslationandsoon,notseeking,NIDA'stranslationstandardfunctionalequivalenceistranslatedinto"functionalequivalence",andanothertranslationstandarddynamicequivalenceistranslatedinto"Dynamicequivalence"(TanCaiXI1999)(b)ThenaturalscienceinEnglishismistakenfor"socialscience"isapolysemy,thebasicmeaningis"scientific",naturalscienceequalstothebasicmeaning"sciences",SocialSci-enceis"research",whilesocialsci-enceiswronglytranslatedintothe"socialsciences",thecorrecttranslationshouldbe"societyresearch";Cookingscienceis"skill",butitiswronglytranslatedinto"culinarysciences"andthecorrecttranslationshouldbe"cookingskills".Itcanbeseenthatthetranslationindustryhasawrongtendency,istoseescience,indiscriminately,aretranslatedinto"scientific".TheChineseword"science"originatedfromtheEnglishsciences,becausethetranslatorsdidnotunderstandtheprincipleofpolysemytranslation,andscience,transla-tionscienceindifferentcontextswaswronglytranslatedinto"translationscience"bymistake"TranslationStudies").Becausesocialsciencehasbeenwronglytranslatedinto"socialsciences",China'sscientificviewandtheWesternmainstreamworld'sscientificviewdecoupling———theWesternmainstreamworldthatEnglishandFrenchcountriesbelievethatonlynaturalscienceisscience,theWesternmainstreamworldbelievesthatthereisnoso-calledsocialsciences,onlysocialScience(SocialResearch);Chinabelievesthattherearesocialsciencesoutsidethenaturalsciences,aswellasnaturalandsocialsciences.Tocorrectthemistranslationofsocialscience,thescientificChinesejournalpublishedtwoarticles(LiTianxin2004).(iii)EnglishpolysemySpectreiswronglytranslatedintoasingleword"phantom"anEnglishdictionaryexplainsSpectre:"LongmanContemporaryEnglish-ChineseDictionary"P1693:"Spectreaspiritwith-outbodyGhost,Ghost."(LongmanContemporaryEnglish-Chinesedictionary2004)TheEnglishinterpretationofLongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglishiscorrect.Theinterpretationis:"Asoulwithoutabody."Asoulwithoutabodyisaghost,aghost,andthereisnoerrorinthedictionarytranslation.Butasoulwithoutabodycanalsobeadeity,theHolySpirit,andtheundead.ItcanbeseenthatthedictionarydoesnottakeintoaccounttheSpectreisapolysemy,itisnotonlythebasic"phantom",butalsoextendedmeaning,escapeandsoon.Itiswrongtotranslatespectreintoghostsandghostsandtoreplaceallmeaningswiththebasicmeaningofpolysemy.Thelivingseethesoulwithouttheflesh,generallyseeghosts,ghosts,orghosts,butifyouseethesoulofsomeonewhohasdiedintheirownhome,youcan'tsayyousawaghost,aghostoraghost.Ifyoucansay"Ioftenseemygrandmother'sundeadinmyDreams",Ican'tsay"Ioftenseemygrandmother'sGhostinMyDreams".AllEnglishandChinesedictionariestranslatespectreintoghosts,ghostsandGhosts,whichisabiasedtranslation.Thistranslationonlytranslatesthemeaningofaspectrelevel———aderogatorylevel.ThetranslatoroftheManifestooftheCommunistPartydoesnotanalyzethecontext,andwhentranslatingit,itwilltranslatethespectreofcommunismofSpectreinto"ghosts"andtranslatespectreofcommunisminto"Thespectreofcommunism",resultinginanextraordinaryerror."ASpectreishauntingeurope-theSpectreofcommunism."wastranslatedinto"aSpectre,aspectreofcommunism,wanderinginEurope.""Thisisthetranslationnowseen(CentralcompilationBureau1997).Chinese"ghost"isaghost,isaderogatoryword.MarxandEngelswouldnevercallCommunismaghost.Chinese"monster""Monsters""StrangeShadow"isaderogatoryterm.MarxandEngelswouldneversaycommunismasamonster,ormonsters,strangeshadows,etc.(XuYang2015).Ashasbeendiscussedabove,Spectreisghost,theSpiritofdeadpersonthatalivingpersonbelievestheycanseeorhear,isthesouloftheDead,ghosts,undead,gods,theHolySpirit.WhenSpectreismeanttobe,itmustbeadeadordeadobject,suchashisfather'sspectre--thedeadofhisdeceasedfather.MarxandEngelsputSpectreandcommunism(communism)collocationtogether,usingtheSpectre,haschangedthemeaningofSpectre,meaning"God".The"spirit"isnotthesoulofthedead,theundeadorthegods,butthesouloftheLivingGod.EnglishhasHolyGhostandHolySpirittwowords(JudyPearsall2007),whichequalsSpectreghostandspiritaregods———God.ThecorrecttranslationofspectreofcommunisminMarxandEngels'ManifestooftheCommunistPartyis"theSpiritofCommunism".Themeaningofthis"spirit"isthecreatorandmasterofWorldhistory,notthesoulofthegreatmanwhodied.Theword"gods"inChinesecontainstwomeanings:thefirstmeaningreferstoancientlegends,religionsandmythsaboutthecreatorandmasteroftheuniverse,orthepersonwhohasextraordinaryabilityandcanliveforever,thesecondmeaningreferstothesoulafterdeath.Inshort,therearesixChinesetranslationsofSpectre:Thefirstisghosts,ghosts,thesecondisundead,thethirdisthespirit,theotheristhespirit(thesouloftheDeadgreatMan),thefifthisGod,theimmortal,andthesixthisfearandpanic."God"hastwomeaning:first,thedead,respected,thepeoplebringbenefitsofthesoul,thesecondistheflexibilityofthingsalive,isthesoulofGod,Immortal,isAliveGod,immortalsoul."ASpectreishauntingeurope-theSpectreofcommunism."Translatedinto"ASpectre,thespectreofcommunism,wanderinginEurope"isthewrongtranslationthatshouldbecorrectedas"adeity,awanderinginEurope,agodofCommunism".六、ConclusionWiththedevelopmentofcognitivelinguistics,manyscholarsbegintoexplaintheemergenceofpolysemyfromtheangleofmetaphor,metonymyandimageschema.Thestudyoftheformationofpolysemyhasbecomeahottopicincognitivelinguistics.Thenecessityandinevitabilityofmetaphorintheprocessofcognitiondetermineitsimportantpositionintheprocessofpolysemy.ThesemanticcategoryofPolysemyischaracterizedbyitsshared"coreofmeaning",whichismapp