寻求“第三语码”--基于汉语译文语料库的翻译共性研究

In pursuit of the "third code":A study of translation universals based on the ZCTC corpus of translational Chinese

翻译语言作为一种客观存在的语言变体,既不同于源语,又有别于目的语母语,Frawley(1984)称其为"第三语码"。本文在自建汉语译文平衡语料库的基础上,结合先前创建的兰卡斯特汉语语料库(LCMC),对汉语译文语言的特征进行考察。作者通过对比分析两个语料库,探讨汉语译文的词汇和句法特征,发现:1)同汉语母语相比,汉语译文词汇密度略低,特别是实义词与功能词之比偏低;2)汉语译文使用更多连接词,呈明晰化特征;3)汉语译文中被动结构受英文影响大,故质疑规范化假设。

As a language variant translational language is distinct from both the source and target native languages,and is hence referred to as the 'third code' in Frawley(1984).This article explores the potential lexical and syntactical features of translational Chinese on the basis of two balanced comparable corpora of translated and native Chinese,namely the ZJU Corpus of Translational Chinese(ZCTC) and the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese(LCMC).The results suggest that 1) in comparison with native Chinese,translational Chinese has a lower lexical density,particularly a lower ratio of lexical words v.function words;2) translated Chinese makes more frequent use of conjunctions,thus demonstrating a tendency for explicitation;and 3) the use of passives in Chinese translations is affected by English source texts,thus casting doubt upon the normalisation hypothesis.