(Newmark)A Textbook of Translation (周骄俪)

1ATextbookofTranslationPeterNewmarkChapter1introduction(p3)Bearinmind,however,thatknowingaforeignlanguageandyoursubjectisnotasimportantasbeingsensitivetolanguageandbeingcompetenttowriteyourownlanguagedexterously,clearly,economicallyandresourcefully.(p4)Atranslatorhastohaveaflairandafeelforhisownlanguage.Thereisnothingmysticalaboutthis‘sixthsense’,butitiscompoundedofintelligence,sensitivityandintuition,aswellasofknowledge.Thissixsense,whichoftencomestoplayduringafinalrevision,tellsyouwhentotranslateliterally,andalso,instinctively,perhapsonceinahundredorthreehundredwords,whentobreakallthe‘rules’oftranslation,whentotranslateMalheurby‘catastrophe’inaseventeenth-centurytext.(p8)Atranslator,perhapsmorethananyotherpractitionerofaprofession,iscontinuallyfacedwithchoices.Inmakinghischoice,heisintuitivelyorconsciouslyfollowingatheoryoftranslation.Translationcallsonatheoryinaction;thetranslatorreviewsthecriteriaforthevariousoptionsbeforehemakeshisselectionasaprocedureinhistranslatingactivity.Chapter2TheAnalysisofaTextReadingthetext(p11)Youhavetodetermineitsintentionandthewayitiswrittenforthepurposeofselectingasuitabletranslationmethodandidentifyingparticularandrecurrentproblems.Understandingthetextrequiresbothgeneralandclosereading.Generalreadingistogetthegist.Closereadingisrequired,inanychallengingtext,ofthewordsbothoutofandincontext.Inprinciple,everythinghastobelookedupthatdoesnotmakegoodsenseinitscontext.Theintentionofthetext(p12)TheintentionofthetextrepresentstheSLwriter’sattitudetothesubjectmatter.Theintentionofthetranslator(p12)Usually,thetranslator’sintentionisidenticalwiththatoftheauthoroftheSLtext.Textstyles(p13)FollowingNida,wedistinguishfourtypesof(literaryornon-literary)text:(1)Narrative:adynamicsequenceofevents,wheretheemphasisisontheverbsor,forEnglish,‘dummy’or‘empty’verbsplusverb-nounsorphrasalverbs.(2)Description,whichisstatic,withemphasisonlinkingverbs,adjectives,adjectivalnouns.(3)Discussion,atreatmentofideas,withemphasisonabstractnouns(concepts),verbsofthought,mentalactivity(‘consider’,‘argue’,etc.),logicalargumentandconnectives.(4)Dialogue,withemphasisoncolloquialismsandphaticisms.2Thereadership(p13)Onthebasisofthevarietyoflanguageusedintheoriginal,youattempttocharacterizethereadershipoftheoriginalandthenofthetranslation,andtodecidehowmuchattentionyouhavetopaytotheTLreaders.Youmaytrytoassessthelevelofeducation,theclass,ageandsexofthereadershipiftheseare‘marked’.Stylisticscales(p14)Thescaleofformalityhasbeenvariouslyexpressed.Notethatthereissomecorrelationbetweenformalityandemotionaltone,inthatanofficialstyleislikelytobefactual,whilstcolloquialismsandslangtendtobeemotive.Attitude(p15)Inpassagemakingevaluationsandrecommendations,youhavetoassessthestandardsofthewriter.Ifhewrites‘good’,‘fair’,‘average’,‘competent’,‘adequate’,‘satisfactory’,‘middling’,‘poor’,‘excellent’,arehisstandards--relativetothecontext—absolute,generallyacceptedinhisculture,orarbitrary?Setting(p15)Youhavetodecideonthelikelysetting:wherewouldthetextbepublishedintheTL?WhatistheTLequivalentoftheSLperiodical,newspaper,textbook,journal,etc?orwhoistheclientyouaretranslatingforandwhatarehisrequirements?Thethreetypicalreadertypesareperhapstheexpert,theeducatedlayman,andtheuninformed.Thequalityofthewriting(p16)Thequalityofthewritinghastobejudgedinrelationtotheauthor’sintentionand/ortherequirementsofthesubject-matter.Chapter3TheProcessofTranslatingTherelationoftranslatingtotranslationtheory(p19)Thepurposeofthistheoryoftranslatingistobeofservicetothetranslator.Itisdesignedtobeacontinuouslinkbetweentranslationtheoryandpractice;itderivesfromatranslationtheoryframeworkwhichproposesthatwhenthemainpurposeofthetextistoconveyinformationandconvincethereader,amethodoftranslationmustbe‘natural’.‘Naturalness’isbothgrammaticalandlexical,andisatouchstoneateverylevelofatext,fromparagraphtoword,,fromtitletopunctuation.Thelevelofnaturalnessbindstranslationtheorytotranslatingtheory,andtranslatingtheorytopractice.(p20)Thetheoryoftranslatingisbased,viathelevelofnaturalness,onatheoryoftranslation.ThereforeonearrivesattheschemeshowninFigure2:3ThreelanguagefunctionsExpressive(authoritative)InformativeVocative(directiveorpersuasive)TranslationtheorySemanticCommunicativeTranslationtheoryframeofreferenceProblemContextualfactorsTranslationproceduresTheoryoftranslationTextualReferentialLevelsCohesiveNaturalTranslationpractice(Afunctionaltheoryoflanguage)(p20)TheApproach(p21)Therearetwoapproachestotranslating(andmanycompromisesbetweenthem):(1)youstarttranslatingsentencebysentence,forsaythefirstparagraphorchapter,togetthefeelandthefeelingtoneofthetext,andthenyoudeliberatelysitback,reviewtheposition,andreadtherestoftheSLtext;(2)youreadthewholetexttwoorthreetimes,andfindtheintention,register,tone,markthedifficultwordsandpassagesandstarttranslatingonlywhenyouhavetakenyourbearings.Whichofthetwomethodsyouchoosemaydependonyourtemperament,oronwhetheryoutrustyourintuition(forthefirstmethod)oryourpowersofanalysis(forthesecond).Alternatively,youmaythinkthefirstmethodmoresuitablefo