纽马克的翻译理论

1、Chapter 2Peter NewmarkSemantic and Communicative TranslationGuided ReadingPeter Newmark (1916) is an accomplished translation scholar as well as an experienced translator. He has translated a number of books and articles and published extaensively on translation. His publications on translation incl

2、ude Approaches to Translation (1981), About Translation(1983), Paragraphs on Translation段落翻译(1985), A Textbook of Translation翻译教程(1988), and More Paragraphs on Translation(1993).In his work Approaches to Translation, Newmark proposes two types of translation: semantic translation语义翻译 and communicati

3、ve translation交际翻译. Semantic translation focuses primarily upon the semantic content of the source text whereas communicative translation focuses essentially upon the comprehension and response of receptors. This distinction results from his disapproval of Nida's assumption假定，假设，设想；假装；承担，担任 that

4、 all translating is communicating, and the overriding最主要的，最优先的 principle of any translation is to achieve "equivalent effect". For Newmark, the success of equivalent effect is "illusory", and that "the conflict of loyalties, the gap between emphasis on source and target lang

5、uages will always remain as the overriding problem in translation theory and practice"(1981:38). To narrow the gap, Newmark 系统地阐述，确切地表达；规划，构想出formulates his concepts of "communicative translation" and "semantic translation", which in a sense从某种意义上说 are similar to Nida's

6、"dynamic equivalent translation" and "formal equivalent translation". Newmarks admits "communicative translation" is a common method and could be used in many types of translation. Nevertheless, he justifies证明正当/有理，为辩护 the legitimacy合法性，正当；合理性，妥当；嫡出，正统 of "semantic

7、 translation" in the following three aspects. Firstly, all translations depend on the three 一分为二，二分法；本质对立dichotomies, namely, the foreign and native cultures, the two languages, the writer and the translator. Hence, it is unlikely to have a universal theory that could include all these factors.

8、 Secondly, previous discussions on methods of translation, either Nida's "dynamic equivalence" or Nabokow's "literal translation", does not reflect the actual reality of translation method, for each of them either recommends one or 贬低，轻视disparages the other. Thirdly, the

9、social factors, especially the readers of the second language, only play a partial部分的；偏爱/袒/心的 role发挥部分作用 in translation. Some texts, such as an expressive one, require a "semantic translation"(1981:62). It can be seen that可以看出 by proposing the coexistence of "communicative translation

10、" and "semantic translation", Newmark suggests a correlation相互关系，关联；相关性 between translation method and text type.It should be pointed out that应该指出的是 Newmark's semantic translation differs from literal translation直译 because the former "respects context", interprets and ev

11、en explains while the latter sticks very closely to source text at word and syntax level(1981:62). Literal translation, however, is held to be the best approach in both semantic and communicative translation, "provided that如果 equivalent effect is secured, the literal word-for-word translation i

12、s not only the best, it is the only valid method of translation"(1981:39). Here Newmark seems to only take account of考虑到，顾及，体谅 literary translation rather than non-literary translation, which is often rendered more freely in order to communicate the meaning. But he also states that when there i

13、s a conflict between semantic and communicative translation, the latter would win out胜出. For instance, it is better to render communicatively the public sign公共标志 bissiger Hund and chien mechant into beward the dog! in order to communicate efficiently the message, but not semantically as dog that bit

14、es! and bad dog!(1981:39). Nevertheless, it is difficult for a translator to follow Newmark's translation methods in practice, which should be adopted flexibly according to the specific context and text type.A Textbook of Translation is an expansion and a revision of Approaches to Translation in

15、 many aspects在很多方面. In this book, Newmark, follwing the German linguist Karl Buhler's functional theory of language, proposes three main types of texts (i.e. expressive有表现力的，富有表情的, informative提供大量资料或信息的，授予知识的 and vocative呼格的) as well as methods of translating them (Chapters 4 and 5). Although he

16、 lists many translation methods from word-for-word translation to adaptation, he insists that "only semantic and communicative translation fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are first, accuracy, and second, economy". While semantic translation is used for expressive texts, com

17、municative translation is for informative and vocative texts although he admits that few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative. By stressing the wide applicability of these two translation methods, Newmark seems to overlook the function of other translation methods frequently adopted

