从句法像似性与“异常”句式的翻译看文学翻译中的文体意识

Stylistic Awareness in Literary Translation: Syntactic Iconicity and the Translation of "Extraordinary" Sentences

论文讨论了句法像似性在语言类型学的意义之外,是文本心理效果的一个重要来源。因此,对文学文本中的句法,不但要在“功用”的层面,更要在“功能”的层面进行观察,才能认识其在认知范畴的像似潜能。这种潜能,是句法像似在文学写作-翻译-批评中的理论意义所在,是整合语言机制同艺术效果,使文本“言有尽而意无穷”的一个文体学解释。论文认为,必须意识到这种由句法促成的形式内容效果三者的文体互动,并以此作为文学写作和翻译中谋篇策略以及文本批评的一个客观参照点。作为论据,论文深入探讨了王蒙小说中一组“异常”句式的英文翻译。

This paper presents syntactic iconicity, apart from its typological significance in linguistics, as an important source of psychological effects in textualization. As such, the syntax of a literary text has to be observed not only for its 'utilitarian'functions, but more importantly, for its 'enabling' functions, so as to understand its cognitive potential of iconicity. It is such potential that renders syntax theoretically significant in the domain of literary writing, translating, and criticism; for it relates linguistic mechanisms to artistic effects, and thus provides a stylistic explanation for the phenomenon of 'meaning lingering beyond the boundary of the text'. The paper calls for an awareness of such syntactically-enabled interactions among form, content and effect, an awareness that can serve as an objective point of reference in the writing, critique or translating of a literary text. The argument of the paper is substantiated by an in-depth comparative study of a group of 'extraordinary' sentences from one of Wang Meng's short stories and their translation into English.