-
Style
1. Definition of style
Style: the way language is used by a
given person, for a given purpose, in a given
context. In
a broad sense, style is the
“
specific or characteristic
manner of expression, execution, construction,
or design in any art, period, work,
employment, etc. When applied to literature, style
suggests the
result of a successful
blending of form with content. Here form refers to
the language a writer uses,
and content
the theme or ideology of the writer or his/her
work.
Three grades/domains
of style in translation concerning language:
1)
levels of
speech: such as formal or informal, familiar or
polite, spoken or
written
（语体）
2)
literary
forms: such as poetry, drama and
novel
（文体）
3)
manner of
expression, characteristic of a particular writer,
or the way in which language
is used in
a particular school or
period
（风格）
Style in the last sense can be viewed
as literary style., which is the essential
characteristics of
every
piece
of
writing,
the
outcome
of
the
writer
?
s
personality
and
his/her
emotions
at
the
moment.
2. Stylistic Markers
2.1 Formal markers
1)
Phonological markers
2) Register
markers
Register refers to the scope to
which a word is applicable, such as spoken
language and
written
language,
dialect
and
standard
speech,
male
speech
and
female
speech,
etc.
Another way of classification is to
classify register into five categories: (a) the
frozen, (b)
the formal, (c) the
consultative, (d) the casual, (e) the intimate.
3) Lexical markers
Lexical
markers
indicate
the
author
?
s
inclination
to
the
choice
of
words,
e.g.
the
personal preference of plain and simple
words, particular adjectives, adverbs, etc..
4) Syntactic markers
Sentences can be examined in terms of
their length (short, economical / long, involved),
form (simple / compound / complex),
construction (loose / periodic / balanced). In a
broad
sense, any employment of a
particular sentence structure which forms a
linguistic feature
(e.g.
coordination,
subordination,
parallelism,
antithesis
对偶
,
omission,
etc.)
can
be
regarded
as a syntactic marker.
5) Textual
markers
Textual markers refer to the
striking features revealed in the organization of
a piece of
writing, in which the
writer
?
s style is mainly
revealed. They are revealed in the following
aspects:
(1)
omission
of
some
parts
to
cause
staccato
断音
in
context;
(2)
recurrence
or
alternation
of
long
or
short
sentences;
(3)
flashback
or
cutback
in
temporal
sequence
in
narration; (4) overuse of
direct speech or indirect speech; (5) explicitness
or implicitness.
6) Markers of figures
of speech
（修辞格）
e.g. Charles Dickens: irony
and exaggeration
1
2.2 Non-Formal Markers
1) Ways of expression
Every
writer has his / her own way of expressing and
processing what he / she writes about,
even if they are of the same literary
school.
e.g.
symbolic undertones
象征性潜隐叙事法
“
Near
the
curb
of
the
crowded
sidewalk,
pigeons
were
tossing
around
a
bread
crust
that
someone had dropped or thrown them.
They couldn
’
t cope with it
or let it be. These creatures filled
me
with both compassion for them and rage against
their Creator. Where did they spend the nights
in this severe weather? They must be
cold and hungry. They might die this very
night.
”
It seems
that the writer is describing the phenomena in
pigeons
?
world, but in fact
he refers to
the reality of human
society. The symbolic meanings exist between and
behind the lines, leaving
much room for
readers
?
exploration.
2) Subject matter
e.g.
Hemingway?
s subject matter is always
about death, violence, danger and the like. His
preoccupation with individual courage,
will and power is unique and characteristic of
Hemingway
style.
3) Ideological Contents
3. The difficulty in
reproducing the original style
Style is
usually part of the original literary
works
?
textual meaning;
therefore harm will be
done, to a great
extent, to the textual meaning of the original, if
the translator fails to pay enough
attention to the style of the SLT in
translation.
Owing to the different
natures of language, however, which may differ in
word formation,
syntactic
structure,
figure
of
speech,
etc.,
there
do
exist
some
linguistic
difficulties
in
stylistic
transference.
