对于TextExemplificationoftheRelationbetweenTextFunctionandTranslating—Domesticatio

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Abstract: Translating is a complex process that involves much more than a simple switching of languages and no translators could fail to take this into consideration before deploying a translating task. Meanwhile, there exist certain factors which may influence a translator’s choice of relevant translating approaches and techniques. As one of these determining and influential factors, text function is seen as a significant element that constitutes a translator’s translating strategy framework. Surrounding the relation between text function and translating, the discussion that follows will focus on Karl Buhler and Peter Newmark’s definition and classification of text function to exemplify the choice between “domestication” and “foreignization” as two major approaches in cross-cultural translating.
Keywords: text function translating relation domestication foreignization
It is known that the process of translating involves a variety of influential factors rather than a simple “tranormation” of language forms. Producing a reasonable and readable translation does engage a translator’s various efforts in analyzing various factors that involved in the whole process. As Nida claims, “the adequacy of a translation depends on a great many different factors: the reliability of the text itself, the discourse type (from lyric poetry to grocery lists), the intended audience, the manner in which the translated text is to be used (e.g. read in the quiet of one’s study or acted on the stage), and the purpose for which the translation has been made, e.g. to inform, to change behior, to amuse, or to sell a product.”
However, as various texts all he certain functional effects on the readers, text type and its function helps a translator in deciding the strategy on how to create reasonable equivalence between source language text (SLT) and target language text (TLT), and between their relevant cultures as well. Theoretic摘自:毕业论文目录www.618jyw.com
ally, according to the German linguist Karl Buhler, language can be divided into three broad categories in terms of its functions: the expressive, the informative (representation) and the vocative (appeal) functions which are the main purposes of using language. Furthermore, Peter Newmark, professor of translation at the University of Surrey, latterly proposed a further definition of text type and function by applying Buhler’s functional theory of language as a theoretic basis.
Based on Buhler and Newmark’s concise classification of text type and function, an analysis on the three types of text function may provide the translator a reference for the choice between the two major cross-cultural translating approaches- domestication and foreignization.I. Expressive text
As Newmark explained, expressive text consists of serious imaginative literature, authoritative statements, autobiography, essays, personal correspondence and so forth. According to his opinion, “the core of the expressive function is the mind of the speaker, the writer, the originator of the utterance. He uses the utteranc摘自:毕业论文提纲www.618jyw.com
e to express his feelings irrespective of any response.” From this point, expressive texts frequently consist of rich cultural ingredients and personal attitudes toward certain things or phenomena of the world. If the translation is going to be an expressive text in the target language (TL), preserving the expressive function of the original text will become a basic purpose of the translating. Such being the case, whether the approach of domestication or foreignization is employed in the translating, one of the major purposes of the translation will be the faithful representation of the ideological features of the SLT. Below are two popular versions of the poetry “好了歌” from Chapter 2 of the Chinese novel “红楼梦”.
SLT:
好了歌
世人都晓神仙好,唯有功名忘不了!
古今将相在何方?荒冢一堆草没了。
世人都晓神仙好,只有金银忘不了!
终朝只恨聚无多,及到多时眼闭了。
世人都晓神仙好,只有娇妻忘不了!
君生说恩情,君死又随人去了。
世人都晓神仙好,只有儿孙忘不了!
痴心父母古来多,孝顺子孙谁见了?
TLT:
Version 1: translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang
All Good Things Must End
All men long to be immortals
Yet to riches and rank each aspires;
The great ones of old, where are they now?
Their gres are a mass of briars.
All men long to be immortals,
Yet silver and gold they prize
And grub for money all their lives
Till death seals up their eyes.
All men long to be immortals
Yet dote on the wives they’ve wed,
Who swear to love their husband evermore
But remarry as soon as he’s dead.
All men long to be immortals
Yet with getting sons won’t he done.
Although fond parents are legion,
Who ever saw a really filial son?
Version 2: translated by Did Hawkes
Won-Done Song
Men all know that salvation should be won,
But with ambition won’t he done, he done.
Where are the famous ones of days gone by?
In grassy gres they lie now, every one.
Men all know that salvation should be won,
But with their riches won’t he done, he done.
