（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）语义模糊数词汉英翻译限度研究——以杨译本《红楼梦》前96章中模糊数词为例.pdf

iii摘摘 要要 模糊语言学的研究近二十年来在中国得到了迅猛的发展， 甚至在国际上都占有一席之地，具有很大的影响力。在这个大背景下，模糊数词作为自然语言以及文学作品中大量存在的语言现象吸引了越来越多学者的关注。研究的热点也逐渐往多元化发展，语义模糊研究、语用模糊研究、翻译研究以及对于模糊界限的数学方法界定研究等等围绕着模糊数词所展开的定性研究已经成为新兴的学术热点。但是与此同时，以往的许多研究在对模糊数词的范围、内涵与外延的界定上混乱模糊，因此以此为基础的相关研究急需一个系统权威的定义来界定中英文中模糊数词的内涵与外延，从而为模糊数词本身及其翻译的研究可以朝纵深发展提供科学的理论基础。 在查阅大量文献特别是评介性论文的基础上，本研究引入目前比较新颖而且范围相对清晰的 joanna channell 对模糊数词的界定和分类的方法，以此为基础，分析模糊数词的功能、翻译的限度，造成这种限度的原因以及弥补这种限度的方法，重点是翻译方法层面的弥补。本文采用奈达的功能对等理论以及翻译与文化理论作为其理论依据。 通过研究，笔者发现当翻译无法实现完全的功能对等时，翻译的限度就会出现，其表现形式主要有四个：文化、意象、语音和形式。另外，本研究还发现产生这种翻译限度的原因主要是中西方在文化、形式以及数词本身上的语义模糊。针对这种翻译限度，笔者以杨译版红楼梦中的前 96 章作为语料，利用 wordsmith 英文检索软件检索译文，用 concordance 中文检索软件检索原文，通过语料库的研究方法实现了杨译本红楼梦中的模糊数词的初步定量研究利用语料库软件进行词频检索，统计高频数词，并拟专门针对高频数词进行定性分析，意图通过对高频词的翻译方法的研究揭示出中国翻译史上有“中西合璧”之美誉的杨宪益、戴乃迭夫妇的翻译大作中模糊数词翻译的一般方法。 通过语料库检索软件统计表明 one 和 two 是常规数词中出现频率最多的词，不论是其序数词还是基数词，这两个词出现的频率都是最高的。但是通过进一步语料库软件标注发现，这两个词的模糊数量词的翻译方法并不典型全面，如果就 one 和 two iv进行分析的话，必定丧失代表性。基于此，本文对采取定性研究的方法对红楼梦前 96 章中具有代表性的例子进行了分析，并得出弥补翻译局限性的方法在于对翻译方法的再发展、挖掘以及对于不同文化的深层次领悟的结论。 关键词：关键词：模糊数词 功能对等理论 限度 模糊数词的翻译 iabstract in recent 20 years, the research on language fuzziness has been developing rapidly in china. even chinas research plays a leading role in the international academic community. under this circumstance, the research on fuzzy numerals has drawn more and more researchers attention, since it is the common linguistic phenomenon in natural language and literature works. and the hot topics of this research have attained the tendency of multi-orientation. the research on semantic fuzziness of numerals, pragmatic fuzziness of numerals, fuzzy numeral translation and the boundary of fuzzy numerals becomes new emerging academic study shinning point. however, many previous studies turn out to be somehow disorder and messy on the categories of fuzzy numerals. this situation calls for a systematic and authoritative definition of fuzzy numerals so as to provide an acceptable basis to the fuzzy numeral research, fuzzy numeral translation research and other related research. upon the consultation of previous studies, this thesis brings in a comparatively new and clear defining way of fuzzy numerals, which is put forward by joanna channell. and the following analysis on the functions of fuzzy numerals, the translation limits, the causes for the limits and the adjustment of the limits all base on this definition. moreover, all of the following discussions are guided by the principle of functional equivalence translation theory and language, culture & translation theory. it is discussed that in fuzzy numeral translation, the limits on different levels of culture, image, sound and form arise when the full functional equivalence cannot be achieved. furthermore, this paper finds that the differences in culture and formal structure as well as the semantic fuzziness are three major reasons for the presence of limits in fuzzy numeral translation. in order to discover the adjustment of translation limits, this paper sets up a corpus with 96 chapters of a dream of red mansions translated by yang xianyi & gladys yang. the english concordance software wordsmith software and the iichinese concordance software are employed to do the word frequency statistics. and at first, this paper makes quantitative study upon the corpus. then the high frequent numerals, concluded in the quantitative study, become the main sample in the following qualitative study. by concordance, the highest frequency cardinal numeral is “one”, and the highest frequency ordinal numeral is “first”; the second highest frequency numeral is “two/second”. this paper means to analyse fuzzy numeral translation methodology based on the qualitative studies of these two high frequent numerals“one/first” and “two/second”. however, through the tagging procedure of corpus study, this paper finds that the translation approaches for “one” and “two” are not quite typical and comprehensive. therefore, the analysis on the adjustment of translation limits has been illustrated with randomly selected but typical fuzzy numerals from 96 chapters of a dream of red mansions. for this part, this study indicates that these limits in fuzzy numeral translation can be adjusted with the further development of research on translation methodology and the deep infiltration of different cultures. key words: fuzzy numerals functional equivalence theory limits fuzzy numeral translation 独创性声明独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。