“形式主义”不完全等于“formalism”——基于CCL和COCA语料库的对比分析

On English Translation of “形式主义”: A Comparative Analysis Based on CCL and COCA Corpus

"形式主义"一词在国内的大众媒体中频频出现,是中国政治文献常用的术语之一。国内的权威词典大多将其翻译成formalism。文章基于CCL语料库和COCA语料库,从词频、搭配和语义韵三个角度进行了对比分析,发现"形式主义"一词在不同领域中含义大相径庭,特别是在中国政治领域中,该词更是含义特殊。笔者建议中国政治文献中的"形式主义"应翻译成formism,以便与其他语境下该词被翻译成formalism相区分。

“形式主义”is a term frequently used in Chinese mass media and political documents.However,when consulting authoritative C-E dictionaries,people will find that“形式主义”is translated into formalism without regarding of context.Based on CCL corpus and COCA corpus,the author compares“形式主义”and formalism from three perspectives:word frequency,collocation and semantic prosody,and finally finds that these two words are not exactly equivalent.“形式主义”has different meanings in different fields.It has special meaning in Chinese political field.Therefore,the author suggests to translate“形式主义”in political field into formism,so as to distinguish it from formalismin other contexts.