论现代汉语的西化与英汉翻译中的“翻译腔”问题

论文总字数：64580字

摘 要

本文旨在探究汉语西化以及翻译腔这两个影响现代汉语发展的因素，二者皆与翻译有关。首先我们将揭示汉语怎样通过对英语的模仿而西化；翻译腔是英汉翻译中普遍存在的问题，翻译对汉语有重大影响，而英语又是国际语言，将长久影响汉语，因此分析这一问题的成因，表现，探究消除翻译腔的方法，减少其危害，便是本文一重要任务。另外，我们也将探究在英语的影响下汉语怎样健康发展，避免恶性西化。

关键词： 汉语西化 英汉翻译 翻译腔

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………….i

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………….ii

摘要 ………………………………………………………………………………..ii

Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….iii

Chapter One Introduction…………………………………………………………1

1.1 Background of the Study………………………………………………………..1

1.2 Objectives and Significance of the Study……………………………………….2

1.3 Framework of the Thesis………………………………………………………..3

Chapter Two Literature Review…………………………………………………..5

2.1 An Overview of the Studies on Westernization of Chinese Language…………5

2.2 Definitions of Translationese and Relevant Studies……………………………6

Chapter Three Westernization of Modern Chinese Language………………….9

3.1 Background and Causes of Westernization……………………………………..9

3.2 Manifestations of Westernization……………………………………………...10

3.3 Westernization Triggered by Translation………………………………………15

Chapter Four Translationese……………………………………………………..17

4.1 A Redefinition of Translationese………………………………………………17

4.2 Exemplification of Translationese……………………………………………..17

4.2.1 Unidiomatic/Unnatural Expressions……………………………………...17

4.2.2 Ambiguity/Distortion in Meaning………………………………………...19

4.2.3 Unnatural Sentence Structures……………………………………………20

4.3 Causes of Translationese………………………………………………………21

4.3.1 Lack of Adjustments………………………………………………………21

4.3.2 Poor Understanding of the Original Text…………………………………22

4.3.3 Low Target-language Proficiency………………………………………...23

4.4 Suggestions to Avoid Translationese…………………………………………..23

Chapter Five The Relation Between Westernization and Translationese……..25

5.1 Similarities and Differences…………………………………………………...25

• 1. Benign Westernization and Malignant Westernization………………………...25
  2. Malignant Westernization Caused by Translationese………………………….28
     1. Translationese in Authentic Chinese texts………………………………28
     2. Detriments to Chinese Language Caused by Translationese……………30
  3. How and to What Extent Should Chinese be Westernized…………………….30

Chapter Six Conclusion…………………………………………………………..32

References…………………………………………………………………………...34

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of The Study

The origin of modern Chinese language dates back to early 20^th century (some also contend that it began from the 17^th century), when advanced thoughts and scientific knowledge as well as modern technologies flooded into the long-isolated country, and when China was undergoing her painful process of modernization. Eminent scholars who were educated in the traditional way but were deeply influenced by western science, languages and thoughts, had come to realize that traditional Chinese language, which is in form separated from oral Chinese and difficult for ordinary people to understand, must be replaced by another kind of Chinese language that is more similar to oral Chinese and easier to understand, so that the people can be well informed and better educated. Thence came the significant Vernacular Movement, which advocated writing in vernacular Chinese. Some scholars, after realizing the shortages and limitations of traditional Chinese language, strongly deplored it, and seeing the advantages of western languages, even called for a westernization of Chinese language. (Although given the specific historical background, they were not without a sense of “culture inferiority”, looking down their own language and culture, so their belittling of Chinese might not be reasonable, nor were their admiration of English language unexaggerated) Whether this appeal was once supported or opposed, substantial evidences show that the Chinese we are writing and speaking today has been more or less westernized.

It is generally acknowledged that translation played a crucial role in the process of the westernization of Chinese language. On the one hand, many new concepts were imported, which had no equivalent terms in Chinese before, thus it was necessary to create new words when translating these new concepts into Chinese; on the other hand, while reproducing the meanings in original texts, translators sometimes inevitably imitated the syntactic structures of the source language, as a result bringing in new expressions in Chinese. Hence, translation has influenced and enriched Chinese both in content and structure.

