Hist Trans Theo EN 4

History of Translation Theories

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Chapter 4 An Overview of the Development of Western Translation Theories

西方翻译理论发展概述

曾俊霖 国别与区域研究 Hunnan Normal University

Introduction

From the overall historical development process, Chinese and western translation theories have an indissoluble bond with aesthetics from the beginning.

However, the development of translation theory in the west is different from that in China. Western translation theory and Chinese translation theory are in very different historical and social conditions, in very different national cultural soil and social ecological environment. They have very different philosophical and aesthetic origins, and provide them with theoretical ideas as the driving force of evolution and development. Therefore, western translation theory and Chinese translation theory must move forward along their respective development tracks. No matter from the diachronic vertical or synchronic section, the dependence between western translation theory and philosophy aesthetics is far less than that of Chinese traditional translation theory.

We can first analyze it from the historical development. Western translation theory can be roughly divided into four periods: classical translation theory period, ancient translation theory period, modern translation theory period and modern translation theory period.

George Steiner divides Western translation theory into the following four periods in his famous book After Babel: The first period is from Cicero and Horace to Taitler, and the later book Essay on the Principles of Translation is published ( 1791) as a symbol; the second period is from the end of the 19th century to the 1940s, with Valery as a representative; the third period is marked by the advent and development of machine translation technology and theory in the 1940s; the fourth period Generally parallel to the third period, it is marked by hermeneutic and metaphysical inquiries (hermeneutic and metaphysical inquiries). Steiner's periodization has been criticized by Western translation theory circles.

Period of classical translation theory

This is the initial period of western translation theory. According to the textual research of Rosetta Stone (discovered in 1799) by Western Egyptologists, western translation activities may have started in 2000 BC. Due to the long history and lack of historical evidence, it is impossible to test whether there were translation theories in 1900 before Cicero. There are four main translation theorists in the period of classical translation theory. The first three are Cicero, Horace and Jerome, who is the source of the development history of western translation theory for 2000 years. The western translation theory in the classical period is mainly based on the ancient Greek philosophers, especially the rhetoric and poetics written by Aristotle. These are two classic works that have a deep impact on Western literary aesthetics. Rhetoric expounds oratory by using the methodology of ancient psychology. Its main purpose is to emphasize the power of language infection and the means to achieve the effect of language infection - language style, and points out that only a beautiful article style can have the power of sensing and imparting. Therefore, speakers must abide by the principle that the use of language should strive to be clear and appropriate, and should not be artificial, so as not to damage the momentum of language due to affectation, and the conditions to ensure the momentum of language are accurate and relevant. In addition, Aristotle believes that the momentum of the article is also closely related to the form of writing. Speakers should adopt prose form. They should neither rhyme, nor ignore the rhythm, nor ignore the vividness of the words. No matter what style is adopted, or slow or high, the writing is naturally the first important meaning. Aristotle is the first classical aesthetic master in the west to affirm "the perceptual reality of beauty".

Under the influence of ancient Greek philosophers such as Thales, Plato and Aristotle, Cicero put forward the naturalism and momentum theory of translation, opposed the translation of "word for word" and advocated the translation of "sense for sense". This argument has a profound impact on western translation studies. In philosophy, Cicero was influenced by Plato to maintain "reason", but in translation theory, he opposed to damaging the natural beauty and momentum beauty of the translation with "rigid application of reason".Horace agrees with Cicero's proposition, opposes the standard of "rigid notes of" fidelity "as the translation, opposes the translator becoming a slave translator who only follows the mandate of the original text, and advocates the use of" aesthetic criteria "in translation. It can be seen that what is valuable is the methodological dialectical view of Xi and Huo. Jerome was the first translator to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin, the translator of the Vulgate, and the successor of Cicero's translation style. Jerome advocates the natural theory of translation and maintains Cicero's legacy. He believes that the translator has the right to break through the formal constraints of the original syntax, but must abide by the correspondence of words at the morpheme level and be faithful to the original text. Therefore, Jerome was a popular translation theorist in the 5th century. Augustine, the fourth representative figure in the classical period, plays a connecting role, that is, from Cicero, Horace and Jerome to Thomas Aquinas (c1225 – 1274ad), the most important scholastic philosopher in the middle ages. As a classical ancient translation theorist, Augustine's first achievement is to inherit and develop Aristotle's semiotic theory. When discussing "symbols", Aristotle aims to develop its rhetorical function. For "free word order languages" such as Latin, the beauty of symbolic form obviously has rhetorical visual value. Augustine expanded Aristotle's symbolic formal framework from the signifier function of the symbol to the signified layer, and pointed out that the "signifier", the human psychological structure, is derived from human's "perception of reality", and the "signifier" is a "sound set" associated with it (the group of vocal sounds); as far as words are concerned, it only represents the sign of the reference, which is arbitrary. It can be seen that Austen's views on symbols pointed out the direction for the modern semiotic theory in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, Austen's research was not valued by the translation theorists until the second half of the middle ages. Augustine's second achievement is that he put forward aesthetic propositions such as "beauty is suitability", "order", "harmony" and "unity". Based on his aesthetics, he advocates the advantages of translation. He pays more attention to the problem of form than Jerome. At the same time, he is persistent in the correspondence of semantics at the level of semantic morpheme or sememe. Augustine is a transitional figure entering the Middle Ages in the history of European aesthetics, as well as in translation theory. （Susan Bassnett-Mcquire,1980,43–44）

