论文关键词：功能论 导游词 中英 翻译策略
论文摘要：随着成功举办第29奥林匹克运动会，中国作为新崛起的大国在世界舞台上扮演着更加重要的角色，使得来华旅游人数的不断攀升，中国的旅游业也在飞速发展着。导游，将肩负起比以往更加艰巨的职责，要把景点的奇美之所在，文化的精妙之处精准地传达介绍给来华游客。导游口译，作为专业领域的翻译，亟需有效的翻译理论指导并提供相应的汉英翻译策略以克服其翻译障碍。本文旨在引进德国的功能派翻译理论对导游词汉英翻译的策略导向进行阐述, 以导游词翻译现状为切入点，涉及纽马克的文本功能分类说以及费米尔的翻译目的论, 简述导游词翻译的语言特征。继而从导游词翻译中所存在的翻译障碍出发，详释产生障碍的原因和中英语言在表现形式的不同点并引用一些导游口译中汉英翻译的实例,通过不同翻译方法的对比分析,提出在处理导游词汉英翻译过程中所需要运用的策略，以此实现在功能派翻译理论指导下进行导游词汉英翻译方面的无与伦比的意义。
ⅠIntroduction
China, a enormous land abundant in sightseeing resources, has ranked high all over the word for its spectacular natural wonders and mysterious heritages. Tourists can climb the Great Wall ,look around the Imperial Palace in Beijing, wander over the bustling Bund and Nanjing Road in Shanghai, boat along the Qinghuai River in Nanjing, view the terracotta warriors and horses excavated from the Emperor Qinshihuang 's Mausoleum in Xi’an, enjoy Suzhou's gardens and the West Lake in Hangzhou. From everywhere in China can visitors be intoxicated with the beautiful sceneries.
Tourism brings China a great deal of profits. First, it provides more opportunities for Chinese people to know the international world and promote friendship and understanding. Second, it brings financially benefits and increase the income of government .Meanwhile ,it creates the need to communicate with different with different tongues. Under such circumstances that guide-interpretation has grow up and been authorized as a profession⑴.
Guide-interpretation, the process of intercultural communications, happens while guides introduce historical interests and scenic beauties to overseas visitors. The guides need to present the colorful and attractive image of interests of China in the process of guide-interpretation. But for different cultural backgrounds and customs, it is very difficult for the guide to translate his interpretation into English literally owing to the negative effect exerted by different linguistic obstacles. Without veracious and accurate guide interpretation , overseas visitors may miss essence of culture when they are traveling around China let alone enjoy their journeys.
So, it really has been a serious problem that we must confront, and it is also a problem of urgency how to introduce our unique Chinese sightseeing sceneries more properly and exactly and promote the inter-culture communication.
As a result, a systematic and effective guide theory is the imperious demand of guide interpretation. As we have always regarded “combing practice with theory”, the theory must provide appropriate strategies for successful guide-interpreting .So I’d like to write such a dissertation to argue something about guide-guiding form the aspect of German functionalist translation theory, which can help us to handle interpreting methodologically.
This thesis will narrow down its scope merely on guide-interpreting on C-E, and most samples are gathered from authoritative bilingual books,websites, newspapers ,which will be listed at the last page of my part .
Ⅱ Functionalist Translation Theory
Functionalist translation theory, a relatively systematic and consummate theory, is the crystallization of wisdom of scholars in long period of human history.I’d like to present a more concentrate and detailed elucidation its features as follows⑶27:
2.1 Development of German Functionalist Translation Theory
In 1971, in the book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism, Reiss put forward a model of translation criticism which based on the functional relationship between source and target texts in he book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism. She still held to the equivalence principle ,therefore her theory was based on the functional equivalence between source and target texts.
Vermeer, the student of Reiss, defined translation as a purposeful human activity that takes place in a given situation based on action theory. He put forward Skopostheorie which serves as the foundation of the functionalist translation theory. Skopos is a Greek word for “purpose”, and Skopostheorie means the theory of purposeful action. Skopostheorie theory includes three principal rules: namely, the Skopos rule, the coherence rule (intratextual coherence) and the fidelity rule (intertextual coherence).
On the basis of Skopostheorie, Justa Holz Mănttări put forward the notion of “message transmitter” which is composed of textual materials combined with other media such as sounds ,pictures and body movements. Placing special emphasis on the actional aspects of the translation process, she analyzed the roles of the participants (initiator, translator, user, message receiver) and the situational conditions (time, place, motive) in which their activities take place.
