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1、Word Meaning by Context in English- Chinese Translation英译汉中间的语境摘要：翻译课程的目的是为了更好的理解另一种语言和寻求更合适的表达方式。本篇主要阐述为什么以及如何根据语境选择合适的翻译词汇，也就是“没有语境，没有翻译”。关键词：语境 语意 意译OutlineI. Introduction. Context and the Choice of Word Meaning Linguists . Conclusion提纲I. 导言. 意译与语境. 结语I. IntroductionEugene A Nita believes that tr
2、anslation consists in producing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language. Every word has meaning, and many are poly semis. Except for its relabeled abstract semantic meaning, word meaning is affected by many factors, such as, the factor of titling Word Meaning
3、by Context the factor of contextual effect including tenors communicative intentioned the effect he expects; and the factor of culturalon text including readers different experience and thoughts under different cultural background, etc. Con-ext is just one of these factors, also the most important.
4、There are many kinds of classifications of con-ext. This paper briefly introduces linguistic and ex-ra-linguistic context, and illustrates their effects re-positively. To know context is decisive to the choices word meaning is very important in translation. It will help to avoid errors and make the
5、translation faith expressive and elegant. Context and the Choice of Word Meaning Linguists home or abroad have classified differently about the connotation of context. The famous Chinese linguist Zhang Zhigong classified context as realistic context and context in broad sense; Malinnovsky divided co
6、ntext into context of culture and context of situation; English linguist M.A.K.Hallidayclassified context as field, tenor, and mode. Context, inits traditional sense is restricted to linguistic context, but the notion of context has been broadened to both linguistic(direct) and non-linguistic (indir
7、ect)contexts, according to the level that word meaning is restricted by context. Meaning Direct context refers to the combination of the context in narrow sense and the context in broad sense. The context in narrow sense means the immediately juxtaposed words or the same sentence, while the con-text
8、 in broad sense is also called textual context refer-ring to the whole paragraph, the text, even the whole book or relative works. They both have an effect on the value of word meaning and they are the main foundation for the choice of word meaning. They are also called linguistic context. The lingu
9、istic context is an aspect of contextualize. It is concerned only with the probability of one words co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the “meaning”, and an important factor in communication. in its narrow sense which determines the choice of word meaning includes syntact
10、ic context, lexical context and rhetorical ways. In translation, in order to solve the problem of politely and make sure the choice of equivalent word, the syntactic con-text should be taken into consideration to find basis in syntactic structure.E.g.1.“How old was I when you first took me in a boat
11、?” “Five and you nearly were killed when I brought the fish in too green and nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?”“你头一趟带我上船, 那时我多大岁数? ”“五岁。当年我把一条生龙活虎的鱼拖上船的时候, 那家伙险些儿把那只船撞得粉碎, 你也险些儿送了命。还记得吗? ”E.g.2.“It is strange,”the old man said.”He never went hurtling. That is what kills the eyes.”“这倒
12、也奇怪”,老头儿说。“他是从来不去钓海龟的。钓海龟才伤眼睛哩。”In the above two examples, green and kill are all polysemys. In the dictionary, green can be used as adjective, noun and verb, and kill is usually used as verband noun. Of course, it is easy to judge their part of speech if we judge separately from the frame of words
13、and the juxtaposed words. But to make sure their exact word meaning, besides the above conditions, we have to look at the whole sentence, that is the context in narrow sense, because there are twenty kinds of explanations about green and ten kinds of explanations about kill in dictionary. Only when
14、they are put into their context can we make sure that green here means” vigorous and active” and kill means “spoil the effect of”. Context Lexical context is also called lexical collocation. In translation, we should ascertain the unique meaning of a word in lexical environment, that is, to translat
15、e according to conventional collocation. Firth believes” you shall know a word by the company it keeps”. Here, “the keeping company” is collocation, a part of word meaning. In some special conditions, especially in formal style, even the easy and usual collocation will be different in meaning, which
16、 requires the translator to think over and explore the true con not ation. E.g. Yet, as it sometimes happens that a person departs his life, who is really deserving of the praises the stone-cutter carves over his bones, who is a good Christian, a good parent, a good child, a good wife, ora good husb
17、and; who actually does have a disconsolate family to mourn his loss.不过偶尔某个死者当得起石匠刻在他骨上的好话。真的是虔诚的教徒, 慈爱的父母, 孝顺的儿女,贤良的妻子, 忠于妻子的丈夫, 他的家人也的确哀思绵绵地悼念他。In this example, “good”is translated into many different meanings, because if we only translate it into“好”, the translation will be dull and full of trivia