The period of classical translation theory is a very important period in the history of western translation studies. At that time, the focus of translation circles was to introduce the culture of ancient Greece, which is called "Hellenization" in history. Classical "Greek culture" is as bright as stars, which makes translators and translation theorists energetic and aspire to it. This is different from Chinese classical translation theory (Buddhist Scripture Translation in China). The introduction of Greek culture by the ancient Romans has nothing to do with religion, but involves epic, lyric poetry, philosophy aesthetics, architecture, rhetoric, literature and art (Poetics), drama, history, war history and so on. Its similarity with Chinese classical translation theory is that they all turn to aesthetic ideas and principles. As far as aesthetic ontology is concerned, Western classical aesthetics involves a wide range of categories, and there are a large number of talents. Thales is the first Western philosopher to replace mythological thinking (ignorant thinking) with rational thinking. He advocates the theory that "the most beautiful is the universe" and advocates nature. Pythagoras (c580 – c500bc) is regarded as the discoverer of the golden section and advocates the "beauty of harmony". Herakleitus (c540 – 470bc) put forward the subjective aesthetic view of "looking for oneself", holding that "harmony comes from opposition", which is the germination of Classical Dialectics. Hester also raised the issue of the relativity of beauty, advocated rationality, and advocated thinking, understanding and the control of the mind. Demokritus (C460 – 370bc) is the first natural science philosopher in the West and the first aesthetician to demonstrate sensory experience and image. These four people are the so-called "pre Socrates" in ancient Greece. Together with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, they form the origin of western academic thought. Of course, it is natural that the sprouting of translation studies is attached to the theory of sages.

Period of ancient translation theory

The second period of western translation theory, the ancient period, lasted a long time, from the "post Augustine" period at the end of the 5th century to the eve of the European industrial revolution, that is, the late 18th century, covering the whole Middle Ages and about 300 years later (500-1795). Translation theory in this period was accompanied by two great historical achievements: the Renaissance and the religious reform. Therefore, the translation theory in this period is characterized by cultural literary translation and religious (Scripture) translation. The prelude to the European Renaissance (which began in the 14th century, peaked in the 15th and 16th centuries and ended in the mid-17th century) is the flourishing of Christian civilization, marked by the so-called "edict of Milan" issued by Constantine I (C280 – 337ad). The imperial edict authorized Christianity to obtain legal status in the Roman Empire. Since then, Christianity has become more and more popular through the influence of the Holy See. The Scriptures have been proofread and translated by Jerome and Augustine. Christian civilization has flourished all over Europe in the early Middle Ages.