While translation has helped modern Chinese language go through its infancy, a fatal problem in translation should also be noticed, which has negative impacts on Chinese as well as produces shoddy translations. There are quite a few translations that mechanically convert the expressions and syntactic structures into Chinese, ignorant of the intrinsic differences between two languages and the meanings in the text. This problem is termed “translationese” by Eugene A. Nida, who explains it as “formal fidelity, with resulting unfaithfulness to the content and the impact of the message.”(Nida amp; Taber, 2004: 13) Translations that have this problem consequently result in weird expressions and sentences, and even ambiguity and distortion in meaning. What is worse is, that the abnormal expressions caused by translationese in translated works are gradually accepted and used by Chinese people, in this way probably leading Chinese language to an unhealthy way of evolution. (For example, we can frequently see odd expressions like “我不能同意更多” and collocations like “如此......以至于......” being used by Chinese speakers, which are mechanically translated from “I can’t agree more” and “so...that...”) This unhealthy trend, which is to a great extent caused by translationese, is also called “malignant westernization” by Yu.(Yu, 2002: 152)

Therefore, the main purpose for this thesis is to reveal the detriments that translationese causes to Chinese language. Since modern Chinese language had been under the influence of western languages ever since its formation, it is impossible to study the effects of translationese without exploring the features of Chinese and having a general grasp of the process of the development of modern Chinese language.

1.2 Objectives and Significance of the Study

In this thesis, I aim to discuss and analyze two phenomena that are closely related to translation: westernization of modern Chinese language and translationese. For the study of the first phenomenon, it is fundamental to have an overview of the development process of modern Chinese language since Vernacular Movement and how it was influenced by English; for the second, I attempt to clarify the conception of translationese by synthesizing the definitions from several theorists and also by exemplifying, analyze the causes of translationese and put forward suggestions of avoiding it on the basis the analyses. But the discussion of translationese is not confined to the field of translation theory; more importantly, we will try to explore its relation with westernization and how it affects Chinese.

Modern Chinese language has been, since its cradle time, under the influence of English, and the influence is getting stronger instead of weaker as international communications are ever-increasingly frequent and English has become a global language. As a consequence, translations from English to Chinese in different forms—literature, academic works, business information, television programs... are also increasing, but their qualities are not always satisfactory and translationese in translations would likely affect authentic Chinese. Therefore, it becomes an urgent task to distinguish the traditional usages and imported ones in Chinese, and endeavor to avoid the negative effects of English or unqualified translations. Although this thesis is unable to solve such a significant problem, we hope it can serve as an introduction to arouse the attention of Chinese readers.

Besides, translationese is a much-talked-about conception but serious and detailed analyses are rare. To change this situation, we will try to make a relatively systematic and rational analysis and reasonable categorization based on previous sporadic studies but quite different from them. This might also be a new attempt of this thesis.

1.3 Framework of the Thesis

This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the conceptions of westernization and translationese; chapter two is a summary of previous studies on the two subjects based on the materials we have collected; chapter three is a detailed analysis of westernization from its historical background, causes, and major manifestations; the next chapter discusses translationese in detail; after discussions on the two topics, I go on to analyze the relation between westernization and translationese and the way that translationese affects the development of Chinese in chapter five; the last chapter concludes my major findings in this thesis.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 An Overview of the Studies on Westernization of Chinese Language

