Chapter IV Case Study

4.1 Part I

    Here we use one paragraph from a news report for analysis. This news report is a typical Chinese prose, which belongs to non-literary type but owns obvious literary flavour.

The original text

春节文化在世界竞相绽放，为外国人带去不一样的生活烟火与文化意趣。喝一碗腊八粥，体验“过了腊八就是年”；穿一身红衣，讨个红红火火的好彩头；逛一场庙会，感受中国春节热闹的氛围。不断“走出去”的春节文化，为世界节日文化带去独特的风景；在“身临其境”中领略中国文化，也为各国人民观察和感知中国打开了一扇窗口[1]。

 

Translation 1st version:

The Spring Festival culture, which has been in full bloom in countries across the world, adds new spice to both our foreign friends’ lives and culture. Various cultural activities offer the overseas people fresh insights into the Chinese culture. For example, when they are enjoying the Laba porridge, they know what’s truly conveyed in the Chinese folk-adage:”Here comes the Lunar New Year when the Laba festival ends”; Also they can dress in red to ask for a happy omen or go to a temple fair to enjoy the jolly bustle of the Chinese New Year. The Spring Festival culture that constantly “travels across the border”contributes its cultural uniqueness to the world’s festival culture. By offering opportunity to people of all countries to experience the Chinese culture personally, it also opens a window for them to see and feel the real China.

Translated by Li Xiaogang

 

 Translation 2nd version:

The world has witnessed the blooming of Spring Festival culture which brings foreigners different life atmosphere and cultural interest. Have a bowl of Laba porridge and experience “after Laba Festival is the new year”; Dress in red for prosperous and good fortune; Visit a temple fair and feel the lively atmosphere of the Chinese Spring Festival. The“going global” Spring Festival culture brings unique scenery to the world festival culture. Appreciating Chinese culture in an immersive way also opens a window for people of all countries to observe and perceive China.

Translated by Li Xiaogang

The types of process of the original text:

春节文化在世界竞相绽放(M)，为外国人带去不一样的生活烟火与文化意趣(M)。喝一碗腊八粥(M)，体验“过了腊八就是年”(Mental+R)；穿一身红衣(M)，讨个红红火火的好彩头(M)；逛一场庙会(M)，感受中国春节热闹的氛围(Mental)。不断“走出去”的春节文化，为世界节日文化带去独特的风景(M)；在“身临其境”中领略中国文化(Mental)，也为各国人民观察和感知中国打开了一扇窗口(Mental + M)。

(R means relational process; M means material process; Mental means mental process.)

Transitivity analysis: In the original text, there are 13 clauses in total. 9 clauses reflect material process; 3 clause reflect mental process and 1 clause reflect relational process. Proportion: material: 69.2%, relational: 7.7%.; mental: 23.1%.

 

The types of process of the first version of translation:

The Spring Festival culture, which has been in full bloom in countries across the world(M), adds new spice to both our foreign friends’ lives and culture(M). Various cultural activities offer the overseas people fresh insights into the Chinese culture(M). For example, when they are enjoying the Laba porridge(M), they know(Mental) what’s truly conveyed in the Chinese folk-adage(M):”Here comes the Lunar New Year(M) when the Laba festival ends(B)”; Also they can dress in red to ask for a happy omen(M) or go to a temple fair to enjoy the jolly bustle of the Chinese New Year(M). The Spring Festival culture that constantly “travels across the border”(M)contributes its cultural uniqueness to the world’s festival culture(M). By offering opportunity to people of all countries(M) to experience the Chinese culture personally(Mental), it also opens a window(M) for them to see and feel the real China(M).

16 clauses in total. 1 clause reflects behavioural process, 2 clause reflects mental process and 13 reflect material process.

Behavioural: 6.25%；Material: 81.25%; mental: 12.5%.

The types of process of the second version of translation:

The world has witnessed the blooming of Spring Festival culture(M) which brings foreigners different life atmosphere and cultural interest(M). Have a bowl of Laba porridge(M) and experience “after Laba Festival is the new year”(Mental + R); Dress in red for prosperous and good fortune(M); Visit a temple fair(M) and feel the lively atmosphere of the Chinese Spring Festival(Mental). The“going global” Spring Festival culture brings unique scenery to the world festival culture(M). Appreciating Chinese culture in an immersive way also opens a window for people of all countries(M) to observe and perceive China (Mental).

12 clauses in total. 7 clauses reflect material process; 3 clauses reflect mental process; 1 clause reflects relational process;

Mental: 25%; Material: 58.3%; Relational:8.3%

 

 

Mental

Behavioural

Material

Relational

Number   of Clauses

Original   Text

23.1%

0

69.2%

7.7%

13

Target   Text 1

12.5%

6.25%

81.25%

0

16

Target   Text 2

25%

0

58.3%

8.3%

12

 

According to the statistical results, obviously, the second version of translation achieves better equivalence in ideational meaning than the first version does. Then in terms of the interpersonal function, compared with the original text, the first version of translation adds too many unnecessary cohesive devices and makes sentences too long thus making both the acceptability and coherence fail to meet interpersonal equivalence. Compared with the first version, the second version uses simpler, clearer and shorter sentences, which makes the overall text fluent and easy to understand, thus successfully fulfilling the intention of the original text: introducing Chinese cultural images to the international friends.

 

4.2 Part II

Example 1

    Here we are going to analyze the translation of some short expressions in political document translation. Examples are cited from China’s Translators Journal.[2](Zhou,2020)

ST 1: 反对个人主义

TT 1.1：oppose individualism.

TT 1.2: oppose self-centered behaviour.

 

ST 2: 反对自由主义

TT 2.1：oppose liberalism.

