Chinese language slides

Interpreting New Zealand

Chinese Language Workshop

29 September to 27 October 2011Wellington

Daniel Cheng and Sanying Huang

Main goals of workshop

• To be more alert and sensitive to the common mistakes of interpreting English into Chinese

• To develop practical ways to avoid those mistakes

• To be more aware of those key linguistic differences between Chinese and English that underlie the common problems encountered in interpreting

Main sources of examples

• 陆谷孙 : 英汉大词典• 司显柱等 : 英汉互译教程• 王述文 : 综合英汉翻译教程• 熊文华 : 英汉翻译教程 ---理论与实践• 陈定安 : 英汉比较与翻译• 思果 : 翻译研究 , 翻译新究 , 功夫在诗

外

English influence onChinese translation

This is not even a translation

• “ 我第二次到仙岩的时候，我惊诧于梅雨潭的绿了” --- 朱自清： < 温州的踪迹 >

• When I visited Xian-yan the second time, I was surprised by the greenness of Mei Yu Tan

Let’s work throughsome examples

Example 1

• His excellent work indicates he has good potential.

• 他所做的优异工作显示他有很好的潜质 • 他工作成绩优异，足见他的潜质不错

Example 2

• He is more skilful in reading than in writing

• 他在读时比写时更有技巧 • 他读比写强

Example 3

• It is a fact that he lives here

• 他住在这里是一个事实 • 他的确住在此地

Example 4

• My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of your address delivered at the Atlanta Exposition.

• 我的亲爱的先生：我谢谢您寄给我一份您在亚特兰大展览会发表的演词

• xxx 先生大鉴：承寄先生在亚特兰大展览会发表之演讲词，幸甚。

• I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have read it with intense interest,

• 我用很多热忱谢谢您作这次演讲。我以强烈的兴趣读它，

• 先生此次俯允演讲，意极可感。鄙人拜读之余，至为关注。

• and I think the Exposition would be fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its delivery.

• 并且我想这展览会如果除了供应一个机会让它发表以外，并没有做别的事，也充分有价值了。

• 窃以为该展览即使别无所成，仅得先生莅临，发表演讲，亦不虚此举矣。

• Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who wish well for your race;

• 您的话不能不使所有希望你们种族兴盛的人欣喜和鼓励他们；

• 凡期望贵种族兴盛之人，聆先生言论，当无不欣慰振奋；

• and if our coloured fellow-citizens do not from your utterances gather new hope and form new determinations to gain every valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange indeed.

• 倘使我们有色的同胞不从您的言论获得新希望，形成新决心以取得他们公民身份给他们的每一个有价值的利益，那就真正奇怪了。

• and if our coloured fellow-citizens do not from your utterances gather new hope and form new determinations to gain every valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange indeed.

• 而黑种同胞闻先生之言，而不获新希望并下新决心，以求沾公民身份之种种权利者，亦未之有也。

• Yours very truly

Grover Cleveland.

• 你的很忠实的格罗佛尔克利福兰。

• 专此敬请台安。格罗佛尔克利福兰启。

Common mistakes

The 4 common mistakes

Affecting individual expressions

• One-one correspondence 一成不变• Trapped by words 词枷字锁

Affecting sentence structure

• Copy-cat 模仿套用• Too many words 繁冗累赘

One-one correspondence 一成不变• Taking each English word to have only

one meaning in Chinese

• Prospect of machine translation?

• Nearly all common English words have multiple equivalents in Chinese, depending on the exact context

• Let’s work through some examples

One-one correspondence 一成不变 Example 1: “to accept”

• 我很感激地收下你的礼物• 政府承认这整个事件是一桩不幸的意外• 我们从来不相信合成橡胶比天然橡胶好

One-one correspondence 一成不变 Example 1: “to accept” (cont’d)

• 他们赞成这个想法• 国会采纳了委员会的报告• 他担任了司库的职位• 他们学会了忍受恶劣的生活条件

One-one correspondence 一成不变 Example 2: “story”

• 我的孩子们爱听有关他们幼年生活的讲述

• 尽管即将处决，他仍不改变他的供词• 小说的情节

One-one correspondence 一成不变 Example 2: “story” (cont’d)

• 知情人供出了全部真情 • 他给报社发了一篇紧急报导• 这一事件将成为报纸报导的好题材• 弥天大谎。我只字不信

Trapped by words 词枷字锁• “Many an interpreter knows his

languages inside and out, misses nothing, makes no serious mistakes, and yet does not quite succeed in interpreting altogether satisfactorily. The main problem is too much of an obsession with words and not enough attention to sense”

--- Sergio Viaggio, UN Chief Interpreter

Let’s work throughsome examples

Trapped by words 词枷字锁Examples

• Common salt食盐

• I wasn’t born yesterday我不是三岁的孩子

• It is a long story说来话长

• I know what I am doing我有数

Trapped by words 词枷字锁Examples (cont’d)

• He is a failure

他一事无成• Thanks to him, I got that job

多亏了他，我得到那个工作• Almost certainly

谅必


• Until absolutely necessary

非到万不得已• The situation is beyond remedy

大势已去• Successful marriage

美满姻缘


• To buy on credit赊

• To fulfill one’s ambition如愿以偿

• She protected her husband from interruption她不让别人打扰她丈夫

Copy-cat 模仿套用

• Applying the linguistic rules of English to Chinese

• Or imitating the English way of expressing ideas

• As a result the Chinese sounds unnatural or even foreign


Copy-cat 模仿套用 Examples

• It is evident that he lied显然的，他说谎

• Let’s go我们走吧

• Only a fool will under-estimate you谁要看轻你就蠢了

Copy-cat 模仿套用 Examples (cont’d)

• He has enormous energy他精力旺盛

• It is too good to be true好的过了份，恐怕靠不住

• To acknowledge the importance and urgency of the problem承认问题严重，也很迫切

Copy-cat 模仿套用 Examples (cont’d)

• After making a week-long observation, people have acquired some initial understanding of the new organization. If we undertake a comparison with similar organizations in other countries, we should have even a better understanding.

• 大家把这个新机构研究了一个星期，已略知梗概。如果再拿它和外国的相类机构比较一下，相信还要多明白些。

Too many words 繁冗累赘

• Usually the result of ‘trapped by words’ and ‘copy cat’

• Problem often solved by using idiomatic Chinese expressions and restructuring the sentence


Too many words 繁冗累赘Examples

• I asked him to explain

我要他解释• Did enormous damage to the enemy

重创敌人• Young and inexperienced少不更事

Too many words 繁冗累赘Examples (cont’d)

• A bond between friends

友谊• Bloody conflict between the two armies

两军血战• I received a medical examination

我检查了身体

Too many words 繁冗累赘Examples (cont’d)

• He carried out a 3-day investigation

他调查了三天• People were unable to get a better life

人民生活无法改善• Engaged in a 5-year struggle

奋斗了五年• Entered a state of sleep

睡着了

An interlude: make this your target

• Avoid these 4 common mistakes

• Aim to produce a rendition that is not just readily comprehensible and accurate

• Make sure that it also sounds natural and easy, and not in anyway contrived

2 quotations

• “Bad Chinese cannot be accurate interpreting unless the original message is in bad English”

-- Z. T. Cai

• “Lightness in the rendition of thought always presumes the weight of immense knowledge, as well as inexhaustible energy to process and develop it further.”

--- Irena Stone

Getting better 1:Cast your net widely

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