南京邮电大学毕业论文题目零碎话语的翻译探讨专业英语学生姓名班级学号指导教师指导单位英语系日期： 2012年 3月 12日至 2012 年 6 月 15 日AcknowledgementIn writing this thesis, I received much advice, support and encouragement from a number of people. I hereby present my sincere gratitude to those who have given me a hand on the writing of this thesis.My sincere gratitude first and foremost goes to my supervisor Wu Jian for his guidance and instruction. I would also like to extend my appreciation to all the teachers in the Foreign Languages Department, whose inspiring lectures gave me a holistic overview concerning linguistics and translation theories.Last but not least, I am very grateful to my beloved family and roommates who give me great help in various ways. It is with their support that I can accomplish this task.AbstractIn literary works, certain information stands out because it violates the norm of language usage, and such writing technique is called foregrounding. Sentence fragmentation is not a grammatically full sentence but is nevertheless punctuated like one. In this sense, fragment is one kind of foregrounding.As Eugene Nida said, ―translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style‖, a qualified translator should not only transmit the meaning but also extract to the utmost the poetic values of the original works. However, some foregrounding features in literary works are often overlooked by translators, and fragment is no exception. In order to produce a better translation, fragment‘s function should be recognized first and represented properly in the target text.In this thesis, 16 types of fragments are listed. And functions of them are analyzed. There are four kinds of function: information; language power enhancement; stylistic embodiment; and theme and plot assistance.After that, two translation principles are introduced. The first principle is that the form of fragments should be reserved. This principle is based on equivalent effect theory. However, to reserve the form does not mean fragments need to be translated literally. The second principle is that considering readers‘acceptability, some fragments should be translated with a little adjustment.Based on examples taken from English literary works and their Chinese versions, this thesis provides a tentative study on sentence fragmentation translation. It is aimed to bring attention to the translation of fragments and to provide a fresh perspective on foregrounding studies.Key words: Sentence fragmentation; Foregrounding; Translation of style摘要在文学作品中，某些信息由于打破了语言常规而格外引人注目，这种写作手法叫做“前景化”。
零碎语就是不符合语法规则的句子。
从这点来看，零碎语属于“前景化”的一种。
正如尤金·奈达所说的那样，“所谓翻译，是在译语中用最贴切而又最自然的对等语再现源语的信息，首先是意义，其次是文体”，所以说一个合格的译者不但要翻译信息，还要最大程度地翻译出源语的诗意。
可惜的是，对于文学作品中的“前景化”，包括零碎语，译者经常会忽视。
如果想要翻译出更好的作品，译者首先要认识到零碎语在文章中的作用，其次应该在译文中再现这种作用。
根据从记叙型文学作品中寻找到的例子，本文列举了16种类型的零碎语，并且分析了它在文章中所能起到的作用。
作用分为四种：提供信息、增强语言力量、突出文体特点、协助主旨和情节的叙述。
之后介绍了两条翻译原则。
第一条基于等效理论，说明零碎语的形式应当给予保留。
但是保留形式不代表零碎语一定要直译。
第二条原则考虑了读者的接受能力，说明零碎语在翻译时也需要适当调整。
本文结合英汉文学作品实例，对零碎语翻译进行了尝试性研究，希望能引起译者对零碎语的重视，同时也希望能给“前景化”研究提供新的视角。
关键词: 零碎语; 前景化; 文体翻译Contents Acknowledgements (Ⅰ)Abstract (English) (Ⅱ)Abstract (Chinese) (Ⅲ)Contents (Ⅳ)Chapter 1 Introduction (1)1.1Object of the study (1)1.2Significance of the study (1)1.3Structure of the thesis (1)Chapter 2 Literature Review (3)2.1 Overview of the Previous Researches on Sentence Fragmentation (3)2.1.1 Stylistics (3)2.1.2 Writing Style Manuals (3)2.1.3 Psychology (4)2.2 Overview of the Previous Researches on Foregrounding (4)2.2.1 Linguistic Foregrounding Theory (4)2.2.2 Foregrounding Theory in Literary Translation (5)Chapter 3 Types of Sentence Fragmentation (6)3.1 Direct Speech (6)3.2 Echoic Fragments (6)3.2.1Direct Repetition (6)3.2.2Repetition with Expansion (6)3.2.3Repetition with Paraphrase (7)3.3 Additional Information Without Repetition (7)3.4 Identification of an Under-specified Referent (7)3.5 Fractured-off Components (7)3.6 S tream of Consciousness (7)3.7 Incomplete Narration (8)3.8 Colloquialism (8)3.9 General-Particular and Hypothetical-Real Relation (8)3.10 Evaluation, Conclusion, and Comment (8)3.11 Repairing and Reworking-Negation (9)3.12 Topic Management and Orientation (9)3.13 Discovered Objects, Impression, Memories (9)3.14 Narrated Action Sequences (10)3.15 Dialogic Questions and Responses (10)3.16 Isolated Connectives (10)Chapter 4 Major Functions of Sentence Fragmentation (11)4.1 Information (11)4.2 Language Power Enhancement (11)4.3 Stylistic Embodiment (11)4.4 Theme and Plot Assistance (12)Chapter 5 Fragmentation Translation Principles (14)5.1 Equivalent Effect and Fragment Reservation (14)5.2 Reader Acceptability and Fragment Adjustment (18)Chapter 6 Conclusion (20)7.1 Major Findings (20)7.