与翻译技巧——《老友记》案例研究.pdf

南华大学 硕士学位论文 情景省略与翻译技巧 老友记 案例研究 姓名 朱向明 申请学位级别 硕士 专业 外国语言学及应用语言学 指导教师 戈玲玲 20070501 I 摘 要 摘 要 省略是普遍存在于人类自然语言之中的一种现象 它在人类的语言交际中发挥着非 常重要的作用 不仅在书面语中常见 而且在口语中尤为明显 随着现代社会的发展以 及快速的生活节奏的出现 英语日趋简明畅达 为了适应快节奏的社会生活 人们在说 话 写作过程中也追求简单 快捷 因此 省略的现象在英语中正处于发展中 人类从 很久以前就已经注意到了语言中的省略现象并开始对其加以研究 迄今为止 人们对语 言省略的结构和功能进行了比较深入的研究 纵观前人对省略现象的理解 本文集中于 对省略最合理的定义和分类 Halliday 认为省略是指话语中留下了一些特定的结构空 位 这些结构空位可以根据别处的情况填补还原 Quirk 将省略分为篇章省略 情景省 略和结构省略 情景省略多见于口语 而 老友记 这部美国电视剧具有简单地道的英语台词 又 是对生活的真实写照 不但幽默而且实用 对英语学习者无不具有极大吸引力和益处 以此为模本 本文共搜集典型范例 66 处对英语情景省略的 4 种类别及特点进行了具体 阐述 本文尝试从语用角度研究省略现象 即 结合会话含意理论综合分析情景省略 指 出情景省略是违反数量原则的产物 会话含意由然而生 由于前人很少提及情景省略的 翻译技巧 借鉴对隐含意义的两种语用翻译观 即 钱冠连的 暗示 和何自然的 明 示 文章通过例证分析说明情景省略的翻译不能盲从于一种观点 而两者的灵活结合 比较巧妙地解决了这一难题 主要提出三种英汉翻译方法 保存法 增添法和替代法 希望能为文学作品中的会话翻译提供参考 促进中英交流 关键词 关键词 情景省略 会话含意 类别 特点 翻译技巧 II Situational Ellipsis and Translation Techniques A Case Study of Friends Abstract Ellipsis is a linguistic phenomenon existing widely in human language It plays an important role in linguistic communication It occurs frequently not only in oral English but also in written English With the development of the modern society and the emergence of the fast living rhythm English is becoming more and more concise To adapt to the fast developing society people are pursuing briefness and speediness in speaking and writing Ellipsis has been observed for quite a long time and profound studies have been made on its structure and function from different aspects Based on former scholars understanding on ellipsis this dissertation focuses on a most reasonable definition proposed by Halliday who regards the elliptical item as one which leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere and classification by Quirk who divides ellipsis into textual ellipsis structural ellipsis and situational ellipsis Situational ellipsis occurs mainly in spoken language while Friends a famous American TV play bearing simple and authentic lines is the unfeigned portraiture of life Its humorous nature deeply attracts our English learners and its practicability will undoubtedly benefit the students in their English learning Taking it as the database sixty six typical examples are collected to illustrate four types of situational ellipsis in English and translation techniques from English to Chinese This dissertation is an attempt to study elliptical phenomena from the pragmatic perspective namely to give situational ellipsis a comprehensive analysis on the ground of the conversational implicature theory At first it points out that situational ellipsis is the product of violating the Quantity Maxim thus conversational implicature comes into being Since the former scholars rarely mention the translation techniques in the light of the two viewpoints toward pragmatic translation Qian III Guanlian s implicature and He Ziran s explicature the dissertation advances on the basis of the case study that translating situational ellipsis can by no means follow one certain viewpoint blindly The flexible combination of the two views provides a comparatively tactful solution to this problem mainly including three methods preservation amplification and substitution We hope that it will serve as a good starting point for the further study in translating conversations in literary works thus enhance the exchange between English and Chinese Zhu Xianngming Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Supervised by Professor Ge Lingling Key words situational ellipsis conversational implicature classification characteristics translation techniques 原创性声明 本人声明 所呈交的学位论文是本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 除了论文中特别加以标注和致谢的 地方外 论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果 也不包 含为获得南华大学或其他单位的学位或证书而使用过的材料 与我共 同工作的同志对本研究所作的贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明 作者签名 日期 年 月 日 关于学位论文使用授权说明 本人同意南华大学有关保留 使用学位论文的规定 即 学校有 权保留学位论文 允许学位论文被查阅和借阅 学校可以公布学位论 文的全部或部分内容 可以采用复印 缩印或其它手段保留学位论文 学校可根据国家或湖南省有关部门规定送交学位论文 作者签名 导师签名 日期 年 月 日 1 Chapter One Introduction This chapter is a brief introduction to the previous studies of ellipsis in addition the structure and significance of the dissertation are presented in this chapter 1 1 The previous studies of ellipsis Brevity is the soul of wit and ellipsis is one of its embodiments As a universal phenomenon in language ellipsis conducts a very important role in human communication It is regarded as substitution by structural linguistics Almost every grammatical school deals more or less with this universal grammatical phenomenon Empty category in transformational grammar cohesion and cohesiveness in functional grammar and so on are all related with the category of ellipsis Linguists have done great works on its definition and classification which are presented in detail in the ensuing chapter however among all their attitudes Halliday s definition and Quirk s classification are deemed as the most reasonable Halliday proposes that an elliptical item is one which as it were leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere Quirk divides ellipsis into textual ellipsis structural ellipsis and situational ellipsis The first two types are relatively comprehensible while the situational ellipsis is comparatively complicated Situational ellipsis is the one in which the information required for the interpretation of the ellipted item is not to be found in the text at all and the ellipted item can be recovered only by the specific situation i e situational context 1 2 The structure of the dissertation The dissertation consists of six chapters and the first one gives a general introduction to the study of ellipsis The structure and significance of the dissertation is presented as well Chapter Two shows the related information of ellipsis including different viewpoints on its definition and classification 2 Chapter Three introduces the theoretical framework of the dissertation Taking the theory of conversational implicature as the foundation it brings forward that situational ellipsis is the production of violating the Quantity