Those
who
believe
style
cannot
be
reproduced
insist
that
style
belongs
to
the
category
of
linguistic
form,
not
content.
Form
cannot
be
independent
of
the
concrete
mode
of
expression in the
literary text, which has to be changed in the
translating process, thus the style is
changed accordingly. For example:
1
）
此木为柴山山出，
因火成烟夕夕多。
(phanopoeia
形文
)
2
）
She
sells seashells on the seashore,
The
shells she sells are seashells. (a tongue twister
–
melopoeia
声文
)
3
）
--
What
?
s the relation between
the door-mat and the door?
-- A step
farther (stepfather).
4
）
--
“
Call me a
taxi,
”
said the fat man.
--
“
Okay,
< br>”
said the doorman.
“
You
?
re a taxi, but
you look more like a truck to
me.
”
5
）
--
“
Why is a room full of
married people very empty?
”
--
“
Because there
isn
?
t a single person in
it.
”
(logopoeia
情文
)
6
）
人曾为
僧，人弗可以成佛；女卑是婢，女又何妨称奴。
(pun)
A
Buddhist cannot bud in a Buddha; A maiden may be
made a housemaid.
The man who has been
a monk cannot be a Buddha; The girl who is a bond
may also be
2
called a slave.
7
）
客上天然居，居然天上客。
(Palindrome)
4. How to render the
original style
Generally speaking, there
are three arguments against the translatability of
style:
1)
Different languages
can
?
t express the same
style;
2)
Translators have their own styles;
3)
There are no
objective criteria for the judgment of what kind
of translation is good and
what kind is
bad.
According to Liu
Zhongde, to reproduce the original style
satisfactorily, the translator
must
have
both
the
macroscopic
(literary
)
point
of
view
and
the
microscopic
(linguistic)
point of view. The former deals with
the thought, feeling and style of the original,
and the
latter deals with the words,
sentences and paragraphs of it.
There
are two feasible techniques to represent the
original style in translation, namely,
corresponding (imitation) and
recasting.
Recasting is usually applied
when there is (a) a lack of corresponding
stylistic markers
in the target and (b)
the discrepancy in ways of thinking and expressing
which result from
linguistic and
cultural differences. Generally speaking,
recasting involves (a) rearrangement
of
word order, (b) conversion of parts of speech, and
(c) proper addition and deletion.
Examples:
(1)
First Gentleman: Thou art always
figuring diseases in me, but thou art full of
error;
I am sound.
Lucio:
Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound
as things that are hollow;
impiety has
made feast of thee. (Shakespeare: Measure for
Measure)
绅士甲：你总以为我有哪种病，其实你大错特错，我的身体响当当的
。
路奇欧：响当当的，
可并不结实，
就象空心的东西那样响当当的；
你的骨头都
空了，好色的毛病把
你掏空了。
(2)
空山不见人，但闻人语响。返景入深林，复照青苔上。
（王维《鹿柴》
）
An empty hill, and
no one insight,
But I hear the echo of
voices.
The slanting sun at evening
penetrates the deep wood,
And shines
reflected on the blue lichens.
3
Cultural Elements in Literary
Translation
The meaning of
verbal symbols depends on the culture of the
language community. Language
is
a
part
of
culture,
and
in
fact,
it
is
the
most
complex
set
of
habits
that
any
culture
exhibits.
Language reflects
the culture, provides access to the culture, and
in many respects constitutes a
model of
the culture.
1.
What is culture?
In his
Primitive Culture, Tylor laid down this
definition:
“
Culture
< br>…
is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom
and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of
society.
”
According
to
many
sociologists
and
cultural
anthropologists,
four
features
are
essential
in
culture:
◎
Culture is acquired rather than
inherited.
◎
Culture is shared by a community rather
than owned by an individual.
◎
Culture is
symbolic and language is the most important
symbolic system of culture.
◎
Culture is a
unity, in which one part is related with another.
To put it simply, culture refers to the
total way of life of a people.