18、l de-tails. Which one of the various possible meanings of award is most likely to be right for a particular expression? The context consisting of other words is usually far more important than the context consisting of particular grammatical structures. The lexical context, however, may be of two qu
19、ite different types, either “immediate ”or “remote”. An “immediate” lexical context normally includes words that are contiguous or occur within the same phrase, clause, sentence or short paragraph. The non-immediate or “remote” context would be lexical units occurring somewhere else with-in the same
20、 discourse, or perhaps in similar discourses produced by the same author, or even by different authors who might have special reason for employing words or idioms with somewhat similar meanings Rhetorical Ways Very important clues as to the meaning of an ex-press ion can come from the rhetorical str
21、ucture of passage. The famous pun on son/sun in Hamlet provides another instance in which the rhetorical structure helps to elucidate the implications of the related meanings: King: But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son.Hamlet (aside): A little more than kin, and less than kind! King: How is it that
22、 the clouds still hang on you? Hamlet: Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun. The second line by Hamlet seems to suggest that sun should be understood in its literal sense, in view of the immediate preceding line uttered by the king. But the father-son theme has been clearly indicated in the fir
23、st part of the dialogue, and the play on words between son and sun becomes even more obvious with the statement of the queen, which follows: Queen: Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off. And let thin eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy availed lids Seek for thy noble fathe
24、r in the dust. What the Queen says about Hamlets attitude and relation to the present king of Denmark being the important issue, rather than his own mood, confirms the double interpretation of the statement “I am too much in the sun”. the emotive value of a term depends, not upon any other term in a
25、 passage, but up-on the general tone. For example, the English expression “nonsense” can be translated into Chinese by several different expressions, if the total context in which such a term is used involves strong objection or rebuff: 废 话rubbish 胡说八道so much 胡 说talk nonsense 瞎 说talk groundlessly Th
26、e Chinese alternative expressions may be said to represent varied degrees of opposition , from the strongest to the weakest expression. On the other hand, the English expression “nonsense” may occur in a context in which the tone is quite different, as in the following example: “Since she left, I ha
27、ve baked the cakes, but mine are never as good as hers.” Nonsense, my dear; I dont think Lassies cakes were any better than yours”, said Mr. Priestly loyally. In the latter context, it would be quite wrong to use any one of the four Chinese expressions, which would occur in so many contexts in which
28、 “nonsense” might occur in English. The latter context shows a decidedly gentle or even an affectionate variety of con-enviousness, so an appropriate translation in Chinese would be something like either one of the following: 哪儿的话that is not true 没有的事 no such thing1.2 Context in its Broad Sense and
29、the Choice of Word Meaning Textual context concerns the interrelation and echo of paragraphs and chapters. And this kind of restriction is concealed, hard to recognize. So translators have to excavate the hidden meaning and avoid concentrating on the literal meaning. E.g. His father could be very st
30、ern at times. His mother had begged him to say he was sorry, but he could not say that. It was the greatest day of his life, in spite of the caning and the poetry at the end of it.他爸爸有时会非常严厉。妈妈央告他认个错, 可是他不愿意, 这是他一生中最了不起的一天, 尽管这天晚上他遭惩挨打并被罚背诗。In this example “caning and poetry”is judged tope passive a
31、nd translated into“遭惩挨打”and“被罚背诗”, because the above text has illustrated that he was punished: He sat looked up in the nursery of Agathoxlodge, learning poetry for a punishment. His father said, “My boy! I can pardon anything but untruthful-ness , .” Indirect context is also called extra-linguistic
32、 or nonlinguistic context. It refers to the additional con-textual factors relevant to the context of the works but without specific literal form in the text. Mali now sky pointed out that the conception of context must burst the bounds of mere linguistics and be carried over into the analysis of th
33、e general condition under which a language is spoken .The study of any language, spoken by a people who live under conditions different from our own and possess a different culture, must be carried in conjunction with the study of their culture and of their environment. Nonlinguistic contexts may be
