Introduction to Chinese-English Translation Key Concept and Techniques

Introduction

China’s growing role in the world has led to increasing contacts with other countries and greater international interest in its politics, economics, and culture. For decades, translation from English into Chinese has been extremely popular in China, but today, translation from Chinese into English has also begun to expand exponentially. Practically all translation going from English into Chinese is performed by native speakers of Chinese, which is the optimal situation, since one usually works best translating into one’s mother tongue. However, for the opposite direction, the serious shortage of English native speakers who have enough proficiency in Chinese to work into English has meant that much of this task now falls on the shoulders of large numbers of native Chinese speakers, who are thus working into a foreign language. Their efforts have helped to tell the world about China’s complex society, rapid economic development, rich history, and glorious culture, but the translations have not always produced the desired effect. The stiff, clumsy style known as “Chinglish” is often confusing and jerky, while some translations have even managed to turn a serious message into a joke.

There are many reasons for this unintended result: lack of knowledge of the differences between Chinese and English, poor proficiency in English, ignorance of what translation really entails, and lack of specific translation skills, to name a few. This volume is compiled in the hope of addressing some of these shortcomings. It is our hope that a contrastive linguistic perspective illustrated with practical examples will allow the translator to gain a better understanding of the source text and produce a better translation.

This book focuses squarely on the practice of translation. Some theoretical concepts and terminology, however, are essential for a better understanding of the process, though we have dealt with these without going into excessive detail. We have tried to limit the use of specialized terminology, and we cite many examples that, we hope, illustrate the point. The reader thus will have, in one short volume, most of the concepts and tools to deal with translation problems.

The book is divided into four parts. Part One deals with basic issues, Part Two with basic techniques, and Part Three with a number of more advanced issues, and each of these has exercises, sample answers with notes, and short tests at the end. Part Four presents eight short practice texts covering economics, law, society, culture, and literature, also with sample translations and detailed notes. All English translations come directly from the pens of native speakers of English or have been revised by them. This is the ideal model for doing this kind of work: teamwork between a native and a non-native speaker, each making up for the other’s deficiencies, and revising the final translation together.

Though there are many books on translation on the market, there are not many that deal with Chinese-to-English translation, and even fewer are written in English. In the course of this work, we have received great encouragement and assistance from Dr. Lynn Visson, our editor, and from Dr. John Balcom, who generously shared his materials and ideas. We wish to thank them both for giving their time and energy to making this volume possible. Lastly, we also wish to acknowledge support from Joseph and Sheila Mark Faculty Development Fund of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

The authors

May, 2010

Introduction

China’s growing role in the world has led to increasing contacts with other countries and greater international interest in its politics, economics, and culture. For decades, translation from English into Chinese has been extremely popular in China, but today, translation from Chinese into English has also begun to expand exponentially. Practically all translation going from English into Chinese is performed by native speakers of Chinese, which is the optimal situation, since one ...

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Basic Issues in Chinese-to-English Translation

Chapter 1 Basic concepts of translation .
Chapter 2 Some comparisons between English and Chinese ..

Part Two: Basic Techniques

Chapter 3 Conversion ..
Chapter 4 Amplification .
Chapter 5 Omission..
Chapter 6 Changing the Perspective
Chapter 7 Division and Combination ..
Chapter 8 Syntax—Repositioning Components
Chapter 9 Relative Clauses
Chapter 10 Adverbial Clauses
Chapter 11 The passive Voice

Part Three: Advanced Issues

Chapter 12 Translation of Metaphors .
Chapter 13 Idioms and Four-Character Expressions.
Chapter 14 Text Analysis..

Part Four: Practice Texts
Chapter 15 General/Informative Text: 《前言》 Introduction to a dictionary
Chapter 16 Legal Text: 《英中法律周欢迎词》 A Welcome Speech (Excerpt)
Chapter 17 Economic Text: 《中美贸易讲话》 Speech on China-U.S. trade..
Chapter 18 Informative/Culture-Bound Text: 《道家与休闲》 Daoism and Leisure
Chapter 19 Evaluative/Culture-Bound Text: 《寻找仙境》 In Search of a Better Place.
Chapter 20 Vocative Text: 《热点之外》 Beyond the Spotlight
Chapter 21 Informative/Evaluative/Culture-Bound Text: 《一身傲骨，两袖清风》 It’s not about Money.
Chapter 22 Expressive Text: 《骆驼祥子》 Camel Xiangzi (excerpt)

Conclusion.
Answer Key
Glossary
Appendix: Dictionaries and Online Resources
Sources Used in the Book...
About the Authors

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Basic Issues in Chinese-to-English Translation

Chapter 1 Basic concepts of translation .
Chapter 2 Some comparisons between English and Chinese ..

Part Two: Basic Techniques

Chapter 3 Conversion ..
Chapter 4 Amplification .
Chapter 5 Omission..
Chapter 6 Changing the Perspective
Chapter 7 Division and Combination ..
Chapter 8 Syntax—Repositioning Components
Chapter 9 Relative Clauses
Chapter 10 Adverbial Clauses
Chapter 11 T...