At the same time, European social economy also appeared commercialization and handicrafts under the framework of medieval Christian civilization, leading to the emergence of city-state politics and urban landscape, which was the initial light of the Renaissance. By the 13th century, there were many European literary and artistic masters, including Dante (1265 – 1321, the author of Divine Comedy), Boccaccio (1313 – 1375, the author of Decameron), Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) and raffaelo Sanzio rapheal (1483 – 1520), who awakened European national consciousness and the so-called "all talent ideal"（ The worship and pursuit of "the well-sound personality" had a profound impact. What went hand in hand with the prosperity of literature and art and the development of city-state politics was the popularity of social and political theories and new social trends of thought at that time. Europeans scrambled to study the famous works discoveries on Levy (1531) by Nicolo Machiavelli (1569 – 1527). All this made The "translation industry" has developed unprecedentedly. Translation practice has promoted translation research. At this time, there are different translation theories, and the scope of discussion has gone beyond the vision of classical translation theorists, with a strong color of verification. One of the best, which can be said to be the first Western philosopher to comprehensively attack translation, is Roger Bacon (C1214 – 1292) Bacon was a pioneer in the field of Natural Science in the 13th century. He condemned the translation between Greek, Hebrew and Latin as full of semantic distortion "with the philosophical insight of natural scientists", which reduced the translation to a "hodgepodge of errors and misunderstandings". It was driven by Bacon's call to put things right that the Bible appeared John Wycliffe (c1330 – 1384), a religious reformer, translated the first English translation of the Bible of Wycliffe. His influential translation of the Bible of Wycliffe reflects the spirit of verification of Bacon's later progressive translation theory, which was invaluable in the ignorant middle ages. Wycliffe believed that Christ was the master of mankind and opposed the church's "orthodox doctrine" (the orthodox church doctrine) arbitrarily interpreted the meaning of the Bible, denounced the "papal infallibility", refused to accept the Vatican's arbitrary interpretation of the Scriptures and adhered to the semantics of the original language, thus posing strong doubts and challenges to the translation. In fact, this is a religious reform movement advocated by Martin Luther on the European continent (the reform, C1520 – c1525) has a far-reaching impact on the history of translation in Britain and even Europe. Social criticism and scholars' verification have greatly improved the level of translation. This period is a productive period in the history of European translation.

Period of Pre-Modern translation theory

This is the third period of western translation theory, or "pre modern period", that is, from the religious reform (1517-1648) of wilcliff and Martin Luther in the mid-17th century to the end of the 19th century, the argument began to gradually turn to classical philology and language philosophy. The major historical events during this period were the European Industrial Revolution (1750's – 1830's) and the French Revolution (1788-1799), as well as the germination and evolution of European middle-class economy and its ideology before and after this period. The most important phenomenon affecting translation theory in culture is the development of ancient philology and Hermeneutics in the enlightenment. After the Renaissance, the focus of European language research was still Latin and Greek, which had been in a secondary position. The social and economic development since the enlightenment and the industrial revolution obviously put forward many problems for multilingual communication. The first ones are etymology, semantics and historical comparative linguistics. Especially after wilcliff and Martin Luther, translators increasingly doubt the interpretation of language by the Holy See, the church and scholastic philosophy in the long middle ages, and doubt the "Deviation", misunderstanding and even intentional distortion of "translation" to the "signified". Rousseau's democratic thought had a strong and profound impact on European conservatism.

Understanding this historical background, we can clearly understand why when Taylor put forward the famous "three principles of translation" at the end of the 18th century (1791), he first pointed out that "translation should completely convey the idea of the original text, supplemented by the natural fluency of the expression and style of the translation". Almost at the same time, tattler and George Campbell, who proposed that "the beauty of the translation can be discussed only if we are loyal to the original meaning", marked the end of the era when the western traditional translation theory mainly relied on classical aesthetics and literature and art. On the other hand, although the Chinese School represented by Goethe is fully mature, it can not solve many major problems raised by the spread of Christian civilization and the unprecedented development of translation practice in breadth and depth since the Renaissance and the industrial revolution. Among these problems, the first and most important is the problem of meaning, that is, the so-called "transfer of the truth value of meaning" in translation.

