Approaches to translation Peter Newmark 翻译方法

2021年1月24日发(作者：2198)
Approaches to translation
























Peter Newmark
Contents
Part one: Aspects of Translation Theory
1.

The theory and the craft of translation
2.

What translation theory is about
3.

Communicative and semantic translation I
4.

Thought, speech, and translation
5.

Communicative and semantic translation II
6.

The translation of proper names and institutional and cultural terms
7.

The translation of metaphor
8.

The translation process and synonymy
9.

Translation and the metalingual function of language

P3.
In the pre-linguistics period of translation, they make no attempt to distinguish types
or quality of texts (which are mainly Biblical or literary), and while they are strong on
theory,
they
are
short
on
method
and
practical
examples.
They
show
a
gradual
transition from a natural or free treatment towards a literal analysis, if not translation,
of the original, but there is no development of a theory, and many of the writers were
not aware of each other
’
s work.

2.

Translation Theory
ation theory
’
s main concerns is to determine appropriate translation methods
for the widest possible range of texts or text-categories.

The
theory
demonstrates
the
possible
translation
procedures
and
the
various
arguments for and against the use of one translation rather than another in a particular
context. Note that translation theory is concerned with choices and decisions, not with
the mechanics of either the source language (SL) or the target language (TL).

2.

Translation theory attempts to give some insight into the relation between thought,
meaning, and language; the universal, cultural, and individual aspects of language and
behavior, the understanding of cultures; the interpretation of texts that maybe clarified
and even supplemented by way of translation.

P20.
The practical problems: the translator
’
s first task is to understand the text, so it is the
business of translation theory to suggest some criteria and priorities for this analysis.

First, the intention of a text.
Secondly, the intention of the translator.
Tirdly, the reader and the setting of the text.
Fourthly, the quality if the writing and the authority of the text.

I have proposed only two methods of translation: a) communicative translation, where
the translator attempts to produce the same effect on the TL readers as was produced
by
the
original
on
the
SL
readers,
and
b)
semantic
translation,
where
the
translator
attempts, within the bare syntactic and semantic constrains of the TL, to reproduce the
precise contextual meaning of the author.

The basic difference between communicative and semantic language is the stress on
‘
message
’
and
‘
meaning
’
;
‘
reader
’
and
‘
author
’
;
‘
utterance
’
and
‘
thought- processes
’
;
‘
like
’

and
‘
as
’
-and
‘
how
’
;
‘
performative
’

and
‘
constative
’
,
but
this
is
a
matter
of
difference in emphasis rather than kind.

P26. Grammatical meaning & Lexical meaning

He has to interpret grammatical meaning, both on a general level, and in relation to
the distinction between SL and TL constructions.

Grammatical meaning is more significant, less precise, more general and sometimes
more elusive than lexical meaning. It can sometimes be identified as text level or at
paragraph level.
Grammatical
meaning can also
be identified
as word-group, which
may comprise Nida
’
s (1975a) entitles, events, abstracts (or qualities) or relations.


Grammatical meaning may also be rendered by more or less standard transpositions
from the SL to the TL.


Lexical
meaning
starts
where
grammatical
meaning
finishes:
it
is
referential
and
precise, and has to be considered both outside and within the context. Furthermore, all
lexical units have elements of grammar.


Lexical
translation
is
more
complicated.
Any
bilingual
dictionary
appears
to
imply
that most SL words have precise TL equivalents. On the contrary, most SL words have
a
variety
of
separate,
contiguous,
overlapping,
inclusive
or
complementary
senses
(Nida, 1975a), each of which consists of sentence components.


P32.
The
area
of
text-linguistic,
cohesion
or
discourse
analysis,
i.e.
Linguistic
analysis
beyond the sentence, has evident application in translation theory. Discourse analysis
may be mainly an essential point of reference for establishing the significance of all
connectives
including
pronouns,
and
clarifying
semantically
undetermined
expressions.

Translation
theorist
is
concerned
with
certain
particular
problems:
metaphor,
synonyms;
proper
names;
institutional
and
cultural
terms,
grammatical,
lexical
and
referential ambiguity, cliche, quotations; cultural focus, overlap and distance, idiolect;
neologism;
poetry;
jargon,
the
four
categories
of
key
terms.
Of
these
problems,