18、in translation practice.Newmark's semantic and communicative translation ahve been quoted frequently among translation scholars. His concern about the coexistence of semantic and communicative translation shows that in his view effect-oriented translation以效果为导向的翻译 such as Nida's dynamic equi

19、valence should not be overstressed in translation practice, but is just one type of translation. Newmark's types of translation, however, are less influential than Nida's dynamic equivalence in the field of translation studies because they "raise some of the same points concerning the t

20、ranslation process and the importance of the TT reader译文读者" (Munday 2000:46). Further, his views and comments are still very traditional and prescriptive规定的，指定的，规范的, bearing some traces of traditional translation theories. The strength of his writing lies in that his discussion on translation c

21、overs a wide range of topics, and he always provides useful advice and guidance for translator 接受训练的人，实习生，培训生trainees with a large number of interesting and useful examples, which are more convincing than abstract theoretical arguments抽象的理论论证. The following excerpt is selected from Chapter 3 of Newm

22、ark's Approaches to Translation. In this chapter he 假定，要求postulates his two main methods of translation (i.e. Semantic and communicative translation), and tries to apply them into different types of text.Communicative and Semantic Translation1. A translation must give the words of the original.2

23、. A translation must give the ideas of the original.3. A translation should read like an original work.4. A translation should read like a translation.5. A translation should reflect the style of the original.6. A translation should possess the style of the translation.7. A translation should read a

24、s a contemporary of the original.8. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translation.9. A translation may add to or omit from the original.10. A translation may never add to or omit from the original.11. A translation of verse should be in prose.12. A translation of verse should be in

25、verse.(The Air of Translation, T.H. Savory, Cape, 1968, p.54)In the pre-linguistics period of writing on translation, which may be said to date from Cicero through St. Jerome, Luther, Dryden, Tytler, Herder, Goethe, Schleiermacher, Buber, Ortega y Gasset, not to say Savory, opinion swung between lit

26、eral and free, faithful and beautiful, exact and natural translation, depending on whether the bias was to be in favour of赞成 the author or the reader, the source or the target language of the text. Up to the nineteenth century, literal translation represented a philological语言学的，文献的，文学的 academic exer

27、cise语言学学术活动 from which the cultural reformers文化改革者 were trying to rescue literature. In the nineteenth century, a more scientific approach was brought to bear on对有影响，和有关 translation, suggesting that certain types of texts must be accurately translated, while others should and could not be translated

28、 at all! Since the rise of modern linguistics (philology语言学 was becoming linguistics语言学 here in the late fifties), and anticipated by预计到 Tytler in 1790, Larbaud, Belloc, Knox and Rieu, the general emphasis, supported by communication-theorists as well as by non-literary translators, has been placed

29、on the reader-on informing the reader effectively and appropriately, notably显著地，明显地；尤其，特别 in Nida, Firth, Koller and the Leipzig School. In contrast相反, the brilliant essays of Benjamin, Valery and Nabokov (anticipated by Croce and Ortega y Gasset) advocating literal translation have appeared as isol

30、ated孤立的，被隔离的, paradoxical phenomena自相矛盾的现象, relevant only to与有关 translating works of high literary culture. Koller (1972) has stated that the equivalent-effect principle of translation is tending to rule out把排除在外，排除的可能性；不把考虑在内 all others, particularly the predominance of any formal elements such as

31、word or structure.The apparent triumph of the "consumer" is, I think, illusory. The conflict of loyalties, the gap between emphsis on source and target language will always remain as the overriding problem in translation theory and practice. However, the gap could perhaps be narrowed if th

32、e previous terms were replaced as follows:SOURCE LANGUAGE BIAS TARGET LANGUAGE BIAS LITERAL FREE FAITHFUL IDIOMATIC SEMANTIC / COMMUNICATIVECommunicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original. Semantic translatio

33、n attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic造句法的，句子结构的 structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual上下文的，前后关系上的 meaning of the original.In theory, there are wide differences between the two methods. Communicative translation addresses itself solely to the second rea