尽我所知，除文中已经标明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究做出贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到，本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权华中科技大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密 ，在_年解密后适用本授权书。 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名： 指导教师签名： 日期： 年 月 日 日期： 年 月 日本论文属于 1introduction it is always taken for granted that numeral translation is nothing but to replace the original numerals with the corresponding numerals in the target language. however, as the semantic fuzziness and cultural connotation are taken into consideration, the fuzzy numeral translation warrants further deep research. recently, the rise of the fuzzy linguistics provides a new approach for fuzzy numeral translation study. some researchers such as bao huinan (2001) have paid attention to the fuzziness of numerals in language use and proposed some translation principles and methods for fuzzy numerals, since fuzzy numerals in language use are no longer mathematic symbol but producing illocutionary force and delivering uncertain meanings. although in the international academic community, many chinese researchers such as zhang qiao(1998) have attained a good reputation for their predominance in the fuzzy linguistics research and they publish certain papers in international journals. however, the research of fuzzy numerals translation is still in the period of immaturity and has much room to improve. firstly, although the forerunners have already noticed that the semantic fuzziness poses difficulties to fuzzy numeral translation, but they have not probed further into the causes for the difficulties encountered in fuzzy numeral translation either. basil hatim and ian mason (2001: 56) mentioned the term “limit” in their works to describe the difficulty encountered in translation. several scholars have also done some research on the limits of translation. for example, catford has divided the limits into two categories: linguistic and cultural limits (liu miqing, 2001:98). meanwhile, bao huinan (2001) and liu miqing (2001:98) have also discussed the limits of translation but none has narrowed them down to the limits of fuzzy numeral translation. secondly, no clear and direct definitions as well as scopes of fuzzy numerals have got 2wide acceptance. and in the majorities of relevant journals, the researchers define it like this: “numerals are usually used to express accurate quantity, however, numerals have pragmatic function to deliver semantic fuzziness, such as, 三思而后行, a cat has nine lives., etc.”(teng mei, 2003). what kind of numerals could be named as fuzzy numerals and what the differences between chinese fuzzy numerals and english fuzzy numerals are still remain as a controversial question in present academic community. up to present, no authorized definitions about this question have received public consentaneous acceptance. and the pioneer of chinese fuzzy linguistics research, mr. wu tieping, also mentions the absence of definition and scope in the prelude of his publication fuzzy linguistics, in which he explains it with the citation of mr. zhao yuanren: “in fact, vagueness itself is rather vague, since those borderland cases as whether borderland cases loom large loom large themselves.”(wu tieping, 1999: 131). therefore, the development of fuzzy numerals research badly calls for a clear and direct definition to end up the messy research state. fortunately, joanna channell (2000: 78) gives a clear and direct classification for the english fuzzy numerals. possibly, it is the english-oriented thinking mode that the horizon of fuzzy numeral has been widened. and this thesis bases joanna channells definition exactly. the research methodology, this thesis adopt, is both quantitative study and qualitative study. the corpse-based linguistic approach is employed for the quantitative study with 96 chapters of a dream of red mansions translated by yang xianyi & gladys yang. it is quite new to apply the combination of quantitative study and qualitative study to translation methodology research. and for english numerals concordance, this paper uses wordsmith software. and concordance software comes for the chinese numeral concordance. a dream of red mansions is one of the greatest classical chinese novels, presenting a full picture of an ancient feudal chinese society. and through it, the readers can learn not only various kinds of that period, but