Nord then put forward his two principles about “skopos” and “loyalty”, which constitute the two basic principles of Skopostheory.
2.2 Skopos Theory
skopos theory, serving as the central theory of Germany functionalism, is an approach to translation which developed in Germany by Vermeer in the late 1970s, and the word skopos, derived from Greek, is used as the technical term for the purpose of a translation.
Skopos theory plays an important role in translation of non-literary text types. In the translation of scientific and academic papers, instruction, contracts, tourist guides, etc., the contextual elements surrounding the translation cannot be neglected. These elements include the culture of the intended readers of the target text and the culture of the client who has authorized it, and particularly the function that the text is to represent in that culture for those readers.
Skopos theory emphasize the interactional, pragmatic aspects of translation, advancing that the shape of the target text should be determined by the function chiefly or "skopos" that it is intended to fulfill in the target context. Vermeer assumes that as a general rule, Skopos theory intended purpose of the of the target text that determines methods and strategies of translation. From this hypothesis he conclude skopos rule: Human (and its subspanision: translation) is determined by its purpose (skopos), and therefore it is a function of its purpose. The main point of this functional method is that the prospective function or skopos of the target text as determined by the initiator’s, i.e. Client’s needs. Consequently, the skopos is largely restricted by the target text reader and his/her place and cultural background.
In the view of Vermeer, the source text is re-conceptualized and is also seen as an information offer, which the translator must interpret through selecting those features that most closely cater for the requirements of the target situation.
2.3 Text Typology
Grounded on Buhler's classification of language functions (i.e. presentation, expression and appeal) and Reiss's early text typology theory, Peter Newmark makes a further research and classifies all the texts into three textual functions: informative, expressive and vocative functions [3] 40.
(1) The Informative Function
The informative function texts mainly refer to non-literary works including scientific papers, newspaper reports,textbooks, academic theses, and journal articles. The first purpose of translating these texts is to fully render the "extra-linguistic" information of the text. If the target text conveys all the necessary information of the source text correctly and masterly, it can get corresponding effect. Consequently, sometimes it is necessary for us to have several different translated versions to express the same source text, and all these versions are worth while to accept.
(2) The Expressive Function
The expressive function texts generally includes authoritative statements, literary works, autobiography, personal correspondence, etc. Newmark argues that a ideal translation of expressive function text is a resurgence of the author's writing style. This function is author-oriented, and the translator should stick by the original author.” The author uses the verbalism to express his feelings unaware of any response.
(3) The Vocative Function
The vocative function texts are different from the two texts above. This function concentrates on "calling on people to do, to think and to feel". It is reader-oriented and the effect of the translation must be evaluated by readers' response. Propaganda materials, notices, advertisements , instructions and other persuasive writings all belongs to this category. In view of the linguistic and cultural barriers between languages, it is essential for the translator to recreate the persuasive translation to attract the target readers, and the recreation is one of the major objectives of tourist materials.
2.4 Communicative Translation
Apart from the other correspondent classification of textual functions, Newmark puts forward two modes of translation—— semantic translation and communicative translation.
Semantic translation is usually applied to technical, literary and scientific text, likewise other contexts where language of the source text is at least as significant as the text.
Communicative translation is the one in which "the translator attempts to produce the same effect on the TL readers as was produced by the original on the SL readers". Examples of text-types for this mode of translation would be proper include textbooks, journalist writing, public notices and most non-literary genres. Different from semantic translation, communicative translation is the reader-oriented translation strategy, and adjust well to informative functions."
Ⅲ Guide Interpretation
3.1 Definition of Guide Interpretation
The occasion Interpretation carriesout on which people who do not share the same language and culture communication. Interpreting is usually taking place in simultaneous modes. As for guide interpreting, it often takes place when foreign visitors are introduced by guide interpreters to a different cultural environment, especially to some new scenic spots or new cultural phenomenon [4]. For example, when foreign visitors go to the Imperial Palace, the tour guides should introduce the whole history of the Forbidden City in target language to the visitors to satisfy their curiosity, not only the construction characteristics, but also the legends passed down generation by generation [5] .
In short, Guide-interpreting is an interpreting services provided by the guide-interpreter to the foreign tourists including the oral introductions in target languages refer to travel services, tourist attractions, natural or man-made sceneries, catering culture in travel, and also is an act of cross-cultural communication.