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Endeavor (20)Bibliography (22)On the Translation of Sentence FragmentationChapter 1 Introduction1.1 Object of the StudyThe term ―sentence fragmentation‖ refers to the use of linguistic expressions that are not grammatically full sentences but are nevertheless punctuated like sentences. (Emmott, 2006) This writing style is one specific instance of foregrounding.This article focuses on the Chinese translations of English sentence fragmentations. Examples are mainly from original English narrative fictions.1.2 Significance of the StudyThe interest in sentence fragmentation dates back to the early days of modern stylistics where their study was part of a more general interest in the structure of sentences, particularly in relation to how the simplicity or complexity of sentence could serve stylistic purposes.Nowadays, fragmentations are widely used for rhetorical and stylistic purposes across a wide range of genres, like advertising language, newspaper writing, popular science texts, literary texts and popular fiction, and they are also acknowledged in grammar books and even in recent writing style guides.Despite the increasing interest in sentence fragmentation, few researchers seem to pay attention to its translation. The ignorance of such writing technique and its functions might lead to inadequate translation, which would attenuate or alter altogether what the author meant to convey.1.3 Structure of the ThesisThis thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction to the object, and significance and outline of the study. Chapter two is a literature review of sentence fragmentation and foregrounding. Chapter three lists 16 types of sentencefragmentation. Chapter four is a discussion about the functions of fragmentation. Chapter five introduces two principles for fragment translation. Chapter seven is a conclusion including major findings and limitations and suggestions for future endeavor.Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 Overview of the Previous Researches on Sentence Fragmentation2.1.1 StylisticsSentence fragmentation attracted interest in the early days of modern stylistics as part of the study of sentence length. Crystal and Davy (1969) examined fragments in spoken discourse and a range of written texts, using the term ―minor sentence‖. Leech and Short (1981: 217) continued the stylistic analysis of fragmentation in their study of prose fiction, arguing that the punctuation of fragments provides additional emphasis and can suggest ―the rhythm and intonation one would use in reading the texts aloud.‖ Accordi ng to their discussion, fragments are graphological sentences but not syntactic sentences. Since these early studies, stylisticians have continued to observe sentence fragmentation in the process of performing their analysis of specific texts. The study of fragments is hence an accepted part of any stylistician‘s ―tool kit‖ of techniques of analysis and so is of general interest within stylistics.2.1.2 Writing Style ManualsBeyond stylistics, fragmentation is also a concern of writers of style manuals. Traditionally, writing style manuals have warned novice writers against producing fragments, but there is nevertheless a tendency nowadays to acknowledge that there are special stylistic uses of this type of writing in literary texts (e.g., Allen, 2002: 57; King, 2004: 13–14).Fragmentation is sometimes referred to in grammar textbooks, but the handling of this topic is often rather brief, peripheral to the main grammatical discussion of these books, and certainly does not reflect the diversity of use of fragments in written texts. Quirk et al. (1985: 1446) discuss the topic in a section on prosody and punctuation. They contrast ―I saw Miriam and Walter.‖ with ―I saw Miriam. And Walter.