Exploring "semantic truth" is the basic proposition of the hermeneutic school. The representative of the hermeneutic school in modern translation theory is Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher (1768 – 1845). Ancient hermeneutics believed that the task of interpretation was to interpret the "oracle", which originated in ancient Greece and was derived from the name of "Hermes", the messenger who conveyed the gods. Before Schleiermacher, hermeneutics was full of religious mysticism in the middle ages, which believed that people's "understanding" or "not understanding" of text (at that time mainly refers to holy scripts, i.e. the Bible) was "all based on divine will", and both of them were "theological subjective phenomena". Schleiermacher's merit lies in pointing out that the so-called "incomprehension" is actually a "misinterpretation", and "the true meaning of the text lies entirely in what it 'seems' to say. If we want to rediscover the true meaning of the text, we must carefully reconstruct the life reality generated by the historical background or meaning at that time."  Schleiermacher also further put forward the means to obtain the true meaning ("original meaning", i.e. philosophical "Sein"), that is, the so-called "theory of hermeneutic circle" and more than 40 norms of "grammatical interpretation" and "psychological interpretation" (1). There is no doubt about the significance of this to the development of European translation practice. It was driven by the school of hermeneutics that Friedrich Schlegel (1772 – 1879), Samuel T. Coleridge (1772 – 1834), William Morries (1834 – 1896), Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881), Matthew Arnold and Dante D. Rossetti (1828 – 1882) were formed European Romanticism (mainly in Germany) and the corresponding wave of critical realism (mainly in Britain) as a response to the French Revolution. During this period, the mainstream of the translation theory forum was the Chinese school with literary masters as the backbone and the hermeneutic school that later kept pace with it. There is no doubt that this is one of the important development periods in the history of European translation.

Period of Modern translation theory

The fourth period is The Modern Period. This period can actually be divided into two stages. The first stage is from the end of the 19th century to the 1950s. It can also be called the "Pre-Modern Linguistic Period". Parallel to it is The Pre-Modern Linguistic Period. The Swiss linguist Saussure The study of modern linguistics was the starting point (1891), which marked the publication of the first scientific linguistics book "Cours de Linguistique Generale" (Cours de Linguistique Generale, 1916). The second stage started from the 1960s to the present, which can also be said to be the period of contemporary translation theory. During this period, modern science and technology developed rapidly. Natural sciences and social sciences were directly or indirectly driven by The Systems Theory, Control Theory or Cybernetics, and Information Theory. Advance. Modern linguistics has developed from structuralism as the mainstream to a situation where there are many new disciplines and schools. Among them, the French functional linguistics, the London school, the transformational generative grammar, sociolinguistics, and modern stylistics ( Functional stylistics), pragmatics, psycholinguistics and other emerging disciplines and schools of applied linguistics.

In the period of modern translation theory, the development of language science is very closely related to Western translation theory. Roman Jacobson (Roman Jacobson, 1896–1982), a translation theorist at the early stage of modern translation theory, is one of the founders of the Prague School and a well-known phonetician. Obviously, Jacobson's discourse on translated poems is based on phoneme analysis. Two prominent translation theorists in the 1950s, Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbenet, mainly relied on scientific linguistics to discuss translation rhetoric from the perspectives of functional stylistics and contrastive linguistics. After entering the 1960s, JC Catford clearly quoted the founder of the London School Firth (JR Firth, 1890–1960) and Firth's successor MAK Halliday's basic linguistic theories to solve the bilingual conversion. problem. E. Nida and G. Mounin mainly analyze the translation process from the perspective of structural linguistics. Among them, Nida's research results are the most eye-catching. During the 1970s and 1980s, Nida began to notice the weakness of linguistics that emphasized formal transformation and insufficient semantic research. Around the issue of "meaning" and cultural issues, many more books came out, and proposed "dynamic equivalence" (dynamic equivalence). , 1984), emphasizing the meaning view of social semiotics. In the second half of the 20th century, Western postmodern thoughts spread throughout Europe and the United States. Deconstructionism, in particular, has the deepest influence on cultural thoughts and academic thoughts. Western translation theories have also turned to "postmodernism" (especially comparative literary theory) to absorb theoretical ideas, and the great limitations of "postmodernism" have also emerged. Contemporary Western translation theory can be said to have entered a comprehensive use of various disciplines of linguistics, postmodern literary theory, semiotics, rhetoric, philosophy of language (including semantics), logic, aesthetics and other social sciences, as well as information theory, computer science, etc. The "comprehensive development period of translation theories" is a period of full bloom to solve translation problems. It seems that this is also the general trend of Western translation theory in the 21st century.