34、der, who does not anticipate difficulties or obscurities, and would expect a generous transfer of foreign elements into his own culture as well as his language where necessary. But even here the translator still has to respect and work on the form of the source language text as the only material bas

35、is for his work. Semantic translation remains within the original culture and assists the reader only in its 言外之意，涵意connotations if they constitute组/构/形成；设立，建立，任命 the essential human (non-ethnic种族的，民族的，部落的) message of the text. One basic difference between the two methods is that where there is a co

36、nflict, the communicative must emphasize the "force" rather than the content of the message. Thus for Bissige Hund or Chien mechant, the communicative translation Beware of the dog! Is mandatory命令的；义务的，强制的; the semantic translations ("dog that bite", "savage dog") would

37、 be more informative but less effective. Generally, a communicative translation is likely to be smoother, simpler, clearer, more direct, more conventional依照惯例的，符合习俗的，因循守旧的；常规的, conforming to a particular register语域（在特定社交场合或专业领域中人们使用的词汇 语法等的范围） of language, tending to （与名）在下面/之下；级别低于，隶属于（与形、动）不足under

38、-translate, i.e.即，换而言之，也就是 To use more generic类的，属的；一般的，通用的, hold-all terms in difficult passages. A semantic translation tends to be more complex, more awkward不灵活的，笨拙的, more detailed, more concentrated, and pursues the thought-processes思考过程 rather than the intention of the transmitter传送/递者；传输者；传播者；

39、发射机，发射台. It tends to over-translate, to be more specific than the original, to include more meanings in its search for one nuance意义上的细微差别 of meaning.However, in communicative as in semantic translation, provided that equivalent-effect in secured, the literal word-for-word translation is not only the

40、 best, it is the only valid method of translation. There is no excuse for unnecessary "同义词synonyms", let alone v.&n.释义，意译，改述paraphrases, in any type of translation.Conversely相反地, both semantic and communicative translation comply with遵照，服从 the usually accepted syntactic造句法的，句子结构的 equiv

41、alents (Vinay and Darbelnet's "transpositions") for the two languages in question正在谈论的. Thus, by both methods, a sentence such as "II traversa la Manche en nageant" would normally be translated as "He swam across the Channel". In semantic, but not communicative tran

42、slation, any deviation背离，偏离；偏差；离题 from SL 文体规范stylistic norms规范，标准 would be reflected in an equally wide deviation from the TL norms, but where such norms clash, the deviations are not easy to formulate构想出，规划；系统地阐述，确切地表达, and the translator has to show a certain tension between the writer's mann

43、er and the 强迫，强制；冲动，欲望compulsions of the target language. Thus when the writer uses long complex sentences in a language where the sentence in a "literary" (carefully worked) style is usually complex and longer than in the TL, the translator may reduce the sentences somewhat, compromising

44、between the norms of the two languages and the writer. If in doubt, however, he should trust the writer, not the "language", which is a sum of abstractions抽象的总和. A semantic translation is concrete. Thus when faced with:此处略去一段法语。The translator has to cling to words, 排列，配置；组合，搭配collocations,

45、 structures, emphases（emphasis的复数）强调，重点:"The utilitarian功利的，实用的 point of view is as alien and inappropriate as it possibly could be precisely to such an intense eruption爆发 of supreme rank-classifying, rank-discriminating value-judgements: here in fact feeling has reached the antithesis对立，相反；对句，

46、对偶 of the low degree of fervour（fervor）热情，热诚，热烈 presumed in every type of calculating深谋远虑的，精明的；算计的，攻于心计的；计算的 cleverness, every assessment of utility." (My version.)Thus a translation is always closer to the original than any intralingual舌的，语言的 rendering or paraphrase misnamed "translation&

47、quot; by George Steiner(1975), and therefore it is an indispensable不可缺少的，必需的 tool for a semantician（semanticist）语义学学者，精通语义学的人 and now a philosopher. Communicative and semantic translation may well coincide同时发生；相符，一致-in particular尤其，特别, where the text conveys a general rather than a culturally (世俗的，现

48、世的，尘世的；短暂的，暂时的temporally and 空间的，与空间有关的spatially) bound形成的界线，限制 message有文化限制的信息 and where the matter is as important as the manner-notably then in the translation of the most important religious, philosophical, artistic and scientific texts, assuming second readers as informed and interested as the