Each day they grumble they’ve not made enough.原创论文www.618jyw.com
3. The literal meaning of “随人去了” in point 5 is “to lee with another one”, and it means “to remarry with another man” in the SLT. Because marital relation and its relative social rules were much stricter on women in China during the feudal periods, a woman had no rights in the marriage and should strictly obey her husband. Considering this, Yang translated “随人去了” as “remarry”. Yet, Hawkes literally translates the phrase as “off with another one”, ignoring the discrepancy in the cultural backgrounds. This may cause the TLT readers to assume that Chinese women in that particular time were free to be flirtatious and dishonor her marriage.
4.A similar cultural discrepancy is also seen in the translations of “孝顺子孙”, which literally means “children with filial piety”. However, China has been an agricultural country for centuries since the beginning of its history, and males were regarded as the major labour force of irrigating and cultivating in the fields, in addition, they should take up the responsibility of supporting the family and their parents. Thus, there had been a prevailing inclination to son-preference, claiming that sons were superior and daughters were humble in their social statuses. This is frequently reflected in a great amount of literary works, and “子孙” often only refers to male offsprings. Seeing this typical phenomenon, Yang translated the phrase “孝顺子孙” as “a really filial son”, but Hawkes’ version of “grateful children” may not contain the cultural element.
In general, both domestication and foreignization could be engaged in the translating of expressive text as they are both workable in delivering the original meaning of the SLT in different ways. The above examples he shown that both approaches he their merits and demerits in translating expressive texts and neither approach should be adapted as the exclusive approach in the translating, as other influential factors to a translator’s choice between domestication and foreignization are also significant, such as translator’s cultural orientation, the translator’s purpose and the TL readers’ responses.
II. Informative text
According to Newmark, “the core of the informative function of language is external situation, the facts of a topic, reality outside language, including reported ideas or theories. For the purposes of translation, typical informative texts are concerned with any topic of knowledge, but texts about literary subjects, as they often express value-judgments, are apt to lean towards 'expressiveness'. The format of an informative text is often standard: a textbook, a technical report, an article in a newspaper or a periodical, a scientific paper, a thesis, minutes or源于:论文库www.618jyw.com
agenda of a meeting.”When an informative text is culture-related, on one hand, the translator has to convey the “cultural truth” of the SLT. On the other hand, maybe more importantly, the “cultural truth” needs to be render摘自:毕业论文结论怎么写www.618jyw.com
ed in a way which could be understood by the TLT readers. Hence, if the function of the source language (SL) and the text type are to be reserved, then the translating may be conducted in terms of the conventions and norms of the TL. Otherwise, the translation may fail to achieve the language function concerning informative texts. From this angle, a domesticating approach will be workable in the translating. This can be exemplified by the following excerpt of a bilingual introduction to the Water Pass Great Wall which is a section of the Great Wall of China.
SLT:
水关长城地势险要,苍龙起伏于崇山峻岭之间,穿行于悬崖峭壁之上,城堡相连,烽燧向望,双面箭垛,拒敌万千。水关长城东起“川字一号”,西至京张铁路,全长6.8公里,以奇、险、陡、坚著称。八达岭水关长城地处关沟中部,七十二景似明珠般散落于长城四周,弹琴峡、金鱼池、石佛寺、骆驼石等诸多景点散落于方圆25000平方米空间,为游客提供丰富的旅游资源。长城四季美如画,春看山花烂漫,夏览草木蓊郁,秋观漫山红叶,冬游苍龙卧雪,这里山清水秀长城壮美,人杰地灵古寺清幽。到了春天看长城两侧山花烂漫,远处长城悠远入云烟,你将充分体会到中华民族的伟大。
TLT:
The Great Wall section is of great strategic importance. It rises and falls along with the mountains, exactly like a huge dragon. It trerses upon precipices, connecting castles, beacon sites and arrow battlements against all enemies. The Water Pass Great Wall, 6.8 kilometers long, sets out with the Chuan Zi Yi Hao tower in the east and ends with the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, known for fanciful, dangerous, precipitous and solid shape. Badaling Water Pass Great Wall, located in the central part of Guangou, boasts 72 scenic spots that scatter around like shining pearls. The Tanqin Gorge, Goldfish Pond, Stone Buddha Temple, and Camel Stone sites are found in an area of about 25,000 square meters, ideal for tourists to go sightseeing. The Great Wall is beautiful as pictures in all seasons. People may enjoy bright mountain flowers in full bloom in spring, lush growth of trees and grasses in summer, red lees all over mountains in autumn, and white snow in winter. The scenery here has great charms, making it a remarkable place.You will be overcome with the greatness of the Chinese nation when observing blossoming mountain flowers fading along the Great Wall in spring.
