20201019 trans

Cao Runxin 曹润鑫

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to the more than 300 students of the Master Course "Introduction to Translation Studies" conducted in the two fall terms 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 at Hunan Normal University, Foreign Studies College. They have enriched this monograph with their ideas, their creativity and the top students even have contributed short passages to this book on single aspects. They have also helped to arrange that the monograph could appear in different languages simultaneously. The Foreign Studies College is one of the top places of Translation and Interpreting Studies in China.

Chang Huiyue 常慧月

Foreword

Interpretation theories and interpretation studies are as old as human languages, since interpretation practise is not just necessary between full fledged languages, but is practised as soon as two different individuals meet, like a grandmother and her grandchild. The first lay interpreters naturally reflected on their interpreting work and this was the start of theories and studies. As soon as written language was invented, critical reflection also started and with it translation theories and translation studies.

Chen Han 陈涵

The first thoughts about transponing the meaning of one language into a similar one of another language were prescriptive with precepts and principles, sometimes exaggerated into dogma and people not adhering to them being tortured or murdered.

In the 1960s, the translation studies started to become aware of itself as an academic discipline.

Chen Hui 陈惠

I. Introduction

Translating sets forth on its journey a long time ago. It has been over 2200 years since Livius Andronicus translated Homer’s Odyssey from Greek into Latin around 250 BC, which is the earliest activity of translating from recorded history. Throughout history, translation is not only involved in politics,culture, religion, language and so forth, but also keeps changing as times and social conditions roll on. On grounds of the changes of targets and contents of translation history, considering the specific periods of people’s apprehension of translation and the roles translation plays in society of different times, researchers divided the history of western translation into 3 parts, translation of religious materials, translation of literary classics and translation of non-literary materials.

Chen Jiangning 陈江宁

The division of western translation history varies from person to person in circles of translation. Generally speaking, from about 250 BC when people translated Septuagint into Greek to the 16th century when the translation of the Bible prevailed, it is the historical period of translating religious materials, followed by period of translation of literature mainly from literary classics and great works of social sciences.(Wu & Shu 2011:76) After the Second World War, however, translation of non-literary and practical materials began to exert influence as a major force.

Chen Jiaxin 陈佳欣

In the west, studies on translation practices and theories have walked through the recorded history of over two thousand years, which is very close to the one in China. Nevertheless, China had made little progress with translation studies because of closed-door policy. Before years around 1980s, the systematic study on theories of western translation had been left incomplete in China, where few books and papers related were published. And even in the western countries, there existed similar situations. However, studies on theories of western translation has made appreciable development since 1980s, especially the books on history of western translation theory written by Rener, Robinson, etc.

Chen Jingjing 陈静静

These books and materials are indisputably of great value for us to take a closer look at theories of western translation, yet it is very hard for people of Chinese cultures to search, unearth and analyse the history of translation theories in the backgrounds of western cultures. As Tan Zaixi put it in his book The Brief History of Western Translation, “From ancient times, translation in the west has been proceeding for over two thousand years, along with extraordinary translators and divergent theories, which can not be expound within twenty or thirty thousand words.”(Tan 1991:1) And for translation studies as a independent discipline, it is a very meaningful job to study translation and its theories from all over the world, which includes the western translation theories.

Chen Sha 陈莎

Accordingly, while studying the history of western translation theories, we must understand the necessity of describing the development of western translation theories in a proper way and figure out how they are classified, especially for theories of modern and contemporary times. Based on the fundamental way of studying translation or ideologies of various schools, now people would usually divide translation studies into literary school, linguistic school and cultural school.

Chen Sunfu 谌孙福

The literary school includes the traditional philological approach and the hermernutic approach; the linguistic school consists of the equivalence approach, the functional approach and the cognitive approach; the cultural school covers translation studies approach, deconstruction approach, feminism approach, post-colonial approach and the integrated approach, of which translation studies approach can be further divided into polysystem theory, the norm theory and the manipulation theory. By contributing new thoughts to this discussion, the study aims to reach more consensus among translation studies scholars in this aspect.

Chen Yongxiang 陈永相

II. School Classification

Beyond dispute, it’s practicable that people describe the history of western translation theories by dividing them into different schools in light of theories and ideologies of translation studies. With the modernization and integration of economy in western society, western translation theories also begin to get over the hurdles in the way of mutual development and blur the distinction among nationalities, which makes it harder to owe some ideology or theory of translation to a certain country or area. For instance, Gideon Toury was famous in the west but lived in Israel.