There are no authoritative definition of the term “westernization”, but in general, when discussing the evolution of Chinese, it refers to the process of adopting expressions and grammars imitated from Indo-European languages, and particularly English. He Yang (2008) holds that “westernized grammatical phenomena” refer to new grammatical elements and syntactic patterns generated through imitations and importations of Indo-European languages, as well as the phenomenon that under the influence of Indo-European languages, the once rarely-used grammatical forms have been “stimulated”. Westernization was a language revolution which can be observed from a historical perspective. According to Zhu Yifan (2011: 7-11), westernization as a means of improving Chinese began to be taken into consideration by literature revolutionists since “New Literature Movement”, which roughly overlapped with the so-called Vernacular Movement. Prominent scholars and writers influenced by western cultures and modern civilizations became aware of the defects of classical Chinese(being destitute of words and inexpressive when conveying new concepts and new thoughts) and suggested it be improved, which at that time was tantamount to westernization. For example, Fu Sinian, an eminent scholar, wrote an article in 1918 named How to Write Vernacular Chinese, in which he explicitly proposed the westernization of Chinese, imitating western languages in every aspect, an opinion of which Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren and Qian Xuantong were also proponents (Zhu, 2011: 7-11). Fu Sinian’s suggestion might have gone to extremes, and Zhou Zuoren’s opinion seems more reasonable and rational. In his view, whether Chinese should be westernized depends on whether it’s necessary and whether westernized Chinese is better than original Chinese(Li, 2014: 85). Generally speaking, westernization was widely supported around the early 1920s and disputes at that time were mainly focused on the means and degree of westernization. However, in the 1930s, some scholars voiced criticism of it, which was often closely related to translation. For example, Liang Shiqiu had had long-time disputes with Lu Xun, criticizing his proposition of “literal translation”, which is likely to produce westernized Chinese, but which Lu Xun regarded as a way of reforming Chinese.

Despite these disputes on westernization, Chinese language has indeed been westernized to some extent, whether it is due to conscious efforts or unconscious influence of translation, or both.The first systematic and linguistic study on westernization of Chinese was done by Wang Li, a preeminent linguist. He made a comparison between ancient vernacular (these examples come from ancient classics such as The Dream of Red Mansions and The Legend of Heroes and Heroines) and modern vernacular Chinese (these examples come from articles on then newspapers), found how the latter had changed, and attributing the changes to the influences of western languages, classified the phenomena of westernization into six categories.(Wang, 2014: 382-419) Apart from the discussions mentioned above and Wang Li’s exhaustive study on this subject, the critical opinions of Yu Guangzhong on malignant westernization (Yu, 2002) is also noteworthy. He points out in several papers (Yu, 2002: 82-84, 85-99, 100-108, 109-124, 132-141, 151-168) the negative effects caused by westernization through various examples and calls for correct and proper use of Chinese.

2.2 Definitions of Translationese and Relevant Studies

The word “translationese” was generally acknowledged to be coined by Eugene A. Nida in his book The Theory and Practice of Translation. In his explanation, it is a problem of “formal fidelity” in translation, which, contrarily, causes “unfaithfulness to the content and the impact of the message”(Nida amp; Taber, 2004:12). The definition of “translationese” in the Dictionary of Translation Studies is “a general pejorative term used to refer to TL usage which because of its obvious reliance on features of SL, is perceived as unnatural, impenetrable or even comical.” (Shuttleworth amp; Cowie, 2003: 187) Studies on this subject by foreign scholars are not many, and the few studies are unexceptionally concerning with Indo-European languages, thus can seldom be applied to the study of translationese in E-C translation.

Domestically, there are a lot discussions on this topic, representative among which are from Sun Zhili, Fan Zhongying, Liu Miqing, etc. Specific definitions by these scholars of this term may differ, which we will not repeat here any more, but it is agreed unanimously that translationese is generally caused by mechanical translation (or extreme literal translation) and that translated texts with this problem usually seem unnatural, incondite, and usually cause ambiguity and even distortion in meaning. Sun Zhili (2003) thinks translationese is harmful in two aspects: for translated works with this problem, firstly, the language are incoherent and nonstandard, which are unacceptable for the readers; secondly, they sometimes don’t make sense, and even mislead the readers. He also concludes four causes of translationese, contending that translationese is due to indiscriminate copying from the original texts in structure and expression. Fan Zhongying (1994: 98-108) lists a few translated sentences that have the problem of translationese, provided revised versions, and analyzed the causes of translationese. In his view, there are mainly three causes of translationese: the differences between source language and target language, overemphasis on formal fidelity, and failure in understanding the meanings of original texts. Both Sun and Fan give several suggestions to avoid translationese, but neither are appliable enough; Liu Miqing (2005: 263-264) summed up five manifestations of translationese: ignorant of the actual meanings in specific conversations; ignorant of habitual usage and collocations in TL; mechanically copying the structures and figures of speech in SL; introducing foreign cultural factors without considering whether it is acceptable or comprehensible in the culture of TL; ignoring communicative effects, blindly imitating the language patterns in SL. However, he only provided a brief and abstract introduction, without further discussions and exemplifications. This thesis will try to synthesize and integrate these relevant studies, in order to better illustrate this problem pervasive in translation.

