语言的不对等

从双语词典编纂看英汉翻译中的语言不对等关系(不对等，英)牛彪论文网整理()更新日期:2010-03-1223:45作者：【中文摘要】：英语和汉语分属不同的语系，两种语言存在一种本质上的不对等关系。本文以英汉双语词典编纂为视角，着重从词汇层面对英汉两种语言在语音、构词、词义的内涵和外延、词条译名或释义等诸多方面存在的不对等现象作了细致的分析和系统的归纳，深入探讨了语言不对等现象产生的根源，并进一步就不对等现象的处理提出了建议。语言的不对等关系，或称语言差异性(anisomorphism)，是指语言中词的所指内容的组成有差别。由于人类对客观事物的认知具有共同性，不同语言中的许多语汇都能在特定的层面形成一种一对一的对应关系(equivalence)。然而，由于两种语言植根于两种迥异的文化语域，受地域、环境、习俗、文化、宗教、经济和社会制度等因素的影响，它们在语法范畴、词义色彩和词义范围等方面必然存在着不对等现象。两种语言中只有少数几个不是多义词的对应词才真正有完全相同的词义。在两种语言中，除了有数的专用术语和科技词汇外，词义完全相同的词汇单位是极其罕见的。本文认为，双语词典的特殊性体现在它基本目的是为一种语言的词汇单位在另一种语言的词汇单位中找出意义相等的对应词，其本质特征是两套语言符号的对应换码。双语词典的编写因涉及到两种语言，故较为注重对两种语言文化对应词的存在条件、意义和用法的异同作比较。对双语词典而言，释义实际上就是将一种语言符号变换为另一种语言符号，即所谓对译。由于绝大部分词目的的含义都是完全不对等的，因此，双语词典编纂者想要正确地阐释词义，就不仅要找到合适的对应词汇，还需辨析隐藏在这种不对等关系背后的文化内涵及语义外延。作为语言不对等关系研究的理论基础，本文对奈达(E.Nida)和兹古斯塔(L.Zgusta)提出的对等理论分别做了分析和评述。就源语与译语的对等关系而言，双语词典的编纂者通常面对三种情况：完全对等(fullequivalent)＞部分对等(partialequivalent)以及零对等(noequivalent)o语言不对等现象可出现于任何两种语言的发音、词汇、语法等方面，而就英汉、汉英双语词典的编纂而言，本文以词汇层面为重点，将语言不对等关系细分为语音、构词、文化内涵、搭配、惯用法及译名、例句翻译等若干类别并逐一提供大量例证予以分析。针对语言差异性在英汉、汉英双语词典编纂中造成的困难以及词典使用者由于忽略语言差异性而导致的理解、翻译方面的误差，结合作者亲身参与部分双语词典编纂的经历以及几代双语词典编纂者多年来积累的方法论经验，本文认为，双语词典应致力于体现“自然语言差异性”，并尽力杜绝“人为语言差异性”。本文系统陈述了一系列处理不对等关系的行之有效的技术手段，包括括注、惯用法说明、例证、插图、百科信息等。【英文摘要】：Isomorphismisaterminbiologythatreferstothequalityorstateofbeingsimilarinformandorganism.Inalinguisticcontext,isomorphismmeansaone-to-onecorrespondenceorthestateofbeingidenticalbetweentheelementsoftwolanguages.Incontrast,anisomorphismreferstoamismatchbetweenapairoflanguagesduetotheirsemantic,grammaticalandculturaldifferences,whichleadstoarelativeabsenceofdirect,one-to-onetranslationequivalents.SinceEnglishandChinesebelongtotwobasicallydifferentlanguagefamilies,thereexistsbetweenthemastrongyetoftenlatentconfrontationoflanguageandculturalbehaviors.Thisdissertationattemptstoconductasystematicsurveyaswellasascientificanalysisoftheanisomorphismshownintheprocessoftranslating,especiallyinthecontextofabilingualdictionary.Oneofthepeculiaritiesofbilingualdictionaries,unlikemonolingualdictionarieswhicharecharacterizedbyitsfunctionofdenotingthedesignateofheadwords,isthatthedefinitioninbilingualdictionariesisorientedtowardsageneralizingfunction,bywhichthedefinitionoftheheadworddesignateinthesourcelanguageisgivenwithanequivalentcounterpartinthetargetlanguage.Inotherwords,definitioninbilingualdictionariescanbeseenintruthasaprocessoftranslation,whichinevitablyaddstotheanisomorphicnatureoflanguages.Inthissense,anybilingualdictionarymightberegardedasacollectionoftwosetsofinterchangeablelinguisticcodesnotwithstandingthediscrepanciesbetweenthem.Themostessentialtaskofbilingualdictionarymakers,therefore,istostudythedifferencesofthetwolanguagesconcernedinthevocabularysystem,andthatiswhyabilingualdictionaryisalsocalled"adictionaryofanisomorphism”.Thethemeofanisomorphisminbilingualdictionariesarisestotheforebecausewearelivingtodayinanageofculturaldiversityandever-increasingculturalconfrontationaswellasconvergence,andwhenweturntobilingualdictionariesforanexactmatchforanunfamiliarwordorphrase,wemightbeleftatseabyseveralconfusingequivalentsprovidedbythelexicographers.Itisthusreasonabletorelatethistopictothephenomenonofthevariednessofculturesandlinguisticfactors.SincethepresentauthorhasbeeninvolvedinseveralprogramsofEnglish-Chinesedictionarycompilationandhasgainedsomeexperienceinthisfield,thisdissertationpertainsmainlytoanisomorphisminEnglish-ChineseandChinese-Englishdictionaries.However,sinceabilingualdictionaryisinessence"atranslateddictionary",theoriesandpracticeoftranslationinageneralsensearealsodiscussed.Equivalencehasbeenendowedwiththenotionofcorrespondence,accuracy,fidelityoridentityintranslationstudies,andtranslationequivalencehasalwaysbeenanessentialissueinmodernWesterntranslationstudies.ThedissertationpresentstwomajorclassificationsoftranslationequivalentsproposedbyNidaandZgustarespectivelyasaforegoingtheoreticalbasisforfollowingdiscussions.Thedissertationalsomakesadistinctionbetweendictionarytranslationandliterarytranslation.Thesecondchapterfocusesonproblemsinachievingequivalenceingeneraltranslation,withaspecialemphasisonlexicalunits.Specificproblemsinachievingequivalenceespeciallyinliterarytranslationhavebeenroughlydividedinthisdissertationintolexicalambiguity,lexicalmismatches,lexicalgaps,figuresofspeech,multiwordlexemes,nomenclature,andstyle.Then,thedissertationattemptstopresentacircumstantialandsystematicsurveyofanisomorphismbetweenEnglishandChinesestrictlyinthecontextofbilinguallexicography,startingfromthebasicdistinctionbetweenaword(词/ci/)inEnglishandacharacter(字/zi/)inChinese.Anisomorphismcanbefoundatvariouslevelsofthelanguagesystem,includingphonology,morphology,culturalconnotation,collocation,andusage,allofwhichmayleadtoproblemsintranslation.Ascrutinyofthenatureofcultureandlanguageaswellastheirrelationsprovesthatculturalandlanguagebehaviorsarethefundamentalelementsinthemakingofanisomorphism.Thedissertationalsoundertakesabriefstudyofthe"idiosyncrasies"ofboththeChineselanguageandEnglishlanguage,indicatingthatsuchdifferencesasthosefoundinhistory,socialcustoms,religions,ideology,etc.haveproducedmanyculture-loadedwordsandexpressionsinbothlanguages,whichmightbeacentralissueinthestudyofanisomorphism-relatedproblemsininterculturalcommunication.Thedissertationalsoputsforwardsomeguidingprinciplesandsummarizesusefulstrategieswhichhavebeenprovedeffectiveindealingwithanisomorphisminbilingualdictionaries.Eachofthesesolutions,technicalortheoretical,isdiscussedwithaviewtopresentingtheinherentanisomorphism(i.e.theintrinsicna