Cheng Yusi 成于思

In contrast, when some ideology or theory is proposed by someone in some place, it can probably be responded to or supported by scholars from all corners of the world. They hold it up totally out of agreement with the points someone makes, not necessarily where the points come from. Another example, Eugene A. Nida, who put forward the idea of “functional equivalence”, is American, but Kade, who is his supporter, comes from German. Therefore, it might be easier to understand the present situation and trends of western translation theories from levels of translation schools and ideologies, especially for theories of contemporary and modern times.

Deng Jinxia 邓锦霞

As one would expect, it is just one of the methods to classify western translation theories on the basis of translation schools or ideologies. From a perspective of historical development, it would be a more traditional way to classify western translation theories by times and nations. This diachronic way of studying it helps to organize the historical materials clearly and make profitable comparisons among traditions and characteristics of translation theories among western countries and regions, which enables people to understand the distribution and trends of western translation theories with an open mind. On the other hand, the diachronic way also describes the divergence and amalgamation of western translation theories.

Ding Daifeng 丁代凤

To give an example, the debate between free and literal translation never ends during which the eclecticism occurred and then literal translation was overtaken by free translation; the transfer from regarding the words as translation units to viewing sentences, discourses and even the whole passages as translation units... and so on. Despite that, as for studies on western translation theories, it is not the best way to do it only by a certain means. If we completely choose the way of describing the history of western translation theories by dividing them into different schools in light of theories and ideologies of translation studies, the relation between translation theories and specific cultural environment of society may be ambiguous and so is the relation between diachronic and synchronic development of translation.

Fang Jieling 方洁玲

If we only decide on a more traditional way to classify western translation theories by times and nations, our research and description will inevitably be in need of subjects of translation theories. To avoid such deficiencies, we must adopt a way combining both means mentioned above to study western translation theories. In other words, we must take into consideration not only the historical connection between theories and ideas of translation but also the relation of translation theories with the specific social and cultural environment. Only by doing so, our research would be able to describe the whole process of western translation theories from an objective perspective.

Gan Fengyu 甘奉玉

From what we have mentioned above, we view western translation theories from two sides. First, we view it from the respect of historical development steadily. Cicero, was the first translation theorist in the west during times of Roman empire. As a rhetorician and orator, he categorized translation into ones by “ut interpres” and “ut orator” for the first time. Translation by “ut interpres” means translation of no creativity but translation by “ut orator” means translation of creativity which may even rival the original.

Gao Mingzhu 高明珠

As a matter of fact, Cicero put forward two fundamental ways of translating and pioneered the study of theories and methods of translation. Since Cicero’s studies on translation, western translation theories have been dealing with arguments between free translation and literal translation, word-for-word translation and excessively free translation, faithfulness and unfaithfulness and so forth.

Gong Yumian 龚钰冕

Besides Cicero, there are an abundance of excellent translation theorists in western translation history, who have proposed assorted theories and ideas from different angles in different times. In ancient times, aside from Cicero’s categorization of “literal translation” and “free translation”, Marcus Fabius Quintlianus thought that the target ought to compete with the original; St. Jerome believed that people were supposed to follow the rules of literal translation when translating the Bible and use free translation when it came to literary classics; St. Augustine held the view that translation was inspired by God.

Gu Dongfang 顾东方

In the Middle Ages, Manlius Boethius promoted the literal translation that would rather keep “faithful” than “elegant”; Dante was of the opinion that “works of literature are untranslatable”. During the Renaissance, Desiderius Erasmus believed that translation was not a subjection to authority of religious beliefs and translation of the Bible depended on the language of a translator; Martin Luther held the view of humanism that texts must be rendered in the people’s language; Etienne Dolet reckoned that people translated on “five principles” of understanding the content of the original, being proficient in the original language and the target language, avoiding word-for-word translation, expounding in simple languages and focusing on the style of the target text.

Guan Qinqing 管钦清

From the 17th to 19th century, Charles Batteux was of the opinion that author was the master and translator was the servant, whose work were not allowed to be amplified, to omit and change the wording of the original; John Dryden categorized translating into metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation and he thought translation was some kind of art; Tytler put forward three principles that the target reflected the ideas exactly the original conveyed, the style and skills the target used should be of the same characteristics of the original and the target should be as expressive as the original; Friedrich Schleiermacher made a distinction between translation and interpretation, literal translation and mechanical translation; Humboldt believed his theories that language decided the translatability and untranslatability of the world; Matthew Arnold thought whether a translation was good or not depended on the experts; Francis W. Newman had the idea that it were common readers, not the experts,who determined the criteria of translation.