3.2 Objective and Receptors of C-E Guide Interpretation
We can gain a conclusion through the definition which has been discussed above that the objective of C-E guide interpretation is supplying tourists information, especially introduce the Chinese culture to overseas visitors. So guide-interpreting is designed for the specific needs of the tourists, and all the factors in guide-interpreting are determined by the specific needs of tourists, that is to say, tourist-oriented is the leading principle in guide-interpreting.
So the overseas visitors whom we call them the target receptors are interested in Chinese sceneries and would like to know more about the natural and man-made sceneries of China .So they came to China from different countries to have a journey. During their tour, the guide interpreter should express the relevant legends or historical events about the terminus to those receptors. Actually, the interpreters’ final goal is to make those people get a full and clear understanding .
3.3 Characters of C-E Guide Interpretation
3.3.1 Function Characters of C-E Guide Interpretation
From overview, the guide interpreters not only want to attract the tourists' attention but also intend to convince tourist of the goodliness of Chinese attractions. With such purposes, the good guide interpretation should be informative, attractive and persuasive
1). Informative
informative effect ,the primary effect of interpretation, means guide interpretation should provide tourists enough information about their objects, including the historical, cultural or natural value of the attraction which the tourists need. Such information could help visitors form a primary impression.
2) Attractive
There is no denying that only informative introduction cannot attract people’s attention successfully. Consequently, guide interpretation should produce excitement, please people physically and psychologically in an attempt to capture visitors' attention .that is make attractive effect.
3). Persuasive
An appropriate and triumphant interpretation needs to stimulate visitor's interest to act , as a result ,to be persuasive is a great important role played by a ideal guide interpretation .Visitor's interest and decision are promoted by what they heard from the guide interpreters.
To be a matter of fact, all of these functions are closely related with and impact on each other. That is to say, a prefect guide interpretation must be provided with informative function, attractive function and persuasive function .
3.3.2 Language characters of C-E Guide Interpretation
In terms of the acceptability of the overseas visitors of various backgrounds, the language in guide interpretation should be neither colloquial nor too formal. The words used in it had better to be brief and vivid. Generally speaking, a prominent guide interpretation must be concise, appealing and often figurative [6] .
1).Conciseness
English stress conciseness and directness. So a qualified interpreter should bear this feature in mind in the process of interpreting and try to provide the concise and precise works for visitors. "
Example 1:
Tiny islands are strung around the edge of the peninsula like a pearl necklace. Hunks of coral reed, coconut palms and fine white sand.
In English, the beauty was be descript by actual sceneries just as a photo taken by a camera. However, in Chinese we usually use abstract words to descript the scenery. The relevant Chinese version is as follows
座座岛屿玲珑小巧，紧密相连，像一串珍珠缀成的项链，
环绕着半岛边缘。岛上珊瑚礁红，椰树成片，沙滩如银，
景色如诗如画。（贾文波，2000：85）
2). Appealingness
Without appealing scenic description and historical introduction, visitors' passion cannot be aroused easily. Without their excitement and interest, China would not leave a great impression in their minds. So appealingness serves as the hinge in guide interpretation since the vivid description of scenery and the fascinating narration of mysterious culture help to enchant the oversea visitors.
3). Figurative Language
Tourists’ imagination of Chinese landscape and culture is enriched by various rhetoric devices like simile, metaphor, alliteration, etc. The figure of speech could make the scenic description particularly vivid and attractive [7] .
Ⅳ Functionalist Translation Theory applied in Guide Interpretation
4.1 Skopos Theory applied in Guide Interpretation
Since the translation strategy is determined by purpose, Vermeer summarizes three possible kinds of purpose: the translator's general purpose (perhaps "to earn a living"); the communicative purpose of the target text (perhaps "to instruct the reader"); the purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy or procedure (for example, "to translate literally in order to show the structural features of the source language"
As far as the purpose of guide interpretation, it usually refers to the second purpose, communicative purpose of the target text. The purpose of guide interpretation concerns introducing Chinese places of interest and Chinese unique culture to the outside world and make oversea visitors' feel valuable to tour China, by which the interpretation strategies for guide interpretation are determined.
Therefore, considering the acceptability of the target readers, the purpose of guide interpretation demands intelligible and flexible translation strategies.