‖,arguing that the first suggests a couple who regularly appear together, whereas the second might suggest either that Walter is being mentioned as an afterthought or that the sight of him is being given special or dramatic significance. Quirk et al. claim that these two very different interpretations are context dependent and have different prosodies attached to them in reading. In a section on punctuation, Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1735) recognize one specific type of fragmentationthat occurs in connected prose, the splitting of a single sentence into two separate compone nts (e.g., ‗He had broken the vase. Deliberately.‘). Huddleston and Pullum‘s explanation is in terms of information packaging, suggesting that the punctuation gives extra importance to the latter element in the same way as prosody could set it apart in speech. They also argue that brevity might be a consideration and might explain the use of fragments in journalism.2.1.3 PsychologyIn psychology, the study of sentence fragmentation has relevance to research on sentence complexity. There is a growing body of empirical research on ―depth of processing‖that shows that readers are less attentive to errors or changes in a text when information is embedded in complex structures, such as subordinate clauses, rather than in main clauses (Sanford and Sturt, 2002; Sturt et al., 2004). On this basis, fragments might be predicted to increase attention due to their brevity and simplicity and also to their ability to extract information that might otherwise have appeared within an earlier full sentence. Researchers have investigated the functionality of short fragments in the Glasgow LINCS Project (Literature, Narrative and Cognitive Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Nature of Reading). The results show that short fragments serve to grab attention and lead to more substantial mental processing than do phrases in longer sentences.2.2 Overview of the Previous Researches on Foregrounding2.2.1 Linguistic Foregrounding TheoryForegrounding, a term put forward by Czech theorist Jan Mukarovsky (1964), is one of the core assumptions within stylistics.In Linguistics and the Figures of Rhetoric, Leech classifies foregrounding into two kinds: syntagmatic foregrounding and paradigmatic foregrounding. Syntagmatic foregrounding relies on making use of certain linguist ic element out of people‘s expectation so as to achieve variations. Paradigmatic foregrounding relies on selections of linguistic elements beyond the routine (Leech, 1966).In Halliday‘s opinion, foregrounding is motivated prominence (Halliday, 1971). He believes that foregrounding results from two ways: ―deviation from a norm‖ and ―establishment of a norm‖ (1971: 339).In the light of Leech and Short (1981: 48), foregrounding may be qualitative—a breach of some rule or convention of English; or it may also bequantitative—deviance from some expected frequency, namely, overregularity.It is not until 1980 that the theory of foregrounding was introduced to China as one aspect of stylistics. Professor Zhang Delu, Shen Dan, et.al. were some of the pioneers. In 1994, Zhang published Linguistic Semiotics and Foregrounding in Foreign Languages, in which he introduces the notion of foregrounding and states from a functional perspective the importance of foregrounding (Zhang Delu, 1994). Since then, foregrounding has caught more and more attention in China, especially in the field of literary stylistics.2.2.2 Foregrounding Theory in Literary TranslationIn 2001, Professor Ye Zinan proposes in his book Advanced Course in English Translation that the foregrounding theory could be applied to translation (Ye Zinan, 2001). During the translation process, translator should firstly examine the ―text world‖ knowledge (Werth, 1999) in order to clarify the significance of the fragments. Ye Zinan therefore divides foregrounding into two categories: unintentional and intentional. As for unintentional sentence fragments, the language feature is a natural outcome of the source language system and has no ulterior intention, so it is unnecessary to reproduce in the target language the language features. As for foregrounding made intentionally, translators have the duty to represent it in the target language.He suggests that translators should be especially aware of foregrounding in translation practice. And he also claimed that some foregroundings are untranslatable. His