Gui Yizhi 桂一枝

In the 20th century, we have Fedolov’s theories that people should study translation theories from linguistics first and translation theories is categorized into history, introduction and arguments of translation; we have Roman Jakobson’s three classification of interlingual translation, intralingual translation and intersemiotic translation; we have Levy’s thoughts that “translating should make reader have an illusion of the original”, “translating is a deciding process”; we have Gachechiladze’s theories on literary translation that “translation is always a artistic and realistic reflection of the original” and “ translation of literature and art is a artistic work”;

Guo Lu 郭露

we have Carford’s theories of linguistics that translation should reach an equivalence of context; Nida thought “translating is a science”, “translating is communicating” and there exists equivalence between the readers of the original and the target; Mounin’s view of modern linguistics on translation theories; Paul Valery emphasized that the target needed to break the limits of the original. All the thoughts and ideas mentioned above have constituted the most essential parts of western translation theories.

Han Haiyang 韩海洋

Furthermore, we could look at the whole system of western translation theories from the other side, which is the schools of ideology. There are two branches of it: translation theories of literature and art and linguistics theories of translation. The school of translation of literature and art stems from the early drama by Terentius in Ancient Rome, ucceeded by Levy and Gachechiladze in modern times, and continues to thrive in the 21st century.

Han Wanzhen 韩宛真

People of this branch perceive translation as a kind of literary art, which draws attention to recreation of literature. Theorists have been discussing the defects and merits between faithfulness and unfaithfulness, word-for-word translation and excessively free translation, literal translation and free translation and so on. Besides, they also foreground the purposes and effects of translation. They stress both the original and the literary attributes of the language of it., as well as the idiomatic expression and tradition of literature of the original that people must respect whiling translating. They not only zero in on the style and literariness of the text very much but the talent of literature a translator or interpreter should possess.

He Changqi 何长琦

The school of linguistic theories of translation is from Augustine and people of traditional linguistics or philology in Ancient Rome to various schools of modern linguistics in the 20th and 21st century. For this situation, the core lies in language. People of this school, who think that the goal of translating is to reach the equivalence between the original and the target, combine translation theories with analysis of semantic and syntactic functions and talk on issues of translation from the characteristics of structure and sentence-making skills of a language so as to show how the equivalent texts are made from words, grammars and other features of a language.

Hu Baihui 胡百辉

From either branches we can see that they have their own advantages and disadvantages. Translation theories of literature and art give an emphasis to the purposes and results of translating and the artistic effects from a macroscopic view, but neither pay much heed to practical process of translating and skills of using a language nor care about whether the target and the original reach the equivalence of structures. Linguistics theories of translation is also not spotless because some theories don’t stress the aesthetic functions and ignore the recurrences of works of literature and art. They mostly focus on the structure of a language to and theoretically are limited to word, sentence or syntax only, which disregards the main structure of a text and the structure of discourse and the cultural features to a larger extent.

Hu Huifang 胡慧芳

However, no matter it is the branch of translation theories of literature and art or linguistics theories of translation, they are not completely isolated but complement each other. Although either of two branches has its own shortcomings, there is no translation theorist of literature and art who could talk about the artistic value of literary works divorced from linguistic issues; there is no theorist of linguistics who could be immersed in linguistic structures of a text without issues of aesthetics.

Hu Jin 胡瑾

III. About The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish

Joan Pinkham, a professional translator from the U.S., published the book The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish in 2000. She worked for the Foreign Languages Press and Central Compilation and Translation Bureau in China for 8 years from 1980s to 1990s. It is one of the few books by westerners that systematically discuss the “Chinglish” issues in China. In the years working for the Foreign Languages Press and Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, her job was to revise and polish the drafts from Chinese translators, which was inevitably affected by Chinese and mindset of Chinese people. For that reason, Pinkham got to know many English translations with “Chinese characteristics” and wrote this book.

Ji Tiantian 纪甜甜

The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish consists of three parts, Unnecessary Words, Sentence Structure and Supplementary Examples, which reveal lots of mistakes Chinese translators tend to make.

First of all let’s take a look at examples given in the fist chapter:

promoting the cause of peaceful reunification;

reforms in the sphere of economy;

to ensure a relationship of close cooperation between.

