ChinesetoEnglishTranslation.docxVIP

Chinese to English Translation Lecture Outline Rationale Common Misperception Reality How to be idiomatic when translating Chinese into English Major differences between English and Chinese Rationale “All translation is a compromise—the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic.” —Benjamin Jowett “Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.” —Anthony Burgess Rationale Q: What do you make of the two quotes? What do they mean? The quotes point to the two key features of translation: Faithful (“忠实原文”) Idiomatic (“符合英文表达习惯”) Common Misperception This is a so-called “literal translation” (直译). 我是个好人。 I am a good person. Reality More often, literal translation doesn’t work. For example, 好好学习，天天向上。 Good good study, day day up. If we translate the sentence word for word, it does not make any sense. We ought to be “idiomatic” when we translate. “Idiomatic” According to the dictionary, “idiomatic” means “particular to or characteristic of a given language.” Regarding Chinese to English translation, it means we should write the sentences the ENGLISH WAY. What is the English Way? Basic sentence structure: English SVO vs. Chinese flexible subject (S) verb (V) object (O) Example 1: Sally sang a song. (Sally唱了一首歌) Note: If the Chinese sentence has the 3 basic parts of SVO, it can be literally translated into English (See Example 1). What if the Chinese sentence doesn’t have 3 parts? You REPHRASE the Chinese! Example 2: 好好学习。 S V O 我要好好学习。 You need to study hard. What is the English Way? (Continued) Order of a sentence: topic-prominent Chinese vs. subject-prominent English EXAMPLE: That video we made, I liked it. VS. I liked that video we made. Therefore, when translating Chinese into English, we need to find what point is emphasized and put it first. Example: 很多教英语的教师低估了在教复杂概念，特别复杂的语法概念时母语的教学功能。 What is the basic SVO o