In terms of language function, both the SLT and TLT bear the given function of informative text. The Chinese version is conveyed compatibly with the Chinese culture and language conventions. Similarly, the English version delivers to the TLT readers a general vision of the historical attraction as well. However, for the purpose of rendering a fluent and easily readable English text to the TL readers, the translation needs to be adapted to the conventions and norms of the English language, sacrificing some cultural elements on the lexical as well as semantic level due to the discrepancy in the two cultures. The following provides a brief analysis on some details of the SLT and TLT.源于:论文 格式www.618jyw.com
5. As for the sentence segment “到了春天看长城两侧山花烂漫,远处长城悠远入云烟……”, there contains two parts of the image of the Great Wall in spring, one is “长城两侧山花烂漫 (there are blooming flowers along the two sides of the Great Wall )” and “远处长城悠远入云烟 (the Great Wall in the far distance is extending into the clouds and fogs.)” But a translation with the same structure may be loose in the logic according to the convention of English, and the TLT may not get the correct information about the image from the TLT. A modification of the structure and a sacrifice of the cultural content “入云烟” are engaged in the translating.
In general, the core of an informative text is to deliver the “external situation”“the facts of a topic” and “reality outside language”, namely, the fundamental function of informative text is to provide certain information about things. It is demonstrated in the above example that if t摘自:本科毕业论文致谢词www.618jyw.com
he same informative function of the SLT is to be implemented in the TLT, the translating needs to focus more on the substantial meaning or information that are contained in the SLT, rather than simply rendering all the contents of the SLT. Thus, for the TL readers’ best understanding of the information given by the SLT, the translator may need to apply the techniques such as paraphrasing, summarizing and free translating, which could be categorized as the specific methods of domestication. From the example cited, it can be said that the approach of domestication will be a more forable approach to the translating of informative texts.
III. Vocative Text
Newmark has put forward that “the core of the vocative function of language is the readership, the addressee. I use the term Vocative in the sense of 'calling upon' the readership to act, think or feel, in fact to 'react' in the way intended by the text (the vocative is the case used for addressing your reader in some inflected languages). This function of language has been given many other names, including 'conative' (denoting effort), 'instrumental, 'operative' and 'pragmatic' (in the sense of used to produce a certain effect on the readership).” Newmark claims that vocative texts often deal with a readership rather than a reader, and concerning the purposes of translation, notices, instructions, publicity, propaganda, persuasive writing and possibly popular fiction are usually counted as typical vocative texts, “whose purpose is to sell the book/entertain the reader”. As Newmark sees, one of the factors in all vocative texts is that “these texts must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the readership.”Therefore, it is necessary to he an examination on both the linguistic and cultural level of the SLT before it is given a “pragmatic impact”. Since these texts are often endowed with strong and specific purposes, the equivalent (or at least the similar) effect must be achieved by the TLT to a large extent when rendering the SLT into another language. In this sense, when cultural discrepancies occur in the translating of the vocative texts, a domesticating approach may be adopted, so that the TL readers could react with an immediate comprehension.
Among the vocative texts, commercial advertisement is a typical example in demonstrating the function of vocative language, as it is a means of presenting the relative product or service to the customers for the purpose of impressing and attracting potential consumers, that is, the function of advertisement is not only to deliver the information and features of the product or service, but also to appeal to the potential customers. To achieve this end, the advertisement has to be readily acceptable to the TL readers, and it should adapt to the cultural background of the customers, otherwise the advertisement will fail to realize its function. See the following examples.