Jiang Fengyi 蒋凤仪

Phrases like these can often be seen in some English papers or periodicals and they seem to make sense to English learners or translators in China. But the author regards them as negative examples in the first chapter of the first part, Unnecessary Nouns. The author mentioned that “Many of these nouns are easy to recognize. They are plainly redundant because their sense is already included or implied in some other element of sentence.”(Liu 2002:34) in the book. Here the author perceives nouns like “cause”, “sphere” and “relationship” as “category nouns”, which are the general nouns that sever only to introduce a specific noun to follow.

Jiang Hao 姜好

Let’s take the first phrase as an example. In such constructions, the first noun announces the category of the second; in this case, it tells the readers that “promoting” falls into the category of “cause.” That is something they already know. Accordingly, the first noun should be deleted: “ promoting peaceful reunification.”(Pinkham 2000:16) It is the same for other two examples. What’s more, the first chapter also involves “Unnecessary Verbs.” Examples are as follows:

to bring about a change in this state of affairs;

until China realizes its modernization;

trying to entice the Korean army to launch an attack against them.

Jiang Qiwei 蒋淇玮

“Like unnecessary nouns, most unnecessary verbs in Chinglish occur in phrases. Usually they are combined with nouns (plus the inevitable articles and prepositions that nouns bring with them).”(Pinkham 2000:34) The commonest type is phrases like these. As for “to bring about a change in this state of affairs”, here the verb (“bring about”) is a weak, colorless, all purpose word having no very specific meaning of its own, while the real action is expressed in the noun(“change”). Since the verb is not contributing anything to the sense, it can be edited out: “change this state of affairs.”

Kang Haoyu 康浩宇

In the second chapter, the author talks about Unnecessary Modifiers, which is not a problem easy to cope with for Chinese translators because it covers the issue of whether they should be used and using the modifiers properly. Five types of unnecessary modifiers are listed, redundant modifiers, self-evident modifiers, intensifiers, qualifiers and cliches. But the author especially points out that it is not appropriate to revise some accepted phrases, which are related to some national policies, even if they have unnecessary modifiers in the sentences, because this may cover political affairs.

Kang Lingfeng 康灵凤

In the third and forth chapter the author talks on Redundant Twins and Saying the Same Thing Twice. For instance, views and opinions, help and assistance, stir up and incite, sentiments and feelings, prudent and cautious. The author classifies the redundant words into three groups according to the relation between synonyms and clauses and offers corresponding reversion. And she adds that examples of redundant synonyms are too many to list even for native English speakers; for example, rules and regulations, bits and pieces, by leaps and bounds, betwixt and between, by hook or by crook, huffing and puffing.

Kong Xianghui 孔祥慧

After centuries of development, these phrases are now accepted by native English speakers or learners probably because of their jaunty alliteration or rhythm. But the author believes that these phrases unavoidably “exert an influence not only on native speakers of English (including foreign polishers) but on Chinese translators as well, reinforcing the habits of their own language. No doubt this influence contributes to the abundance of twins in Chinglish.”

Kong Yanan 孔亚楠

The first chapter of the second part is mainly about The Noun Plague. Here the author shows a draft: “The prolongation of the existence of this temple is due to the solidity of its construction.” She also gives a revision: “The temple has endured because it was solidly built.” The first version contains four abstract nouns, while the second has none. Not only do the nouns make the statement nearly twice as long, but they also make it pretentious, wooden and hard to understand.(Pinkham 2000:56) Yet, the author doesn’t think that “noun plague” only occurs in Chinglish but in English by native speakers, especially in theses and government documents where abstract nouns can often be seen, because they want their theses or documents to seem more “authoritative” or “scientific.”

Lei Fangyuan 雷方圆

The author thinks this is a dangerous trend which we should all fight against. And she advocates to use more verbs, gerunds or adverbs instead of abstract nouns. From the eighth to the twelfth chapter, the author gives some instruction to tell English learners and translators in China how to get rid of the mindset of Chinglish by putting pronouns and antecedents first, then the adjuncts and its purposes, in a logical way. The eighth chapter discussed the improper collocation of pronouns and antecedents. In this condition, personal pronouns, relative pronouns or demonstrative pronouns show up without antecedents or are too far away from antecedents.

Lei Kuangxi 雷旷溪

This is exactly what the uncertainty and lack of rigor of Chinese has brought about. The ninth chapter mainly talks about where we should set phrases or clause in an English sentence. The author is of the opinion that translators should pay attention to where the phrases or clauses are in a sentence so that the logic is clear and key points are highlighted. She also thinks that the phrases or clauses ought to modify what is close to them, otherwise in the sentence may occur the illogical parts. In addition, to stress the key points, the most important information should be imparted at the end of a sentence.