Thus literary translation, a bilingual
art, seemingly a mere interlingual transformation,
is in
nature an intercultural activity
in its work of comparing, introducing and
absorbing.
2.
Cultural Universals
As far
as English and Chinese are concerned, we find a
number of cultural universals in their
respective vocabularies. Some words in
the two languages carry not only the same literal
meaning
but also the same or quite
similar extended meaning.
For
example,
as
is
often
the
case,
“
heaven
”
or
天
is
regarded
as
something
dominating
everything on earth and social members
in both cultures are filled with awe and
veneration for it,
as in the following
expressions:
◎
Heaven has eyes (there is divine
justice after all).
老天有眼。
◎
Heaven
?
s
vengeance is slow but sure.
天网恢恢，疏而不漏。
◎
Heaven/ God
helps those who help themselves.
老天不负苦心人
/
自助者，天助之。
The
people
of
the
two
cultures
may
also
have
some
similar
experience,
observation
or
philosophical views on human life and
the objective world. For example:
◎
赤条条来去无牵挂（
《红楼梦》第二十二回）
For we
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out. (New
Testament of The Bible)
◎
Unity is
strength.
人多力量大。
◎
As a man sows,
so he shall reap.
种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。
◎
Blood is
thicker than water.
血浓于水。
◎
Knowledge is
power.
知识就是力量。
◎
as light as a
feather
轻如鸿毛
◎
as cowardly as
a rat
胆小如鼠
◎
as proud as a
peacock
象孔雀一样骄傲
4
3.
Cultural
Disparities
3.1
Disparities in historical culture
Speech
and
writing
in
both
English
and
Chinese
abound
with
allusions
（典故）
.
In
most
languages, people embellish their
speech or writing with references to characters or
events in their
history, legends,
religion, classical literature, etc. Such
allusions not only make the language richer,
but also make communication much more
vivid, such as the remark
“
He is a
Shylock
”
. Here are
some more examples:
◎
四面楚歌
/
破釜沉舟
/
卧薪尝胆
/
负荆请罪
/
毛遂自荐
/
身在曹营心在汉
/
刘姥姥进
大观园
/
叶公好龙
◎
牛郎织女
/
八仙过海，
各显神通
/
狗咬吕洞宾
/
当一天和尚撞一天钟
/
道高一尺，<
/p>
魔
高一丈
(Where God has his church, the devil
will have his chapel.) /
临时抱佛脚
◎
The Trojan
horse, Prometheus (Greek methology)
◎
eat the leek
(King Henry V, 5:1)
被迫收回说过的话
◎
cat with nine
lives (Romeo and Juliet, 3:1)
◎
care killed the
cat (Much Ado About Nothing, 5:1)
◎
better a witty
fool than a foolish wit (Twelfth Night, 1:5)
聪明的傻子胜过愚蠢的才子
/
宁为大智若愚，勿为大愚若智
Quite a number of names from the Bible
or the English and American literary works have
also become common household terms,
such as a Judas / Solemn /
“
like Moses leading his
people
/ Romeo / Frankenstein /
Sherlock Holmes / Uncle Tom / catch-22 situation,
etc.
Another common source of English
allusions is important events in history. For
example:
◎
to
pull a Pearl harbor on somebody
◎
blitz (a
surprise attack or lightening rapidity, as Hitler
called his tactics when his army
invaded Poland in 1939)
–
He made a blitz tour of
Asia.
他对亚洲进行了一次闪电式访问。
◎
a Dunkirk for
foreign policy (a terrible situation)
◎
Watergate
(a
scandal
that
involves
officials
violating
public
trust
through
subterfuge,
bribery and
other abuses of power in order to maintain their
positions of authority)
◎
逼上梁山，空城计，三顾茅庐，败走麦城
(meet one
?
s
Waterloo)
3.2
Disparities in geographical culture
The
English
nation
has
always
been
a
seafaring
race,
so
its
language
contains
many
expressions that refer
to the sea and ships. For instance:
◎
to keep
one
?
s head above water: to
keep out of debt
◎
to sail under false color: to pretend
to be different from what one really is
◎
between the
devil and the deep blue sea: between two dangers;
by avoiding one there is
danger of
falling into another
e.g. If they pay
the rent to the landlord they
won
?
t have any money for the
food, they are
between the devil and
the deep blue sea.