thoughts are a breakthrough in translation theory study.After Ye Zinan, many scholars turned their eyes to foregrounding translation. Shen Dan (Shen Dan, 2002: 11-15) warns translators against ―deceptive equivalence‖. Liu Yanshi analyzes foregrounding theory‘s adaptability and feasibility in English-Chinese translation. He argues that whether the foregrounded unit is well translated or not is essential to translation quality. Zhong Yuling examines how the translator should exhaust the potentiality of the target language so as to preserve the homogeneity and novelty of the source text.Some researchers also use foregrounding theory to evaluate translated work. They consider that the quality of translation is related to the recognition and expression of the foregrounded elements.Chapter 3 Types of Sentence FragmentationIn Glasgow LINCS Project, 16 different types of fragmentation are collected and categorized by Emmott. (2006)In this chapter, these 16 types are presented but modified. Emmott‘s ―Similarity: Paraphrase‖is placed under ―Echoic Fragments‖as ―Repetition with Paraphrase‖. ―Dialogic Responses‖ is revamped into ―Dialogic Questions and Responses‖. And two new types of fragmentation are added. Those are ―Stream of Consciousness‖and ―Colloquialism‖.3.1 Direct SpeechDirect speech in fiction mimics real speech by presenting brief phrases that rely on contextual information for their interpretation. For example:⑴He cleared his throat and spoke to the back of the room so that Nazneen turned her head to see who it was he was addressing. ―And when they jump ship and scuttle over here, then in a sense they are home again. And you see, to a white person, we are all the same: dirty little monkeys all in the same monkey clan. But these people are peasants. Uneducated. Illiterate. Close-minded. Without ambition.‖ (Ali, Brick Lane, p.14)3.2 Echoic Fragments3.2.1 Direct RepetitionFragments can simply repeat a part of the previous sentence. For example:⑵―Oh,‖ she said quickly, ―I think my Evan would mind. He would not like to sleep without me.‖ My Evan. (Shreve, The Weight of Water, p.228)3.2.2 Repetition with ExpansionIn most cases, fragment to repeat a specific element of the previous text is with an extra word added. For example:⑶The car is in a driveway. A familiar driveway. (Shreve, The Pilot’s Wife, p.45)3.2.3 Repetition with paraphraseSometimes, fragment is a paraphrase or a rough paraphrase of the element in a previous sentence. For example:⑷The razor slipped when she cut his corns. His files got mixed up when she tidied. All her chores, peasants in his princely kingdom, rebelled in turn. Small insurrections, designed to destroy the state from within. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.40)3.3 Additional InformationFragment can also provide further information. For example:⑸So he came to me and asked if I could get him a Rita Hayworth poster. Not a little one but a big one. (Stephen King, Different Seasons, p.53)3.4 Identification of an Under-specified ReferentThe referent is initially being underspecified by an indefinite pronoun and then the identification would be provided in the fragment. For example:⑹In the village they were still burying their dead and looking for bodies. Dark spots moved through the far field. Men, doing whatever they could in this world. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.5)3.5 Fractured-Off ComponentsIn certain cases, the fragment could have been part of the previous sentence, but the overall structure has been fractured into a grammatically complete sentence and one or more fragments.⑺It was her place to sit and wait. Even if the tornado was heading directly towards her. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.69-70)3.6 Stream of ConsciousnessThe fragments can reflect the focalizer‘s quick shift of consciousness. For example:⑻She would have to explain more carefully. She tried to think it through. Whathad made her so happy? She drew a face and made it smile. I fought for him. She added a matchstick body. Not accepting. Fighting. She drew a flower and gave it a long stem. Fate! Fate business. A bird, she attempted a bird, but it looked more like a coat hanger. I move my pen. This way. That way. Began an elephant and turned the back legs to a horse. Nobody else here. Nobody else moving this pen. