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翻译漫谈(十二) 汉译英:基本功

最近我看了一本用英文出版的论文集,是介绍我国改革开放的情况的。书中共有文章18篇,其中13篇有译者署名,并经8人审阅,其余5篇没有译者署名,可能是作者自译,也许是直接用英文写的。

    18篇文章均出自相关领域的专家学者之手,专业性比较强,要译好,或者要评论译文的优劣,必须有相关的知识。我们不具备这样的条件,而且我们只见到译文而见不到原文,因此我们只能就译文本身提出一些看法。

    一.名词与冠词

        1Over long period of time in our country, state enterprise is a main provider in respect to financial income of nation.

        2Those belonged to the latter approach pay much more attentions to the individuals.

        3... in term of both economics and environment.

        4In other word, what do we think...

        5The actual situation is far from such a simple.

        6In addition, the development of economy always has periods of rise as well as fall.

        7Since 1990’s, “globalization” has almost become an “everyday word” of the mass media in various countries.

        8Those suffering more have to ask for aids from IMF and some western countries like U.S.

        9On June 5,1972 in Stockholm, United Nations held its first UN conference on Human Settlement, for the first time raising human environment issue into the agenda of international politics.

        10...capacity building thus becomes an only effective approach to sustainable development.

    英语的名词分可数名词和不可数名词,而且往往要和冠词连用。例1中的period, enterprisenation都是可数名词。period在这里是泛指,没有说是哪一段时间,因此要加不定冠词,说a long period of timeenterprise在这里也是泛指,泛指往往用复数,或用单数加定冠词,表明这一类的东西,因此这里要说state enterprises,或the state enterprise, 既不用复数又不用冠词是不行的。nation在这里专指我国,一定要加定冠词,the nation。例9中的issue也是专指,要加定冠词。

    英语有些名词既可用作可数名词,也可用作不可数名词。如preparation(s)negotiation(s)experience(s)success(es)等。这两种用法,其含义有时无大差异,有时略有不同。例2中的attention一词就属于后一种情况。据词典解释,attentions作为可数名词的复数,意思是things that sb does to try to please you or to show their interest in you。因此,例2只能用attention,不能用其复数形式。

    英语有些短语是非常固定的,叫做idioms,不能轻易改动,如in terms ofin other words,等等。因此,例3和例4用名词的单数形式是不行的。

    英语许多词可以用作不同的词类,这在词典里都是标明的。但我们也不能随心所欲。例5 such a后面要跟名词,放个simple在那里是不行的,其实这句话只要把such a删去就行了。far from simple等于not simple,在语法上也是站得住脚的。

    economy一词泛指一个国家或地区的经济状况,要用定冠词。词典举例:The economy is in recession. | The new oil that we have found will improve the/our economy. | the slowdown in the Japanese economy 此三例选自三本不同的词典,但都用了the,有一本词典竟先说明(often the economy), 然后才释义。

    用英语表示“二十世纪九十年代”,应该是the 1990’s。那一撇是可有可无的,但定冠词是一定要有的。这一点,许多译者容易忽略。

    8里的IMF要加定冠词。词典举例:The IMF is an organization within the United Nations which is concerned with trade and economic development。在例8中,U.S. 用作名词,前面也须加定冠词。再如“欧盟”的缩写是the EU。词典释义中写道:The EU used to be known as the ECEuropean Community。这几个名称,the IMF, the EU, the United Nations,无论是简称还是全称,在句子里作为名词出现时,都要加定冠词。有没有不加定冠词的情况呢?有的。UNESCONATOASEAN,这些词全不需要加定冠词。有什么规律可循呢?根据Michael Swan 所著《英语用法指南》(Practical English Usage,首字母缩略词(acronyms),其读音像一个词一样,通常不用冠词。

    10中的不定冠词须改为定冠词。根据《Practical English Usage65.4条,the经常与最高级连用,因为通常只有一个个体或集体称得上bestbiggest等,其所指的是哪一个(或哪一些)是清楚的。由于同样的原因,the经常与firstnextlastsameonly连用。词典举例:She is the only person for the job.

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