34、 more difficult to recognize and evaluate in some respects than linguistic contexts. The proper interpretation, of course, comes from the non-linguistic setting as well as the linguistic usage concerning numerals, as in this case it depends upon peoples background knowledge about the relative cost o
35、r value of such items. Since no communication ever spells out in detail background knowledge is necessary if one is to comprehend the significance of certain expressions. This means that one must draw up-on largely nonlinguistic data, or at least have knowledge available about unspecified details, i
36、f a correct interpretation, and thus an eventual translation, is to bemade.E.g. “I suppose you know best”, Dobbin said, though rather dubiously. “You were a Tory, and your familys one of the oldest in England. But”都宾迟疑地说:“你的见解当然比我高明。你一向是保守党, 你家又是英国最旧的世家之一。可是”When Charlie II was in power, there appea
37、red two political parties in England at the same timeWhig and Tory. Whig represented the interest of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, while Tory represented the interest of the declining and conservative aristocrat. The members of Tory were from illustrious family status. So we can see the
38、 translator is with careful consideration of the historical and temporal effect on the choice of word meaning. To some extent, translation is the bridge between deterrent cultures. Because of the difference of history and convention, the special characters of every peoples cultural back ground, ways
39、 of thinking and habits of expression formed differently. So cultural context and cultural difference should not be neglected. Serious problems can occur if one does not recognized such simple things as the different ways in which he floors of a building are numbered in America and most countries in
40、 Europe. For example, Americans would regard the first floor in Great Britain as the second floor. Jumping from a first-floor window would beo special feat in America, but doing the same in British English would be quite a different matter. If we refer to Johns style of work, dissentience can be tra
41、nslated into 约翰工作十分严谨, 细致 (John works hard). If we talk about Johns character, then it means 约翰不太灵活( John is not flexible) .While if we mention Johns intelligence, the translate-ion will be 约翰很笨(John has got no brain) Additional Factors Extra-linguistic features such as facial expresions, gestures,
42、stance, tone and intonation, as well asaralinguistic features such as pitch of the voice, rapid-ty of speech, and pauses, all contribute to the under-standing of a statement. Additional speech factors are difficult to embodying the translation. For example, in Bernard Shaws Pygmalion: The Flower Gir
43、l: Will ye-oo pay me them? The Daughter: Do nothing of the sort, mother. The idea!卖花女: 你肯给钱吗?女儿: 妈, 一个子儿也别给。她想的倒美!If the role of the additional speech factors is fully played in the translation, the choice of word meaning should be tried to fathom. We can find that the translation is shorter but car
44、ries more information than the o-original text. If we compare“The idea”with 她想的倒美,她想的倒美 includes great disparity in social status between the flower girl and the lady, and the ladycontempt for the flower girl. ConclusionIn English-Chinese translation, the appropriate choice of word meaning appears p
45、articularly important. Probably the greatest mistake that translators can make is to translate words without regard to the con-text in which they occur. Context has an effect and resolution on the comprehension and choice of word meaning. The explanation of word meaning in dictionary is helpful to E
46、nglish-Chinese translation and worthy of careful treatment, but it is not fully dependable. We should consult the dictionary with care, and avoid taking words too literally, which may incur the ridicule of experts. In this case, context is in great need to solve the problem of comprehension and the
47、choice of word meaning. Though in the previous analyses I have attempted to isolate particular factors which influence the interpretation of expressions in their contextual setting, it would be wrong to think primarily in terms of isolated factors rather than the combination of factors which point t
48、o the correct interpretation and can thus lead to the closest natural equivalent in the target language. A translator must scan the whole original text, and understand the direct and indirect context thoroughly, with consideration of the relation between all kinds of linguistic factors and key words
49、. Only by doing these, can a translator gain suitable words to pro-vide fluent translation, faithful to the original in both style and content.References1. Bates, E. 1976, Language and Context: The Acquisition of Pragmatics, New York: Academic Press.2. Levinson Stephen, C. 1987, Pragmatics, Cambridge U-niversity Press.3. Halliday, M.A.K. 1980, Text and Context in Sophia Linguistics, Tokyo: VI. Sophia University Press.4. Nida Eugene, A. 1969, The Theory and Practice of Translation,