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.100)3.7 Incomplete NarrationThis type of fragmentation suspends the narrative and can leave important information unexpressed. This type is very uncommon. For example:⑼Most of all, Nick finds himself plunged suddenly into endless replays of Glyn‘s voice. Not only now, but back then. That day. When Kath. (Lively, The Photograph, p.204)3.8 ColloquialismSometimes, colloquial short phrases would appear as fragments. For example:⑽Raqib was awake. ―Bah‖, he said. Enough of this nonsense. He lifted his hands in front of his face and regarded them sternly. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.94)3.9 General-Particular and Hypothetical-Real RelationThe fragment in this case gives a specific example of an item in or out of the category mentioned in the previous sentence.⑾Usually, fugitives panicked on the street and did something stupid. Stole a car. Robbed a store. Used a bank card in desperation. (Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code, p.169)3.10 Evaluation, Conclusion, and CommentFragments often provide an evaluation, a conclusion, or a comment representing the reaction of a focalizing character to a particular situation. For example:⑿Andy's requests for library funds were routinely turned down until 1960, when he received a check for two hundred dollars - the senate probably appropriated it in hopes that he would shut up and go away. Vain hope. (Stephen King, Different Seasons, p.24)3.11 Repairing and Reworking-NegationFragments can be used to repair or otherwise rework a previous statement. For example:⒀Mother was a woman with brown hair. Reddish perhaps. Light ash. (Galloway, Clara, p.124)3.12 Topic Management and OrientationFragments can introduce a new topic or subtopic for discussion. Fragments can also consist of orientation signals that provide time and place information as a new section of a narrative starts.⒁And Clare, always Clare. Clare in the morning, sleepy and crumple-faced. Clare with her arms plunging into the papermaking vat, pulling up the mold and shaking it so, and so, to meld the fibres. Clare reading, with her hair hanging over the back of the chair, massaging balm into her cracked red hands before bed. C lare‘s low voice is in my ear often. (Audrey Niffenegger,The Time Traveler’s Wife, p.4)3.13 Discovered Objects, Impression, MemoriesFragments can often reflect the observations of a focalizing character, sometimes individual items, but often in list form.⒂If she put her ear to the wall she could hear sounds. The television on. Coughing. Sometimes the lavatory flushing. Someone upstairs scraping a chair. A shouting match below. Everyone in their boxes, counting their possessions. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.10)3.14 Narrated Action SequencesFragments can represent action sequences. For example:⒃Raqib leaned back, incredulous. His bottom lip hung. Banners of drool proclaimed his adulation. Nazneen jiggled him. Up and down. Up and down. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.57)3.15 Dialogic Questions and ResponsesFragment is also common in the heavily rhetorical use of questions an author or narrator asks, or of answers in response to an au thor or narrator‘s own question. For example:⒄Incredulous, Collet realized that someone in the bank had actually lied to DCPJ about Langdon and Sophie’s whereabouts and then helped them escape. But who? And why? (Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code, p.295)⒅What did he have to lose, you ask? His library, for one thing. The poison peace of institutional life, for another. Any future chance to grab his safe identity. (Stephen King, Different Seasons, p.56)3.16 Isolated ConnectivesIn some cases, connectives are isolated from the surrounding text.⒆By play, she meant work, which was what play meant, had always meant. But. (Galloway, Clare, p.176)Chapter 4 Major Functions of Sentence Fragmentation 4.1 InformationEven though sentence fragments are not grammatically full sentences, their major role, nevertheless, is to convey some information.⑴Although she could think about God. And the words of the prayer. