從文本功能看翻譯策略：《法蘭克．卜克曼的一生》翻譯過程分析
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2003
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
本研究為一本譯文文本翻譯策略的觀察分析，目的在呈現翻譯過程中，影響翻譯決策的重要因素如何經過譯者的權衡取捨等考量，於譯文中呈現。
本研究的文本為《法蘭克•卜克曼的一生》傳記第一至九章，筆者本人即為譯者。本研究的基本觀點是把翻譯活動視為一種跨文化溝通的活動，因此分析重點在於原文透過翻譯呈現為譯文後，原文文本所具有的各種溝通功能，究竟是獲得保留、部分流失，或是有所轉變。。
對於翻譯過程的分析，則是採用Christiane Nord所提出的「文本功能 — 翻譯策略」分類對照架構，從原文與譯文文本功能的比對中決定翻譯過程中究竟採用了哪些策略。分析結果顯示，根據Nord的架構來看，本研究的文本，在翻譯時主要基本採用了等功能翻譯、異功能翻譯、類體裁翻譯等三類翻譯策略，並且就不同文本體裁的翻譯實例舉例討論說明。
關於特殊文化因素的翻譯處理，在研究的文本中特別明顯的主題是基督教宗教文化，這類內容可能因為譯文讀者未必具有理解內容所需的文化經驗，因此譯文對讀者而言會有類似「異功能」翻譯的效果。
另外，研究結果發現一種譯文呼喚功能不減反增的另類「異功能」翻譯。這是因為文本中涉及中國歷史紀實內容部分，對中文讀者來說具有的呼喚功能，會大於原文文本對原文讀者的呼喚功能。使得相關專有名詞的處理就有點類似進行回譯（back translation）。
This study focuses on the observation and analysis of translation strategies employed in a translation task, with the aim of demonstrating the translated text reflects the translator’s decisions by taking into various major factors into account. Text used for the study contains Chapter 1 to Chapter 9 of an biography, entitled, “Frank Buchman: A Life”. Based on a basic perspective that translation is a kind of cross-cultural communications action, analyses of this study focus on how specific communication functions intended in an original text are preserved, diluted, or transformed in its translated text. For the analysis of translation strategies from a communication perspective, the framework of “text function versus translation strategy,” as proposed by Christiane Nord, has been employed in this study to identify specific translation strategies by comparing a translated text with its source text in terms of three possible text functions: referential, expressive and appellative. The results show that three major strategies of equifunctional translation, heterofunctional translation, and homologous translation in Nord’s framework have been identified in the translated text of this study, and specific examples for various text forms has been cited and explained under each strategy category. Texts with Christianity-related content has stood out as a major concern when dealing with cultural-specific factors in the translation process, as a typical target reader of the translated text in Chinese may not have those culture-specific experiences required for adequate comprehension of the text in question, thus resulting in a translated text whose communication effect resembles that of a heterofunctional translation. Finally, an alternative form of hetrofunctional translation has also been identified, in the sense that the appellative function of source text is enhanced, instead of diluted, in translated text. This phenomenon has risen because certain passages contain proper names originally in Chinese or names of certain foreign missionaries who have adopted a Chinese name, thus require a translation treatment similar to back-translation from English into Chinese.
This study focuses on the observation and analysis of translation strategies employed in a translation task, with the aim of demonstrating the translated text reflects the translator’s decisions by taking into various major factors into account. Text used for the study contains Chapter 1 to Chapter 9 of an biography, entitled, “Frank Buchman: A Life”. Based on a basic perspective that translation is a kind of cross-cultural communications action, analyses of this study focus on how specific communication functions intended in an original text are preserved, diluted, or transformed in its translated text. For the analysis of translation strategies from a communication perspective, the framework of “text function versus translation strategy,” as proposed by Christiane Nord, has been employed in this study to identify specific translation strategies by comparing a translated text with its source text in terms of three possible text functions: referential, expressive and appellative. The results show that three major strategies of equifunctional translation, heterofunctional translation, and homologous translation in Nord’s framework have been identified in the translated text of this study, and specific examples for various text forms has been cited and explained under each strategy category. Texts with Christianity-related content has stood out as a major concern when dealing with cultural-specific factors in the translation process, as a typical target reader of the translated text in Chinese may not have those culture-specific experiences required for adequate comprehension of the text in question, thus resulting in a translated text whose communication effect resembles that of a heterofunctional translation. Finally, an alternative form of hetrofunctional translation has also been identified, in the sense that the appellative function of source text is enhanced, instead of diluted, in translated text. This phenomenon has risen because certain passages contain proper names originally in Chinese or names of certain foreign missionaries who have adopted a Chinese name, thus require a translation treatment similar to back-translation from English into Chinese.
Description
Keywords
文本功能, 翻譯策略, 等功能翻譯, 譯功能翻譯, 類體裁翻譯, text function, translation strategy, equifunctional translation, heterofunctional translation, homologous translation