翻译理论——精选推荐

Roman Jakobson developed an approach focused on the way in which language's structure served its basic function (synchronic approach) – to communicate information between speakers. On Linguistic Aspects of Translation is an essay written

by Russian linguist Roman Jakobson in 1959.[1]

Jakobson has been closely associated not only with formalism but also

linguistics, anthropology and psychoanalysis. He is known as being the

founder of the Prague Linguistic Circle. He is also known to have coined

the term Structural Linguistics.

In his essay, Jakobson states that meaning of a word is a linguistic

phenomena. Using semiotics, Jakobson believes that meaning lies with

the signifier and not in the signified. Thus it is the linguistic verbal sign

that gives an object its meaning. Interpretation of a verbal sign according

to Roman Jakobson can happen in three ways: intralingual, interlingual

and intersemiotic. In the case of intralingual translation, the changes take

place within the same language. Thus a verbal sign (word) belonging to a

particular language is replaced by another sign (word) belonging to the

same language. Interlingual translation on the other hand can be seen as

replacing a verbal sign with another sign but belonging to a different

language.

The last kind of explanation of verbal sign that he talks about is the

intersemiotic translation. Here more than focusing on the words,

emphasis is on the overall message that needs to be conveyed. Thus the

translator, instead of paying attention to the verbal signs, concentrates

more on the information that is to be delivered. Roman Jakobson uses the

term ‘mutual translatability’ and states that when any two languages are

being compared, the foremost thing that needs to be taken into

consideration is whether they can be translated into one another or not.

Laying emphasis on the grammar of a particular language, he feels that it

should determine how one language is different from another.

In the essay, Roman Jakobson also deals with the problem of ‘deficiency’

in a particular language. Jakobson believes that all cognitive experiences

can be expressed in language and while translating whenever there is a

lack or ‘deficiency’ of words’, ‘loan words’, ‘neologisms’ and

‘circumlocutions’ can be used to fill in this lack. Reinforcing the fact that one of the factors that translation has to take care

of is the grammatical structure of the target language, Jakobson believes

that it becomes tedious to try and maintain fidelity to the source text

when the target language has a rigid grammatical framework which is

missing in the source language. Jakobson, in his essay also brings in the

relationship between gender and the grammar of a particular language.

J.R.Firth His work on prosody, which he emphasised at the expense of

the phonemic principle, prefigured later work in autosegmental

phonology. Firth is noted for drawing attention to the context-dependent

nature of meaning with his notion of 'context of situation'. In particular,

he is known for the famous quotation:You shall know a word by the

company it keeps (Firth, J. R. 1957:11) 一、布拉格学派

该学派的创始人为马希修斯（Vilem Mathesius）、特鲁贝斯科伊

（Nikolay S. Trubetskoy）和雅可布森（Roman Jakobson）。主要成员有雅可布森、列维、维内等重要的翻译理论家。

这一学派的主要论点为：（１）翻译必须考虑语言的各种功能，包括认识功能、表达功能

和工具功能等；（２）翻译必须重视语言的比较，包括语义、语法、语音、语言风格以及文学

体裁的比较。

布拉格学派最有影响的翻译理论家是罗曼·雅可布森。他原籍俄国，后移居捷克；二战时迁

至美国，加入美籍。作为学派的创始人之一，他对翻译理论的贡献主要体现在《论翻译的语言

学问题》（On Linguistic Aspects ofTranslation）之中。文章从语言学的角度，对翻译的

重要性、语言和翻译的关系以及存在的问题给出精辟的论述。自１９５９年发表后，此文一直被西方理论界奉为翻译研究的经典之一。

雅可布森的论述主要有五点：（１）翻译分为三类：语内翻译

（intralingual translation）、语际翻译（interlingual translation）和符际翻译

（intersemiotic translation）。所谓语内翻译，是指在同一语言内用一些语言符号去解释另

一些语言符号，即通常的“改变说法”(rewording)。所谓语际翻译，是指在两种语言之间即用

一种语言的符号去解释另一种语言的符号，即严格意义上的翻译。所谓符际翻译，是指用非语

言符号系统解释语言符号，或用语言符号解释非语言符号，比如把旗语或手势变成言语表达。（２）对于词义的理解取决于翻译。他认为，在语言学习和语言理解过程中，翻译起着决定性

作用。（３）准确的翻译取决于信息对称。翻译所涉及的是两种不同语符中的对等信息。

（４）所有语言都具有同等表达能力。如果语言中出现词汇不足，可通过借词、造词或释义等

方法对语言进行处理。（５）语法范畴是翻译中最复杂的问题。这对于存在时态、性、数等语

法形式变化的语言，尤其复杂。 二、伦敦学派 伦敦学派是具有英国特色的语言学派，认为语言的意义是由语言使用的社会环境

(the social context ofsituation)所决定的。在翻译研究领域，译文的用词与原文等同与否取决于其是否用于相同的语言环境之中。

伦敦学派的创始人为福斯（J. R. Firth）。有两篇文章集中反映出他的翻译理论，一篇为《语言学与翻译》（Linguistics and Translation），另一篇为《语言分析与翻译》

（Linguistic Analysis and Translation）。弗斯着重谈到三个方面：（１）语言分析是翻译

的基础；（２）完全的翻译不等于完美的翻译；（３）在任何两种语言的翻译中，一种语言的

某些意义的表达方式不可能译成完全对等的另一种语言。

卡特福德（John Catford）是该学派中比较系统提出翻译理论的学者。任教于爱丁堡大学

的卡特福德１９６５年发表《翻译的语言学理论》（A Linguistic Theory of Translation）

一书，为翻译理论研究开拓新的途径，引起巨大反响。卡特福德称其理论为“描写性”翻译理

论。他从翻译性质、类别、对等、转换、限度等方面阐述“什么是翻译”这一中心问题。（１）翻译的性质。翻译是“把一种语言（原语）的文字材料转换成另一种语言（译语）的对等的文字

材料。”（２）翻译的类别。就其程度而言，可分为“全文翻译”（full translation）和“部分翻