概念的实践性与翻译等值拜物教

Practicality of concepts and fetishism of translation equivalence

等值是翻译学的核心概念之一,以等值为参照有利于翻译活动的顺利开展,对翻译质量评估来说,是否忠实于原文也常被当作首要尺度。但是长期以来,学界缺乏对等值的认识批判,以在跨语言间建立概念等值为目标的讨论连绵不断。对等值的笃信不疑会堕入等值拜物教的泥潭,在实践中是有害的。本文从家族相似、概念的星丛和“构造世界”论三个角度讨论概念的实践性本质。跨语概念的相对等值只存在于科学语言之间,大量表达价值观的概念由于其实践性必然会造成自身意义的不确定性,因而难以实现语际翻译时的等值。面对富含价值判断概念的文本,比如古代典籍,译者可以从个体等值到系统重构的转变中寻找概念翻译的出路。

Equivalence is one of the core concepts in translation studies.The aim of equivalence in translation is conducive to translation activities.For the assessment of translation quality,fidelity to the original text is often regarded as the primary yardstick.However,for a long time,there has been a lack of criticism on the notion of translation equivalence,and it seems that it is completely feasible to establish conceptual equivalence across languages.Believing blindly in equivalence will fall into the quagmire of equivalence fetishism,which is harmful in practice.This article discusses the practical nature of concepts from three perspectives:family resemblance,constellation of concepts and the"worldmaking"theory.The so-called equivalence between interlingual concepts,if it exists comparatively,can only be achieved in scientific languages.The meanings of a large number of concepts expressing values and judgement are far from certain due to their nature of practicality,so it is difficult to achieve equivalence in interlingual translation.We need to look at different"versions of the world"constructed through different understandings of concepts with an objective attitude.Therefore,the blind pursuit of equivalence should be abandoned in translating.Faced with texts rich in concepts of value judgment,such as ancient classics,translators can find a way out of the predicament of conceptual translation from the shift of equivalence of individual concepts to the reconstruction of concepts in the system.