论汉英语用差异对翻译的影响——基于对《边城》四译本的对比分析

How Pragmatic Differences Between English and Chinese Affect Four English Versions of Biancheng

本文从《边城》的四个译本着手,结合汉英语用取向差异,分析译者母语的语用取向对翻译的影响。研究发现,译文较原文而言普遍体现出更强的结果取向,在表意上多次比原文更推进,此外,英语母语者相对汉语母语者而言,其结果取向思维更突出,而汉语母语者则更容易受到汉语过程取向思维的影响。当然,本文只是从语用取向一个方面比较了四个译本,但是不能认定谁的译本更具结果取向就更好,结果取向的度受制于翻译语境,若过度,则可能导致抽象,从而失去文学性,故推进也应当适度。

This paper studies how the pragmatic differences between English and Chinese affect the four available English versions of Biancheng, a modern Chinese literary classic by Shen Congwen. It finds that pragmatically speaking, the translations as a whole tend to be more result-oriented than the original text, and that compared with their native English-speaking counterparts, native Chinese-speaking translators are more likely to be influenced by the pragmatic characteristics of Chinese and hence are more process-rather than result-oriented. However, excessive resultorientation might lead to undue abstractness and to a loss of literariness in the translation. Result-orientation hence does not necessarily guarantee a good rendition.