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.44)4.2 Language Power EnhancementFragmentation can enhance the power of language. For example:⑵Four drinks a year, and this is the behavior of a man who has been bitten hard by the bottle. Hard enough to draw blood. (Stephen King, Different Seasons, p.5)By repeating and modifying the previous word ―hard‖, the fragment allows extra emphasis to be made.⑶Most memory is friable as dust and no one can be expected to remember everything. Dresden, however. She may admit recalling a visit to Dresden. (Galloway, Clara, p.66)This fragment enables strong contrasts. ―Dresden‖is set against the previous ―everything‖, indicating the importance of Dresden to the focalizer.4.3 Stylistic EmbodimentStyle is deviation of the norm (Qin Xiubai: 96). Fragments, as a breach of the norm, can embody an author‘s unique way of writing. For example:⑷Her breath came from down in her stomach. In and out. Smooth. Silent. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.8-9)These fragments provide a rhythmic change to the average longer sentences to increase the aesthetic values.⑸The city shattered. Everything was in pieces. She knew it straightaway, glimpsed it from the painful-white insides of the ambulance. Frantic neon signs. Headlights chasing the dark. An office block, cracked with light. These shards of the broken city. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.81)The author uses a line of short fragments instead of verbs to simulate specific types of movement.⑹In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. (Vladimir, Lolita, p.1)The author separates the spatial adverbial into an independent sentence. There is no perceptible necessity in doing so, but it is this kind of writing that marks the author‘s unique style.4.4 Theme and Plot AssistanceAlthough fragmentation often has a local rhetorical function, it may also have global significance in a text.⑺The Scheme for Full Employment was the envy of the world[…]Planned to the finest detail by people of vision. The Scheme was watertight, and could not possibly go wrong.Except in this country.In this country we managed to destroy it. (Mill, The Scheme for Full Employment, unnumbered preface)Here the fragment provides a sudden switch of direction, which works as a topic indicator to the discussion about why the situation is different ―in this country.‖⑻By chance it was Friday, the day Tom drives by the corner of Bathurst andBloor for a glimpse of her. She was not there. For the first time since April she was not there.Unless, unless. He rang the bell at the hostel […] (Shields, Unless, p.314)The word ―unless‖ has thematic significance, for the story deals with the notion of coincidence. The fragment comes shortly after an explicit discussion of the meaning of the word ―unless‖ and also echoes the title of the book. This type of heavy use of a fragment with explicit signaling of its importance can enable a fragment to play a global role in a novel.⑼At a little wash-hand stand at the foot of the bed there was another figure. Walter. (Waters, Tipping the Velvet, p.167)This under-specification fragment can create suspense at a crucial point before a major plot revelation.Chapter 5 Fragmentation Translation Principles5.1 Equivalent Effect and Fragment Reservation―There is wide but not universal agreement that the main aim of the translator is to produce as nearly as possible the same effect on his readers as was produced on the readers of the original.‖ (Peter Newmark, 2001:10)Leech & Short (2001: 24) once put forward a formula to expose the relationship between ―meaning‖ and ―form‖: sense + stylistic value = (total) significance.This formula implies that the combination of sense (message) and stylistic value (including foregrounding) presents text significance. As a result, not only should translators deliver ―what is said‖ in the original texts but also ―how it is said‖.When employed into foregrounding translation, the formula can be revised as follows: equivalent effect of message delivering + equivalent effect of stylistic rendering = full-value translation (Zhang Yan, 2011). The formula suggests that stylistic rendering is as important as message delivering. Therefore, fragmented texts should be translated in fragments provided it is possible. For example:⑴For seven months she had been ripening, like a mango on a tree. Only seven months. (Ali, Brick Lane, p.1)七个月来，她一直在往成熟里长，就像树上的一只芒果。