Maxim thus results in the emergence of implicature Pragmatic inference is also referred in this section Chapter Four explores the classification and features of situational ellipsis through deep work of data collection and analysis Chapter Five on the basis of the extracted data the translation techniques on situational ellipsis are presented In conclusion a summary is made for the whole dissertation in addition the significance and the demerits of the research are pointed out 1 3 The significance of the research Situational ellipsis frequently occurrs in oral English and conversations of literary works however studies on its domain are fairly limited Inspired by the theory of conversational implicature the present author points out that the situational ellipsis is mainly the production of violating the Quantity Maxim and the conversation can be understood by making pragmatic inference This dissertation for the first time classifies it into four types and draws its characteristics based on the data extracted from a famous TV play Friends There are innumerable literature works on translation strategies of ellipsis however the tactic on translating situational ellipsis is rarely referred Considering that conversational implicature emerges in situational ellipsis the pragmatic translation strategies are also explored in this dissertation Taking the intent of the ellipsis into account it tentatively proposes three methods preservation amplification and substitution which will make certain contribution to the study in translating conversations in literary works 3 Chapter Two Literature Review The previous researches from definition to classification are displayed in this chapter Linguists hold different views on ellipsis some take it as substitution some regard it as grammatical omission However Halliday and Hason put forward a more specific definition an elliptical item is one which as it were leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere As for the classifications of ellipsis linguists and scholars exhibit their distinct opinions The classification varies according to the diverse criterion from the division of nominal verbal and clausal ellipsis to one of textual situational and structural ellipsis Situational ellipsis differs from textual and structural ellipsis in that the unrealized items of the conventional account of structure are retrievable from the specific situation Namely the information required for the interpretation of the ellipted item is not to be found in the text at all and the ellipted item can be recovered only by the specific situation i e situational context 2 1 Definition Early in 1660 Antonine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot noticed that ellipsis is a universal phenomenon in language They pointed out in their work General and Rational Grammar without influencing the understanding some utterances can be omitted Their work has been regarded as the typical literature of the traditional grammar Henceforth ellipsis has been discussed in almost every literature pertaining to traditional grammar Although opposing the traditional grammar the conventional grammar admits ellipsis One of the representatives of this school Otto Jesperson believes that some parts can be omitted if the sentence meaning is clear on the basis of the context 1988 In 1950s and 1960s the American structural linguistics sprung up It basically denies the former schools perspectives on ellipsis and disavows ellipsis Hockett regards the elliptical phenomenon as substitution 1958 For example in I like fresh candy than stale the adjective stale substitutes stale candy With the same view 4 of Hockett Mr Zhao Yuanren ZhaoYuanren 1979 also disaffirms ellipsis In his opinion there is one kind of fragmented sentence on contrast to intact sentence Intact sentence owns its subject and predicate while the fragmented one does not only consisting of word or phrase which can either be subject or predicate of the intact sentence For instance the sentence 站下 uttered by the driver when the bus arrives at a stop is a fragmented sentence The Chinese linguists primly admit ellipsis and Mr Lv Shuxiang and many other linguists have made a discussion over elliptical phenomenon With the prevailing of the American structuralism Hockett and Mr Zhao Yuanren s standpoint became the representative idea in this issue However in other countries the American structuralism s viewpoint is not as popular as in China Linguists such as Quirk admits ellipsis and describes various kinds of ellipsis in a great volume of works 1972 1985 According to Quirk ellipsis may be more strictly described as grammatical omission 1985 860 It is one part of reduction which shows itself in the sharing of a common structure as well as that of common lexical content Although it is a means of avoiding redundancy of expression what kind of reduction is permitted is a matter of syntax In the viewpoint of Quirk the term ellipsis is normally understood as words are omitted where understanding can be achieved without word repetition 1985 862 The Transformational Generative grammar does not discuss ellipsis in detail while in Chomsky s GP theory government and binding theory some elliptical phenomenon is discussed in his empty category 1982 An Empty Category EC is an element that lacks of phonological input and establishes a relationship to an antecedent and it is of grammatical function and structural component of semantic content For example Da 打 in Chinese it should have noun in either sides It will give rise to empty category if the noun does not appear Its variations such as 人他打 了 他打了 and 打了 all belong to such category Functional grammar does not deny ellipsis and they believe that ellipsis is an important means to realize discourse coherence Halliday and Hason give a more specific definition when they state that an elliptical item is one which as it were leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere 1976 1985 5 The above views hold their own reasonable aspect