摘 要

英语和汉语在词类使用上存在着显著差异。英语中的名词化趋势，介词、形容词、副词、弱化动词以及虚化动词的大量使用，使得英语表达更有静态优势；汉语动词的使用则十分灵活且不受限制，具体表现为动词连用、动词的重复及重叠等，这些特征使得汉语成为一种偏向动态的语言。本文认为，英汉两种语言的静态动态差异源于其语法的 不同，而语法差异又与两种语言的文化背景和其背后暗含的思维方式密不可分。因此，译者在从事翻译工作时，应当有意识地处理静态动态转化。本文以张培基先生的译著为例，论证翻译转换的可行性并提出名词与动词、介词与动词之间的转化及虚化动词代替动词连用等翻译策略。把握静态动态转化规律，在一定程度上有利于避免机械式翻译，使译文更加符合译入语表达习惯。

关键词：翻译；张培基；静态动态转化

Abstract

There are significant differences between English and Chinese in the use of vocabulary. The trend of nominalization, the extensive use of prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, verbs of feeble phenomenality and delexical verbs make English expression more static. On the contrary, the use of verbs in Chinese is very flexible and unrestricted, which is manifested by verb conjunction, verb reduplication, etc. These characteristics make Chinese a dynamic language. The thesis argues that the static and dynamic differences between English and Chinese stem from their different grammatical structures, which are closely related to the different cultural backgrounds and ways of thinking. Therefore, translators should consciously deal with the static and dynamic transformation while engaging in translation work. Taking Zhang Peiji’s translation works as the analysis text, this thesis demonstrates the feasibility of translation conversion, and puts forward some translation strategies, such as the conversion between noun and verb, the conversion between preposition and verb, and the replacement of verb reduplication by delexical verb. To a certain extent, grasping the law of static and dynamic transformation is conducive to avoiding mechanical translation and making the translation more consistent with the expression habits of the target language.

Key Words: translation; Zhang Peiji; static and dynamic transformation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Static Advantages of English 3

2.1 Advantages of nouns 3

2.2 Advantages of prepositions 3

2. 3 Extensive use of verbs of feeble phenomenality and delexical verbs 4

3 Dynamic Advantages of Chinese 6

3.1 Conjunction of verbs 6

3.2 Reduplication of verbs 6

3.3 Verbs directly serving as any sentence component 7

4 Cause Analysis of the Static Advantages of English and Dynamic Advantages of Chinese 8

5 Translation Strategy: Transformation of Static and Dynamic 11

6 Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 17

A Brief Analysis of Zhang Peiji’s Translation from the Perspective of Static and Dynamic Transformation

1 Introduction

Eugene Nida, a famous American linguist and translation theorist, once said: “The essence of translation is to reproduce the original text in target language in the most natural way.” Translation builds up a kind of transforming relationship between two languages. However, this transformation is not just a simple transfer between the two languages and it requires infiltration of the translator’s understanding and interpretation of all the cultural, artistic, historical and other factors in the source text.

In translation studies, “equivalence” has always been an issue of vital importance. Eugene Nida proposed a “functional equivalence” theory, arguing that functional equivalence is based on the “equivalent principle”, and the focus of translation has shifted from the form of information to the reaction of the recipient of information. Besides, the recipient of the translation responds to the translation information in much the same way as the original recipient responds to the original information. In addition to highlighting the equivalence of textual content information, a good translator should also pursue formal equivalence as much as possible. In fact, there are often large differences between the two languages such as various living habits, diverse histories and cultures, and different ways of thinking, thus making the absolute equivalence in the process of translation difficult to achieve. Translation must not only accurately convey the ideological content of the original language but also make sure that the style is expressed in a way that is consistent with the habits of target language.

In the study of English-Chinese translation, hypotaxis and parataxis, subject-significance and theme-significance, and statics and dynamics are the several groups of relations that scholars often talk about. Generally speaking, because English belongs to inflected language and Chinese belongs to independent language, English expression has a static advantage while Chinese holds a dynamic advantage. The different attributes of English and Chinese are reflected in the fact that English uses multiple nouns while Chinese uses multiple verbs. Translator Zhou Zhipei once compared and analyzed two different translation materials. The first material is the “talking points of conversation in Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shanghai and other places” in the third volume of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping and its English translation; the second material is British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s speech at the welcome banquet in China in September 1982 and its Chinese translation. The proportion of Chinese verbs in the text is 33% and 24% respectively, while the proportion of English verbs is 14% and 11% respectively; the proportion of Chinese nouns is 28% and 34% respectively, while the proportion of English nouns is 37% and 39%（李晓敏，2013）。According to the above data, it is not difficult to see that there are significant differences in the frequency of use of verbs and nouns between English and Chinese.

In view of the static advantages of English and the dynamic advantages of Chinese, attention should be paid to the transformation between static and dynamic in the process of English-Chinese translation, and translation skills such as word conversion, amplification and omission should be adopted correspondingly so as to achieve semantic correspondence or even as much as possible to achieve the form equivalence. This will make the translation more authentic in the expression of the original content and be in line with the norms of the target language at the same time.

As for Professor Zhang Peiji, he holds a good reputation in Chinese academic circles and his translation works are concise in topic selection, rigorous in style, and cleverly reproduce the verve of the original text. Closely to the original text, his translation works fully reflect the translation theory and aesthetic thoughts, thus making them a suitable object for conducting the further study.

2 Static Advantages of English

2.1 Advantages of nouns

According to Mr. Chen Ding' an, in the letter S section of 6000 new words collected in the book 6000 words: A supplement to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, there are 465 entries, of which 370 are nouns, accounting for more than 79%.（刘玲慧，2010） Such a phenomenon shows the predominance of nouns in English. English is more inclined to use nouns (or noun phrases) to express the concepts expressed by Chinese verbs, namely, actions, behaviors, states, etc., especially in the text of official styles such as science, technology, law, and politics. This expression habit not only leads to the concision and a compact form of English sentence, but also avoids involving people as the subject. The advantage of nouns makes English sentences more subtle and indirect, in line with the expression habits of the English-speaking nations, and thus making the sentences beautiful.

In general, nouns are considered static because the entities they refer to are stable whether they are concrete nouns or abstract nouns. Shu Dingfang believes that nouns, from the perspective of cognition, have three major characteristics: information stability, time stability, and cognitive stability.（束定芳，2000） English is an inflectional language, and the use of verbs is under various constraints. There are a large number of nouns derived from verbs and adjectives in English. These words bear the nouns in grammatical form, but in the sense of the concept of action. The widespread use of nouns in English replaces some of the word classes and grammatical structures. It cannot be denied that this noun advantage highlights the static features of English.

e.g.: A careful study of the original text will give you a better translation.