纽马克的翻译理论
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1 / 54 Chapter 2
Peter Newmark
Semantic and Communicative Translation
Guided Reading
Peter 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 include 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
communicative 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 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 2 / 54 "the conflict of loyalties, the gap between emphasis on
source
and target languages 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 "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 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. 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 social factors,
especially the readers of the second language, only play a partial3 / 54 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"
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 even 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 is 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 is 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! 4 / 54 in order to communicate efficiently the message, but
not
semantically as dog that bites! 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 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
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, communicative