4.2 Text Typology applied in Guide Interpretation
With Newmark’s theory, the text can be classified into three types: informative, expressive and vocative. However, Newmark also indicates that there are no strict boundaries between these three kinds of texts. So, before we look for the appropriate strategies for guide interpretation, let us look at which kind does it belong to. Firstly, guide-interpretation provide tourist information about travel, meanwhile, the vivid introduction is designed to arouse the curiosity of visitors, which is the essential purpose for tour guide. In this instance, the guide-interpretation is the combination of informative and vocative one in terms of its major functions, which should be taken into consideration before we determine the translation strategies.
Ⅴ Strategies Applied in C-E Guide Interpretation
5.1 Omission
In English it follows that any words which perform no useful function——that is, which add nothing to the meaning——should be edited out. So what is regarded as a natural or indispensable element in Chinese may be regarded as superfluous in English. Some Chinese sentences, when rendering into English, need to be rid of redundant words so as to conform to idiomatic English expressions. "
Omitting is employed in the interpreting process when “faithful” translation of some administrative jargons and slogans specific to China might result in overloaded or distorted communication of the original intentions. Therefore in this case, certain omissions may be more functional than a long and complicated translation of all the details. Omitting also works well for the guide interpretation with large quantity of ancient verses and flowery language, which would affect tourists [8] .
Example 2:
刘备章五三年病死于白帝城永安宫，五月运回成都，
八月葬于惠陵。
Liu Bei died of the third year of Zhangwu (one of names for recording years especially in Chinese ancient time when a new emperor throned) at the Palace of Eternal Peace in Baidi County and was finally buried in Huiling after three months when carried back to Chengtu in May.
The word-by-word translation can be commented that it attains the equivalence in linguistics such as lexical, grammatical and syntactic forms, for the sentence accurately adopts much wording in describing the episode whereas such translation may make target receiver deviate their curiosity owing to the loss of central impression. Thus the target receivers cannot achieve an identical enjoyment as the original readers do, which is seriously blamed in Skopostheory.
Suggested English version:
Liu Bei died of illness in 223 at the present-day Fengjie county, Sichuan Province, and buried here in the same year[9].
Compared to the word-by-word version, the condensed one omits without more consideration the latter part, namely“五月运回成都，八月葬于惠陵.”In this case, suffice to say that the place is famous for the event that Liu Bei, a well-known figure in the history, died and buried here with no need to state the process of the funeral. The way of alternation, so to speak, applies the functionalist strategy emphasizing the pragmatic effect on target receiver.
The second version definitely makes tourists with little knowledge of Chinese culture understand the focus directly and clearly.
5.2 Amplification
Amplification means supplying necessary words in interpretation on the basis of accurate comprehension of the original to make his version both accurate in meaning and in keeping with the idiomatic use of the target language. This is because English and Chinese are two entirely different languages and each has its own historical and cultural background. Besides, many ideas, idiomatic expressions and shorthand words that are well understood in the country of their origin can hardly make sense to people abroad. Therefore, it is unimaginable for an interpreter to stick to the original pattern without alteration.
Example 3：
产自云南高山云雾之中，清明前精心采制
The tea is grown naturally on mountain slopes nourished in clouds and mist. Owing to its slow growth at this altitude, the plants give high quality and pure health tea. The tea is prepared from tender leaves which are picked during earlyspring, and every drop of its essence is retained in the tender leaves[10] .
There are two points in the translation in terms of socio-pragmatic equivalence. The first is translating of “清明前” into “during early spring”. “清明” is familiar to the Chinese, which will be recalled as the time of April in early spring when everything comes back to life with vigor. Actually, the source language wants to express the tealeaves is of fresh taste and rich nutrition.
During translation, if we put “清明” into “Qingming Day” or “the Tomb-sweeping Day”, the foreigners cannot understand because they don’t have such a culture so that they may fail to associate early spring with the best season for the tea.
So in the sample, the interpreter not only deals with “清明” appropriately, but also offers more information to show the importance of picking tealeaves during early spring, which is essential because the exposition may help foreigners to grasp more pragmatic meaning so as to better fulfill the function of guide –interpreting –transmit information.
The second feature is the smart rendering of “高山云雾”. The interpreter does not put it into “on the mountain peak amidst the cloud and mist” because people have different cultural background would have different comprehension on this. As for Chinese or people familiar with tea culture, leaves on the mountain peak amidst the cloud and mist are great in quality and do good to health. But for foreigners, they could not understand why we would emphasize the tea was picked from that place. So word for word translation can not help target listeners comprehension the essence the source speaker would like to express.
Functionalism gives weight to the information acceptability in target culture. And a interpreter is supposed to convey the information that is at least likely to be meaningful to target-culture receivers."