◎
从南到北
: from north to south
(for the ancient Chinese, south is more
respectable than
north)
The
difference between Chinese
东风
and English
“
east
wind
”
, or that between
西风
and
“
west
wind
”
, has long been an
interesting topic to discuss. For the Chinese,
东风
is a symbol of
spring and warmth; yet to people of
England, just the opposite is true.
5
◎
东风夜放花千树
/
春城无处不飞花，寒食东风御柳斜
/
东风破早梅，向暖一枝开
◎
古道西风瘦马
/
碧云天，黄花地，西风紧，北雁南飞
◎
How many winter
days have I seen him, standing blue-nosed in the
snow and east wind!
◎
Sweet and slow, sweet and slow,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea! (Alfred
Tennyson:
“
Sweet and
Slow
”
)
◎
青山遮不住，毕竟东流去
/
滚滚长江东逝水，浪花淘尽英雄
◎
山下兰芽浸短溪，松间沙路净无泥，潇潇暮雨子规啼。
谁道人生无再少，门前流
水尚能西，
休将白发唱黄鸡。
（苏轼：浣溪沙）——白居易：黄鸡催晓，白日催年
< br>
3.3
Disparities in traditional modes of
thinking
A
speech
community
?
s
peculiar
cultural
origin
is
pregnant
with
peculiar
psychology,
folkways
and
character
traits.
For
example,
white
in
a
westerner
?
s
eyes
suggests
purity
and
innocence and is the traditional color
for brides. In China, however, people usually have
white at
funerals and the color has
long been regarded as a symbol of solitude,
poverty and decline, as the
following
quotations suggests:
◎
雨中黄叶树，灯下白头人。
◎
昨日黄土垄头埋白骨，今宵红灯帐底卧鸳鸯
/
白骨露于野，千里无鸡鸣
◎
去时里正与裹头，归来头白还戍边
（杜甫《兵车行》
）
◎
日暮苍山远，天寒白屋贫（刘长卿
《逢雪宿芙蓉山主人》
）
白头人：
a hoary-headed man
白
屋：
thatched cottage
The color red often carries
a derogatory sense such as violence, bloodshed,
danger, etc. in the
western
culture.
But
in
traditional
Chinese
culture
it
suggests
such
notions
as
happiness,
abundance,
propitiousness, etc. and is usually associated
with joyful occasions.
◎
红双喜：
double happiness written
in red as the traditional symbol for an event of
special
joy, such as a wedding
◎
开门红：
in this expression the
color red is symbolic of good fortune. In English
it should
be interpreted as
“
to begin
well
”
,
“
to make a good
start
”
David
Hawkes
has
also
made
a
lot
of
comments
on
the
treatment
of
color
terminology,
particularly
the color red, in his English translation of
“
Hong Lou
Meng
”
(
The Story
of the Stone
).
“…
red as a symbol
–
sometimes of spring,
sometimes of youth, sometimes of good fortune or
prosperity
–
recurs again and again throughout it (the Chinese
novel). Unfortunately
–
apart from
the rose cheeks and vermeil
lip of youth
–
redness has
no such connotations in English and I have
found that the Chinese reds have tended
to turn into English golds or greens
(
“
spring, the green
spring
”
and
“
golden girls and
boys
”
and so forth). I am
aware that there is some sort of loss here,
but have lacked the ingenuity to avert
it.
”
◎
红楼梦：
The Story of the
Stone
(cf.
A Dream of Red
Mansions
)
◎
悼红轩：
Nostalgia Studio (cf.
Mourning the-Red Studio)
◎
怡红院：
The House of Green
Delights (cf. Happy Red Court)
◎
怡红公子：
Green Boy (cf. The
Happy Red Prince)
6
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