Sometimes in E-C translation translationese is also regarded approximately as westernized translation, because as a mechanical way of translation, translationese preserve many features of English. Hence Ye Zinan’s discussion on westernized translation (Ye, 2008: 126-135) is also worth mentioning. He points out that although westernized translation is usually thought to make the translated version obscure and incomprehensible, and “domesticating strategy” (making translations idiomatic in the target language) should be the norm, westernized translation still has reasons for its existence. In his opinion, while translations serving for the purpose of communication should be as domestically idiomatic as possible (in this case, westernized translation is likely to hinder communication and reduce readers’ or listeners’ acceptability), westernized translation should be adopted in translating texts that have “perpetual values” (such as literary masterpieces), in order to preserve their unique languages. Moreover, Ye discusses the value of westernized translation in more profound perspectives, including the perspective of cultural symbols, diachronical cultures, and social and cultural movements. He holds that with cultural communication becoming more and more frequent, people will also be more and more familiar with foreign language and cultural, and consequently westernized translation will become more acceptable.

Chapter Three Westernization of Modern Chinese Language

3.1 Background and Causes of Westernization

More than 100 years ago, Chinese society was undergoing an upheaval after being invaded by some western countries. Coming with the invasions of economy, politics, and even sovereignty were the importation of western cultures and political systems, modern science, philosophies, etc., which had profound impacts on the Chinese, and particularly on the intellectuals. It is said that Chinese had been awakened ever since the first Opium War and awakened intellectuals, after realizing that China had been lagging behind for too long a time, freed themselves from the shackles of the ancient, obsolete system and ideology, and began to “see the world”. The main avenue for them to acquire the knowledge of the outer world was foreign books translated into Chinese. It is for this reason that translation had been so crucial and indispensable in China’s modern history. In fact, the translation of western works reached a climax in the late 19^th century, and the most influential translator at that time was indisputably Yan Fu, who had translated a large number of western academic masterpieces including Evolution and Ethics, The Wealth of Nations, The Study of Sociology, On Liberty, etc. While Chinese people were learning eagerly from those translated works, it was common wisdom that classical Chinese was notoriously difficult in disseminating new ideas and concepts that were introduced to China for the first time ever. Therefore, new words were coined to denote new concepts (for example, the Chinese words “计学”, “群”, and “天演” were coined by Yan Fu, respectively denoting “economy”, “society” and “evolution”). However, the creation of new words was only a tip of the iceberg concerning the changes of the then Chinese language. Though the revolutionary Vernacular Movement had publicized vernacular writing across the country, some still felt that the original vernacular Chinese was immature and imperfect, and that another language revolution—westernization, was in need. Speaking of the defects of Chinese language, Fu Sinian wrote in How to Write Vernacular Chinese, that “We feel not only that the vernacular we are using is rather inexpressive, but also that it has too few words”; Lu Xun also said, “Chinese language is too inaccurate... This inaccuracy in grammar indicates inaccuracy in thinking.”^[1] Based on these concerns, they, together with other scholars and writers, enthusiastically called for the westernization of Chinese. The first proponent is Fu Sinian, who encouraged people in the article mentioned above “to make use of all methods in rhetoric, including grammar, morphology, syntax, and figure of speech of western languages, in order to create a kind of westernized Chinese superior to the language we’re using now.”

3.2 Manifestations of Westernization

There is probably no study concerning this subject that is more exhaustive and systematic than the one done by Wang Li. However, his research was finished in the 1940s, only decades after the popularization of vernacular writing. During the ongoing course of westernization, there were some new features emerging, which were not included in Mr. Wang’s study, as well as some old ones that were fading away. But Wang’s study is still significant today. Thus, in an the attempt to conclude the manifestations of westernization of Chinese language in order to have a general grasp of how and in what aspects Chinese language is westernized, I will synthesize the important studies on this subject—mainly the studies by Wang Li and Yu Guangzhong, who has constructive views on the negative effects of westernization of contemporary Chinese in his publications.