49、first. Further, there are often sections in one text that must be translated communicatively (e.g.non-lieu-"nonsuit驳回"), and others semantically (e.g. A quotation from a speech). There is no one communicative nor one semantic method of translating a text-these are in fact widely v.重叠，把叠在一起

50、；与部分一致n.重叠的部分overlapping 一队/伙/组/群/帮bands of methods. A translation can be more, or less, semantic-more, or less, communicative-even a particular section or sentence can be treated more communicatively or less semantically. Thus in some passages, Q.Hoare and G. Nowell Smith (1971) state that: "W

51、e feel it preferable更可取的，更好的，更合意的 to choose fidelity忠诚，忠实；精确 over good English, despite its awkwardness, in view of鉴于，考虑到 the importance of some concepts in Gramsci's work." Each method has a common basis in analytical or cognitive translation which is built up both proposition观点，见解，主张；提议，建

52、议；定理，命题 by proposition and word by word, denoting表示，是的标志，意味着；指的是，意思是 the empirical factual事实的，真实的，确凿的 knowledge of the text, but finally respecting the convention习俗，惯例；公约，协议；会议，大会 of the target language provide that the thought-content of the text has been reproduced. The translation emerges in such

53、 a way that the exact meaning or function of the words only become apparent as they are used. The translator may have to make interim暂时的，临时的；间歇的，过渡期间的 decisions without being able at the time to visualize the relation of the words with the end product. Communicative and semantic translation bifurcat

54、e分成两支，分叉 at a later stage of analytical or cognitive translation which is a 在前，先于，预先pre-translation procedure which may be performed on the source-language text to convert it into the source or the target language-the reluctant versions will be closer to each other than the original text and the fin

55、al translation.In principle, cognitive translation 使互换位置transposes the SL text grammatically to plain "animate活的，有生命的；有活力的，有生气的 subject+verb+non-animate object" 条款；从句，分句clauses, or, in the extended version, to sequences of: "an agent (subject) does (active verb) something (direct obje

56、ct直接宾语) to or for someone (indirect object) with something (instrumental) somewhere (locative表示位置的) "sometime (temporal) to make something (resultant作为结果的，因而发生的)"-additionally, an agent/object may be in a variety of relationships with another agent/object (possessive占有欲强的，不愿与人分享的；表示所属关系的词,

57、 equative同义词, dependency属国，属地；依赖性, source, partitive表示部分的（e.g. some,any), genitive属格，所有格, characteristic, etc.)-(relationships often covered or concealed by the English preposition介词 "of"), which must be spelt out in a clause. Thus the grammatical meaning of the SL text becomes explicit. F

58、urther, cognitive translation splits up断绝关系，离婚；裂开，分裂 the word-class a.同其他事物演变的；非独创的n.衍生词，派生词derivatives, i.e. 副词adverbs (=preposition+adjective+noun), adjectival形容词的 nouns (e.g. "whiteness"), qualifying限制的，限定的 prefix-verb-nouns (e.g. "contribution"), noun-verbs (e.g. "to rat

59、ion"), noun-adjective-verb-nouns (e.g. "rationalization"), etc., into their 组成部分，成分，零部件components and 详细解说explicates the relations of all multiple同许多部分组成的，复合的，多样的，多重的 noun compounds (e.g. "data acquisition数据采集 control system": system to control the acquiring of data). Furthe

60、r, it replaces figurative比喻的，借喻的 and colloquial口语的，会话的 language, idioms and 成语的，词语的phrasal verbs短语动词 with 表示的，指示的denotative terms; clears up清理；澄清；放晴；解决 lexical and grammatical ambiguities模棱两可，含糊不清; 加入（额外的事），窜改；插入（话、文字）interpolates relevant encyclopedic广博的，知识渊博的；百科全书的 information for ecological生态的，生态学的, cultural and institutional制度的；学会的，协会的 terms; replaces 代词pronouns with nouns and identifies referential参考的，参照的；指示的 synonyms参照代名词; reduces cultural terms to their functional definitions; and analyses the semantic语义的 features of any words that are likely to be split into two or three word