also arts and cultures at that time. it is a perfect 3sample for translation research. at present, all of the english translation versions about this novel are up to 9 ones, in which only two of them are the full translation ones with all of the chapters be completely translated; while the others are selective translation versions. the reasons why this paper resorts yang xianyi & gladys yangs is that mr. & mrs. yangs cooperation is known as “the perfect combination of chinese and western cultures”. whats more, it is believed that the fuzzy numeral translation research of a dream of red mansions is meaningful and never done before. it is known to all that tons of previous studies both on the novel itself and its translation studies could be searched quite easily. and even the research on the famous masterpiece has formed into one special course named hong xue, which have greatly inspired its corresponding translation research especially for the culturally-loaded words and terms. and almost all of the common available research aspects have been covered through three main channels: lexical level, syntax level and discourse level as well as the comparison of different english translation versions. however, none fuzzy numerals translation research could be found in previous studies. moreover, for a long time, the relevant translation research on a dream of red mansions has been done through qualitative way, that is, analysing texts by studying the specific paragraphs, sentences or words. therefore, the combination of quantitative study and qualitative study is supposed to be necessary. this paper is organized in the following manner. prior to the research on the fuzzy numeral itself, the theoretical background has been illustrated, including the joanna channellclassification and relevant translation theories as well as corpse-based linguistic approach, which appear in section 1.this theoretical exposition is only aimed at presenting a framework for the analysis of the following parts. consequently, this paper proceeds to study the functions of fuzzy numerals in language use and then in detail analyzes the limits on different levels in fuzzy numeral translation, with examples to show the loss in transferring functions on each level. in the next part, three reasons are proposed to explain the causes of these limits in fuzzy numeral translation. finally, through 4quantitative study and exemplifying the translation methods by yang xianyi & gladys yang, this paper suggests that the limits can be adjusted through the development of translation study and cultural exchange. and conclusion of the paper is reserved for section 6. 51 theoretical background 1.1 joanna channells classification of english fuzzy numerals it is mentioned that no authorized and clear definition of fuzzy numerals could be found in previous studies. and most of the researches in china just give a descriptive explanation or a statement instead of a direct definition. for instance, teng mei (2003) proposes it like this: “numerals are usually used to describe accurate numbers and quantities, and its obvious characteristics is the accuracy. on the other hand, the semantics of numerals have the character of fuzziness and uncertainty, such as, 三思而后行， 百战百胜, a cat has nine lives, etc.” the numbers in these examples are not for the purpose of mathematical concept but for semantic fuzziness.” this statement gives basic information about fuzzy numerals in the way of description, but it doesnt belong to definition. and the only exceptional one is wang panni (1994)s. she defines the fuzzy numerals as following: “the semantic fuzziness of numerals refers to those numerals which could produce vague meanings when they appear in the form of the combination with other words, and these fuzzy numerals could deliver richer information than the accurate numerals. e.g. fell like a million(meaning: vigorous), second sight(meaning: outstanding eyesight, or the capability of predication.), five and ten(meaning: cheap shops), eleven hour(meaning: the last moment).” in a sense, her statement follows the format of ordinary defining way with the marker “refer to”. however, her paper is published on a non-key journal, journal of qiangdao teachers college. and no refer of her definition could be searched in the latter studies. moreover, another limitation of present domestic research lies in the difference when translators translate in c-e thinking mode. the forerunners discuss the fuzzy