汉语新词语英译的八大关键问题

On Eight Key Issues in Translating Chinese Neologisms into English

随着汉语新词语数量不断剧增,其翻译成为译界热点。新词语诞生伊始的含义往往是单一的,但随着使用频率及范围的不断递增,其含义也不时发生嬗变,较难一次性翻译到位。翻译新词语时,着重从内涵、语境、修辞、语义韵等诸要素,兼顾回译对等、措辞经济、用词频率高、话语权争夺等因素进行综合考量。只有统筹兼顾、对症下药,才有可能将新词语翻译得贴切、到位。

As the number of Chinese neologisms is skyrocketing,how to translate them has become a heated topic in the translation circle.Neologisms tend to have a single meaning at the beginning of their birth,but with higher frequency and wider range of use,their meanings will change from time to time,making it difficult to finalize a good version once and for all.In translating neologisms,one must take into overall account their connotation,context,rhetoric,semantic prosody,as well as other factors like equivalence in back-translation,economy in wording,good version with higher word frequency,and dominant discourse of power.Only by taking a balanced approach and tailoring it to each case,will it be possible to translate neologisms in a proper and idiomatic way.