however Halliday s statement an elliptical item is one which as it were leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere 1976 1985 is the most authoritative one 2 2 Classification Throughout the history many linguists gave detailed descriptions as to the classification of ellipsis Their classifications of ellipsis are made from various angles and of course the results are not the same According to Halliday and Hasan ellipsis is a grammatical relation a relation in the wording rather than in the meaning and the different types of ellipsis are defined grammatically rather than semantically So in their viewpoints the criterion is the grammatical function of the ellipted item In English ellipsis could be classified into three types nominal verbal and clausal Among them the clausal ellipsis means the omission of a sentence either the main clause or the subordinate clause or part of the sentence or clause The clausal ellipsis usually occurs in spoken language literary works with dialogues It contains the ellipsis in question answering and complex sentences Ellipsis in question answering includes direct and indirect answering 1976 Elliptical approach usually appears in the indirect answer of a question such as if I am ready in time in the following conversation A will you come B if I am ready in time Similarly Mr Hu Zhuanglin makes the same classification of ellipsis in Chinese as Halliday does in English Quirk et al thought that the most important principle for ellipsis was verbatim recoverability which means that the ellipted elements must be recoverable Consequently in examining instances of ellipsis it is necessary to distinguish three major factors recoverability type functional type and formal type 1972 In Quirk s opinion the recoverability type can be subdivided into textual situational and structural 6 ellipsis If the ellipted item can be retrieved from the surrounding text it is textual ellipsis For example John won the first race and Jim won the second race The structural ellipsis is the one in which the ellipted items are grammatical words I m surprised that no one told you And the situational ellipsis refers to the phenomenon in which the ellipted part can be recovered only by the specific situation 1985 Quirk is not the only one to propose the notion situational ellipsis Feng Yunlian also believes that ellipsis can be divided into recoverability type formal type and syntactical type In recoverability type there are textual situational and structural ellipsis in formal type initial middle and final ellipsis are distinguished nominal verbal and clausal ellipsis are in the province of syntactical type 1994 In his dissertation study on comparison of ellipsis in English and Chinese Tang Hongyun divides ellipsis into textual ellipsis structural ellipsis and situational ellipsis 2001 Mr Wang Weixian states that ellipsis can be classified into ellipsis of notion structural ellipsis and communicational ellipsis Structural ellipsis equals what Lv Shuxiang named implication and it is in the province of grammaticism communicational ellipsis refers to contextual ellipsis which is in the domain of pragmatics while ellipsis of notion is purely the semantic issue 1985 In his Study on Grammatical Theories of Modern Chinese 现代汉语语法理论研究 Wang Weixian made the similar statement again in 1997 1997 26 28 Here we can find out that the communicational ellipsis corresponds to the situational ellipsis discussed above Among all the classifications above Quirk s view is the most reasonable and brief one His division of ellipsis includes textual ellipsis structural ellipsis and situational ellipsis 1985 Textual ellipsis refers to the one in which the ellipted item can be retrieved from the surrounding text as in the case He always wakes up earlier than I wake up if the ellipted item can be recovered by the grammatical structure alone it is the structural ellipsis for instance I believe that you are mistaken As for the situational ellipsis all the linguists and scholars share the same standpoint situational ellipsis differs from textual and structural ellipsis in that the unrealized items of the conventional account of structure are retrievable from the specific situation Namely 7 the information required for the interpretation of the ellipted item is not to be found in the text at all and the ellipted item can be recovered only by the specific situation i e situational context 8 Chapter Three Theoretical Framework The Dissertation is an attempt to study elliptical phenomena from the pragmatic perspective namely to give situational ellipsis a comprehensive analysis on the ground of the conversational implicature theory The theory of conversational implicature was proposed by Grice H P in 1975 3 1 Conversational implicature In his paper Meaning Grice found there are different kinds of meanings 1957 He distinguished between what he called natural meaning and non natural meaning meaning nn Natural meaning is the kind of meaning that we are speaking of something literally with conventional words non natural meaning is the kind of meaning what a person means by his or her utterance over and above what his or her words literally mean Non natural Meaning Theory is a theory of communication indeed As a kind of communicative theory Grice pays special attention to a crucial aspect of verbal communication i e the process of communication and the intention of communication can never be separated In fact any process of communication all concerns communicative intention and any successful communication is decided by a hearer s accurate comprehension of a speaker s actual intentions In 1975 he put forward the theory of conversational implicature in his Logic and Conversation Grice suggested that there should be a set of over watching assumptions guiding the conduct of conversations As Grice proposes that if participants are interested in communicating conversation giving and receiving information from others and influencing their behavior and being influenced then th