1. More disyllabic/polysyllabic words

In traditional Chinese, monosyllables (single-syllable words) prevail over disyllabic/polysyllabic words in number, while in modern Chinese, the situation is reversed. In order to account for this phenomenon, Wang Kefei quoted Yan Fu’s saying in a paper:

“译事三难信达雅，求其信已大难矣。顾信矣不达。虽译犹不译也。”

This sentence is composed entirely by monosyllables, which is typical in traditional Chinese. But if written in vernacular Chinese, it will go something like the following:

“翻译工作有三项困难，就是忠实、通顺、典雅，做到忠实就已经很困难了，倘若照顾到忠实而不能做到通顺，那么虽然翻译了，也还是跟没有翻译差不多。”(Wang, 2002: 461)

Obviously, disyllabic words prevail and predominate in modern Chinese.

In Wang Li’s view, most disyllabic/polysyllabic words are translated from English. This might not be exactly true. In fact, there are many disyllabic/polysyllabic words in Chinese that were adopted from Japanese, though they were indeed translated from English. (such as “服务”“组织”“纪律”“政治”“政府”“革命”“经济”“商业”“科学”“法律”“文学”“美术”and the list goes on. )

1. An increase in the use of copulas

In English, copula, also called as “link verb”, is essential in some sentence patterns like “subject be attributive”. For example, in the sentence “She is beautiful”, the verb “is” cannot be omitted; but in Chinese we often don’t use the link verb (We say “她很美” instead of “她是美丽的”) . However, in westernized Chinese, the copula “是”(the equivalent of “be”) has been used increasingly. For example:

a)“雨虽暂时不下，地上是稀湿。”（俞平伯《重过西园码头》）

b)“我们都是太匆忙，太没有单独的机会。”（徐志摩《我所知道的康桥》）

However, this peculiar use of “是” might not be often seen now, though it was once pervasively used.

3) Longer sentences

Most westernized sentences are longer than non-westernized ones, due to the insertion of various modifiers, which is characteristic of western languages. This may be better clarified by some examples listed as follows:

1. “那些自骗自的相信不曾把他们自己的人格混到著作里去的人，正是被那最谬误的幻见所欺的受害者。”（周作人《文艺批评杂话》）
2. “他们却百折不回的继续奋斗，至两年之久，究竟得申冤狱。”（《西滢闲话》）
3. “就社会说，艺术的功用，像托尔斯泰所说的，在传染情感，打破人与人的界限。”（朱光潜《文艺与道德》）

The underlined parts in the sentences above are modifiers or parenthesis that are seldom seen in non-westernized sentences. To make the above sentences in accord with the Chinese grammar, they can be revised as:

1. “有些人自己骗自己，相信不曾把自己的人格混到著作里去，这种人实在是被那最谬误的幻见所欺。”
2. “他们却百折不回，继续奋斗......”/“他们却继续奋斗，百折不回......”
3. “正如托尔斯泰所说，在社会方面，艺术的功用在于传染感情......”

In Wang Li’s view, sometimes prolonged sentences can indeed help convey messages more accurately and logically, but they should be written in accord with our language habits, and deliberate elongation and unnecessary insertion should be avoided.

1. Westernization of potential mood, passive voice and signal words

Westernization of potential mood can be exemplified as

1. “你尽可能地早去”
2. “他尽可能地慢走”

This structure is an apparent translation of “as soon as possible”. Expressed in non-westernized ways, the two sentences can be revised as “你能去多早就去多早” and “他能走多慢就走多慢”.

Another phenomenon is parallelism of potential mood:

c)“你仍然像在特别包厢里看戏一样，本身不会，也不必参加那出戏。”（林徽因《窗子以外》）

d)“中国没有亡国的可能”

e)“他没有回家的必要”

Sentence d) and sentence e) are respectively equal to “中国不会亡国” and “他不必/不用/用不着回家”, which are idiomatic Chinese expressions.

Passive voice in Chinese was originally used to express something unfortunate or unwanted. For example:

a)“我们被人欺负了。”

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