TT 2.2：oppose behaviour in disregard of rules.

 

     In above two examples, the TT1.1 and TT 2.1 both have deviation in ideational and interpersonal aspect compared with the ST. Firstly, in western culture, individualism and liberalism contribute significant role in citizen’s national identity and political identity. Therefore, if we simply translate the two terms as “oppose individualism ” and “oppose liberalism”, we fail to convey the original ideational concept of the source text and will very likely to be misunderstood as raising ideological conflict. But if we further translate the term as TT1.2 and TT2.2, the misunderstanding is easily avoided.

 

ST 3: 新时代中国特色社会主义思想

TT 3.1: socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era.

TT 3.2: socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

     The selection between “in” and “for” determines the relational process of the expression. The reason why the TT3.2 is conciser is that the socialism theory is created to guide the development of the new era instead of being created under the new era.

 

Example 2

ST: Aging gracefully doesn’t mean you have to wear your wrinkles with pride – instead, you need to do whatever is necessary to stride into your older years with confidence. For some people, this may mean simply embracing the natural signs of aging withou visiting a board-certified plastic surgeon along the way. For others, it means taking steps to make your outside appearance match the way you feel on the inside. If you feel energetic and youthful internally, then there’s no shame in getting a facelift, tummy tuck or breast lift to keep your body at the same level.

 

TT 1: “优雅地老去”并不意味着你得充满自信地面带皱纹 —— 正相反，它意味着你可以行一切必要之举，让自己充满自信地大步迈入不再年轻的岁月。对某些人而言，“优雅地老去”可以是对自己逐渐老去的容貌安然处之，不用找什么持证整形师。对另一些人而言，“优雅地老去”也可以是行动起来，让自己的内心所想变成容貌所呈。你若仍心里觉得自己朝气蓬勃，青春年少，便可做个面部除皱，或是腹部拉皮，又或是丰个胸来让自己的身体和心灵一样年轻，这没什么好羞耻的。

Translated by Li Xiaogang

 

TT 2: 优雅老去并不是说你要以满脸皱纹为荣。相反，该做的你都得做，然后满怀信心大步踏入不再年轻的岁月。对有些人来说，这意味着坦然接受自然老去的容貌，不去求助整形外科医生。对另一些人来说，这个词就意味着要有所作为，让外貌和心态不再“貌合神离”。如果你精力充沛、青春焕发，那就去整容、就去收腹、就去隆胸，让身体与心态比翼齐飞。

Translated by Ye Zinan

 

     The ST is part of an advertisement of plastic surgery service. If we compare the two versions of translation, we can find that there is little difference in the information that the two translations convey. The biggest difference between the two versions is the effect of advertisement. Obviously the second version is more attractive to the readers as it feels more like to encourage the readers to take plastic surgeries to improve their shape and look. Also, the second version does a lot more work in unpacking so it makes the translation more acceptable to the readers. Therefore, in this sense, we can come to the conclusion that the second version is doing better in achieving interpersonal equivalence compared with the first one. 

 

Example 3:

ST: 他猛然倒在一把椅子上，椅子被压的吱吱响。

TT 1：He crashes down on a protesting chair.

TT 2:  He crashes down on a groaning chair.

 

    First, the two versions of translation are OK for the ST. Here, I want to show that we can compare the effect of words with the optimal relevance principle. Here, the “吱吱” in ST is an onomatopoetic word. The “protesting” in TT 1 uses personification to convey such image while the “groaning” in TT 2 uses personification with onomatopoetic effect. In such sense, we can say that “groaning” is more close to the effect of “吱吱”. As the efforts to understand “protesting” and “groaning” are equal, according to the optimal relevance theory (relevance = contextual effect/efforts), the relevance of “groaning” is greater than that of “protesting”.

 

Chapter V Conclusion

As is talked about in Chapter III, the construction of concept is a sort of inter-subjective activity so translation can never be a purely objective activity. But unavoidable subjectivity does not mean that we can do whatever we want during translation process. Subjectivity gives translation life but also leads it into chaos. What matters is not subjectivity itself but how we manage it. We should not avoid subjectivity but try to contain it within a certain and strong field of consensus and this is why we should build translation assessment model. By analyzing previous studies home and abroad we notice that to link equivalence in meaning with equivalence in language function under the structure of SFG is the best way to achieve the containment of subjectivity within a reasonable field. Then, I adopt reductionist thinking pattern to conclude the translation activity with simple metaphors to illustrate the nature of translation and determine important parameter for overal analysis. With the combination of the SFG system and my thinking, one simple assessment standard is generated. Next, this article uses the model to carry out three translation assessment tasks. As the results of assessments meet most of our common sense and the perspective that the model offers can provide reasonable explanation for translation phenomena, we can say that the model is effective to some extent.

However, there are also obvious drawbacks of the model. The most prominent drawback of the model is that when I choose to be open to subjectivity there is no obvious margin of the extent, which means there is likely to have “one thousand eyes live one thousand Hamlets” explanation. The other drawback is that the examples in case study chapter are too small and the study should be more focused on one certain field and involve more samples in different situations. But at least, the equivalence in ideational meaning can be scientifically examined in this model, the main problem has to do with the equivalence in interpersonal meaning and the solution to balance ideational and interpersonal meaning. All these above need further study to explore more.

 

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[1] http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/201902/12/t20190212_31459261.shtml

[2] Zhou Zhongliang, Both accuracy and acceptability should be considered in the translation of political documents-- Interview with Chen Mingming, Foreign Language Expert of Ministry of Foreign Affairs周忠良.政治文献外译须兼顾准确性和接受度——外交部外语专家陈明明访谈录[J].中国翻译,2020,41(04):92-100.