While there are no crucial cultural discrepancies in the above examples, a foreignized version of the examples such as literal translation is faithful enough to convey the literal meaning into the TLT, but the TLT needs to be somewhat rhetoric in terms of the TL culture for the purpose of impressing the consumers, which is the core function of these vocative texts. Therefore, the advertisements in the TL he been deliberately modified to reach a rhetorical style appealing to the TL readers.
Advertisement one could be regarded as a typical example of a domesticating approach: firstly, the trade mark “Coca Cola” has been “translated” as “可口可乐” - an alluding phrase which means “tasty (可口) and happiness (可乐)”. Secondly, “things go better” has been translated into a conventional Chinese saying “万事如意 (everything goes as you hope)” and the TLT readers could immediately react to the advertisement since such sayings always contain good wishes and are popular in the Chinese culture and tradition.
In the same way, “black and white” in advertisement two could be literally translated as “黑白的”, and “is always colour” could be 源于:电大毕业论文www.618jyw.com
translated as “有色彩的”,basically, the translation could be“对于我,过去是黑白的,但是未来是有色彩的。” But the vocative function of the SLT is not adequately realized by this translation. That is, it doesn’t sound attractive to the TLT readers in terms of style. Hence, the translator has elaborated “black and white” and “is always colour” with the two Chinese four-character phrases “平淡无奇” and “绚烂缤纷”, thus to achieve an antithetic structure and style commonly used in the TL and present to the TL readers a strong impression and arouse their curiosity towards the Whiskey products. This domesticating phenomenon also occurs in the translating of example 3 and 4.You never actually own…常伴身旁 (always be with you)
…look after it for next generation: 传家风范 (a precious heirloom)
Intelligence: 智慧演绎 (intelligence evolves)
everywhere: 无处不在 (in every place/everywhere)
As for examples 5 and 6, they both impress the SLT readers with a concise expression that is well suited to the TL convention and culture. Example 5 “good to the last drop” is an advertising slogan of Maxwell House Coffee, implicating that the marvelous flor lasts till the last drop of the coffee. However, the literal translation “好到最后一滴” could not arouse the TLT readers imagination of the aroma-filled coffee, since the literal TLT is too flat to be impressive and attractive. Thus, it is translated with two parallel four-character phrases which is a popular style of traditional Chinese language: “滴滴香浓,意犹未尽 (every drop is aroma-filled and great, the fascinating flour lasts long)”. The same technique is applied in the translating of example 6 “恒久远源于:毕业论文致谢www.618jyw.com
(diamond means forever) ,一颗永流传 (one diamond will be passed on forever)”. In this translation, the original sentence actually has been repeated twice in different expressions, depicting the core annotation of the advertisement.
It is demonstrated by the above examples that since language is a carrier of culture, the issues of cultural discrepancies and voids are inevitably involved in cross-cultural translating, and different text functions may lead to different translating strategies and techniques. To address relative cultural discrepancies and voids, translators frequently turn to two different translating orientations: TL culture-oriented domestication and SL culture-oriented foreignization, depending on the text function of the SLT.
Nevertheless, Newmark has explained in particular that “Few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three.”9 Hence, it is necessary for a translator to be aware that a feasible translating strategy will be a combination of various approaches and techniques, since each of them may be specified in dealing with particular issues and text type(s) of the translating.
Ⅳ.Conclusion
On the whole, text function may pose a significant influence over the translator’s decision-making on the choice of the translating approaches and strategies, it is necessary for a translator to be aware that a feasible translating strategy is a comprehensive application of various approaches and techniques. Since language is definitely a significant carrier of culture, translating could be regarded as an inter-cultural communication with the translator as a mediator. When encountering with cultural discrepancies in the process of translating, the translator frequently faces a choice of whether to convey the cultural ingredients to the TL readers or replace them with similar ones in the target language. Presuming that the function of the SLT is to be maintained in the TLT, then different text function of the SLT may lead to different choice of the translating strategies. However, domestication and foreignization are not poles apart from each other, as the two approaches could be complementary to each other in an integrating translating strategy in cross-cultural translating in accordance with different situations. The feasibility of the two approaches should be considered based on all the related factors, including text function, that are involved in the translating.源于:论文网www.618jyw.com
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