翻译Chapter2.ppt

The Analysis of a Text READING THE TEXT You begin the job by reading the original for two purposes: first, to understand what it is about; second, to analyze it from a ‘translator’s’ point of view, which is not the same as a linguist’s or a literary critic’s. You have to determine its intention and the way it is written for the purpose of selecting a suitable translation method and identifying particular and recurrent problems. Understanding the text requires both general and close reading. General reading to get the gist (main idea); here you may have to read encyclopedias, textbooks , or specialist papers to understand the subject and the concepts, always remember that for the translator the function precedes the description. ‘Chair’, chaise–they all present somewhat different images, lax bundles of shapes that differ in each culture, united primarily by a similar function , an object for a person to sit on plus a few essential formal features , such as a board with a back and four legs. A knife is for cutting with, but the blade and the handle are important too they distinguish the knife from the scissors. Close reading is required, in any challenging text, of the words both out of and in context. In principle, everything has to be looked up that does not make good sense in its context; common words like serpent (F), to ensure they are not being used musically or figuratively (sly, deceitful ) or technically (EEC currency) or colloquially; neologisms you will likely find many if you are translating a recent publication (for ‘non-equivalent’ words); acronyms(首字母缩略), to find their TL equivalents, which may be non-existent (you should not invent them, even if you note that the SL author has invented them); figures and measures, converting to TL or Système International (SI) units where appropriate; names of people and places, almost all words beginning with capital letters ‘encyclopedia’ words are as important as ‘dictionary’ words, the distinction being fuzzy.