1 Chapter 3 Lexical Translation:
Abstraction & Specification
1. Introduction
No one is satisfied with his favoritism in his work.
Any discourtesy shown to Chinese persons by any official of the Government will be the cause for immediate
dismissal.
人民都拥戴他/支持他。
她是一个冰雪聪明的女孩。
One’s own past may become a gradually increasing weight.
曲曲折折的荷塘上面，弥望的是田田的叶子。
Every life has its roses and thorns .
别人家里鸡零狗碎的事情你都知道得这么全，真是个顺风耳啊！
⑴ 要用英语和外国人交流，你还得提高你的口语水平。
⑵ 那我们谈谈文艺问题。
⑶ 那谈谈对目前文艺形式的感想，好吗？
3.1 The Features of the Chinese and the English languages:
3.2 Abstract into Concrete
EC Translation
A. Abstract nouns
A firm’s involvement in exporting products can range from a minimal commitment all the way to considering
exports as necessary for the firm’s survival and growth.
The financing of the sale often involves bills of exchange and documentary credits.
There is more to their life than political and social and economic problems; more than transient everydayness.
Advertisers must realize that people usually are motivated by the goal of satisfying some combination of two or
more needs, and the needs may be both conscious and unconscious.
B. Abstract adverbs
No wonder the multinationals have been growing fantastically and now dominate many sections of the
international market.
C. Abstract adjectives
Multinational corporations have become so dominant in some foreign markets that they are now object of political
and economic scrutiny.
2 Because some hand gestures and body movements are acceptable in one culture yet deeply offensive in another
culture, they are rarely an appropriate communications aid in international negotiations.
Throughout the past two decades, GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) has been increasingly
preoccupied with the trading problems and needs of the developing countries, which account for more than
two-thirds of its membership.
3.3 Concrete into Abstract:
暴力事件 混乱状态
发展活动 准确性
耐心态度 过敏反应
傲慢态度 解决方法
隔离政策 不公正的现象
主要观光旅游场所 波士顿的知识界人士
1) 逻辑引申
Our unique concept was a response to buyer needs, bringing greater reliability, higher-quality output, exceptional
user-friendliness and operational ease.
You remind me very much of Lenin, whom I met in this very building fifty-two years ago.
The emergence of the peoples of the third world and their struggle for identity will lead to the flowering(开花，兴旺，繁荣) of diverse concepts of life in the future.
2) 语用引申
The new father wore a proud smile.
He started to his feet with the intention of awaking the sleepers, for there was no time to lose.
Clever heads than mine might have seen his drift（动向，趋势）
But I suspected that if I tried to release the wolf, she would turn aggressive and try to tear me to pieces.
3） 修辞引申
See-sawing between partly good and faintly ominous, the news for the next for weeks was never distinct.
Last night an uninvited guest turned up to make five for bridge. I had the kind of paper book at hand to make being
the fifth at bridge a joy.
3 He wouldn’t tell them, but keep them in suspense all day.
Every time I come back from a business trip it makes a new man of me.
It is very much like communicating with an accurate robot who has a very small vocabulary and who takes
everything literally.
4) 概念范围的调整
Poetry suffers in translation—and the reader suffers with it.
Tocello, which used to be lonely as a cloud, has recently become an outing from Venice.
How they bow to that Cleole because of her hundred thousand pounds!
5) 词义引申的层次
And now for the good news: Stockholm residents enjoy sunbathing in November. Antarctic tourism is booming.
Siberia has become the world’s breadbasket.
In order to get a large amount of water power we need a large pressure and a large current.
A scientist constantly tried to defeat his hypotheses, his theories, and his conclusion.
3. 4 Discussion
我们要重视沿海与内地的贫富差距问题。
我们必须与腐败和各种不公正现象作斗争。
你必须提出一些解决方案。
想起他年轻时的一些事情，他心里感到安慰。
他等着她来，急得像热锅上的蚂蚁。
3.1.6 Summary
抽象名词在英语中的使用相当普遍，在现代英语中它的重复率很高， 而其词义多变，搭配灵活，在很多文体中都能适用。英译汉时，要“化虚为实”，提高转换的可能性。汉语中有很多表示具体意义的名词，在翻译过程中要译成抽象名词，这是从译入语的表达习惯上去考虑的。