numerals from chinese to english, one-way liner thinking way. and on the event the research is done with english orientation or both chinese to english and english to chinese 6translation studies, a wider horizon on fuzzy numeral as well as the fuzzy numeral translation shall be got. fortunately, joanna channell (2000:78) explores english fuzzy numerals, which provides the possibilities of breaking through traditional research limitations. therefore, this thesis bases on joanna channells classification of fuzzy numerals to carry out the studies so as to obtain a comparatively new research perspective. in addition, as for the former western relevant research, the author searches the elsevier and ebsco databases, but no results about western studies could be found no matter what relevant keywords e.g. fuzzy numeral, fuzzy number, are input. the majorities of results the author get are about mathematics, which is the originality of fuzzy linguistics. and the limited relevant fuzzy numeral papers are written by chinese researchers, which proves the superior research state of chinese researchers in this field. therefore, no rich foreign materials are available for this thesis except for joanna channells. according to joanna channell, english fuzzy numerals are supposed to contain several kinds of numerals or phrases that are used to express quantity. and the items of her fuzzy numerals would be illustrated specifically in the following sections. and this thesis bases on her classification, which is the working definition of this thesis. 1.1.1 round numerals round numerals are the words standing for the numbers of multiples of ten or five which are the structuring points of a number system, such as 10, 20, 25, 40, 100, 1000 etc. they will not be interpreted as exact quantities except functioning as precise counts, but with a certain range of fluctuation around them. then where is the boundary of the fluctuation? it is hard to answer. therefore their meanings are often fuzzier. for example: 1) sam said that he had $10,000 in his saving account. 2) yuhuan county in zhe jiang province has a population of 460,000. in sentence 1), sam did not tell a lie if he had $9,987 or $10,023 in his saving account. sentence 2) would not normally be considered false if the actual population of yuhuan 7county is 460,025. naturally occurring examples are easily found in daily conversations, magazines or newspapers. for instance, (an article about historic sites in shanxi province) the mansion of the wang clan, one of the four distinguished families in lingshi, was built in during the qing dynasty (1644-1911). its 150 kilometres away from the provincial capital and covers an area of l50,000 square meters. the mansion was built against a mountain and occupies a commanding position with panoramic views. (liu yingrui, 2002). in these examples, hearers or readers infer from the contexts provided by the being speaker or the writer that numbers given in italics are not considered exact. in addition, some of round numerals can be used in another way. they do not designate the quantities of themselves and a range of fluctuation around them any more, their meanings are inflated into the indefinite “many”. therefore, the boundaries of the meanings are much fuzzier. these numerals include english “twenty”, “forty”, “a hundred”, “a thousand”, “a million”, “a billion” and chinese “十(ten)”， “百(a hundred)”, “千(a thousand)”, “万(ten thousand)” and “亿(a hundred million)” etc. for example, 3) he has warned me against pickpockets twenty times. 4) i love ophelia, forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum. 5) one good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. 6) there were a thousand things to do. and we had only three months. 7) a drop of ink may make a million think. 8)十年寒窗: to persevere many years in ones studies in spite of hardships. 9) 百花齐放:all of flowers are blooming together. 10) 千军万马: thousands upon thousands of horses and soldiers 11) 万象更新:all things appear fresh and gay. 812) 万事亨通:everything goes well. 1.1.2 plural numerals some numerals in plural form are used with vague meanings. but in this category, a rather restricted set of numerals is involved. the numerals which are often used in this way are the following: hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, thousands of millions etc. for example, 13) there are hundreds of people in the hall. 14) the question was answered by an angry roar from the assembled thousand