Besides, in guide-interpreting it is the guide-interpreter’s responsibility both to convey the acceptable information to foreign tourists and to propagate China’s history and culture so as to make the tourism destination attractive to foreign tourists for there is an saying in the field of tourism that the beauty of sights depends on the speech of guides.
5.3 Substitution
The change of images in Chinese-English interpretation is almost inevitable because of the spanersity between the two cultures. Although both the Chinese and the Westerners share some cultural phenomena and literal translation is feasible in some cases, some images in Chinese that cause no visual problems for Chinese still become visually ridiculous or lose the communicative meaning implied when they are literally rendered to western tourists. Cultural substitution is a feasible way to overcome the intercultural communicative barrier of imagery confrontations.
Example 4:
绿林好汉
Version 1: The Greenwood Hero
Version 2: Chinese Robin Hood
5.4 Reconstruction.
The language structures in Chinese and English are influenced by different thinking patterns and value systems. Chinese language structure tends to be indirect and abstract while English textual structure is apt to be concise and concrete[11] .
The fact that guide-interpreting is a language-based service with communicative function and that guide-interpreting is essentially tourist-oriented means that it is a must for guide-interpreters to bring the rendition in line with the target language structure in order to make tourists understand easily and get reliable information. Therefore, reconstruction is called for in guide-interpreting to communicate smoothly with tourists.
Example 5:
满树金花,芳香四溢的金桂;花白如雪,香气扑鼻的银桂;红里透黄,花味多浓的紫砂桂;花色似银,季季有花的西季桂;竞相开放,争妍媲美.进入桂林公园,阵阵扑鼻而来.(qtd. in China Tourism Bureau,2000,p.68)
The Park of Sweet Osmanthus is noted for its profusion of osmanthus trees. Flowers from these trees in different colors are in full bloom which pervade the whole garden with thefragrance of their blossoms.(textual structure alteration bythe author of this dissertation)
In the source language, the aim that the different sorts of osmanthuses are given a vivid description at length is to arouse the interests of tourists. However, the Chinese language structure seems too wordy and indirect to western tourists who may be at a loss what the text tends to convey if the detailed description of different sorts of flowers in the source text is rendered literally. So the interpreter chooses to delete the trivial details which cloud the main theme of the information and rearrange the structure in a concise and direct way. In this way, the Skopos of the guide-interpreting is given weight to and intercoherence is achieved.
This chapter set the examples of applying functionalism to the practical process of guide-interpreting to illustrate different strategies.
There are several strategies applied in C-E guide interpretation such as omission, amplification, substitution, reconstruction, paraphrase and so on. I n terms of the lengths of my thesis, I could not tell one by one.
But no matter what the specific interpreting strategy applied, the common nature is that, in so doing, the guide-interpreters aim to meet the expectations of the initiators who are the guide-interpreters themselves by following the coherence rule and, most importantly, the Skopos rule, at or not at the expense of the fidelity rule.
At the same time, guide-interpreters are supposed to fully consider the differences between Chinese and westerners in language, value system, thinking pattern and beliefs so as to make guide-interpreting go more fluently."
Ⅵ Conclusion
The present study is a brief investigation into the applicability of functionalism in the practice of guide-interpreting. At the beginning, our research background, objectives of the study were introduced. Then I tell the characters and language features of C-E guide interpretation, adopting the Skopos Theory and Nord’s text typology to analysis the strategies applied in the practical of guide interpretation.
In the process of making China known to the outside world, Chinese-English guide interpretation plays an irreplaceable role which is never just the transference between two languages but an intercultural communication. But invalidity of translation in practice constantly prohibits the smooth understanding of target receivers. The functionalist theory appeared just in response to the need of giving a strong theoretical support.
Skopostheorie considers translation as a purposeful action, that is, produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. This is the very theoretical foundation of the functionalist theory. The term Skopos always refers to the purpose of the target text which is determined by the addressee, the main factor, who is the intended receiver or audience of the target text with their culture-specific world-knowledge, their expectations and their communicative needs.
Apparently, the interpretation strategy utilized here is a target-language-oriented one, which means that the target culture power, not the source culture one, is a more important parameter in the interpreting process for a functionalist interpreter to weigh in his mind.
In accordance with the conclusion drawn in the previous chapter, Chapter Five embarked on the analysis of specific interpreting strategies adopted in the practice of guide-interpretation.
