2.1 Linguistic Errors
Language to translation is like what brick to building. Without language, translation would be impossible. Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family, whereas English belongs to the Indo-European family. The former is mainly composed of monosyllabic characters with a wide range of diverse meanings, while the latter is constituted by Latin letters. When switching from Chinese to English, some linguistic errors are unavoidable. The linguistic errors will be analyzed from the following two aspects, diction and Chinglish.
2.2 Diction毕业论文http://www.youerw.com
By “diction” we mean the proper choice of words and phrases in the target language on the basis of accurate comprehension of the source language text. Diction means the choice and use of words. Word is the smallest semantic unit and the proper choice of words is the basic requirement for the precision of translation. The errors concerning diction in the English translation of Chinese scenic-spot introductions will be expounded from the following four aspects: proper name; pseudo-equivalence; redundancy; monotony.
2.2.1 Proper Name
Proper name refers to the name of an individual person, place, etc. To these words, there is usually one-to-one relationship between the source language and the target language and the corresponding words can be easily looked up in a bilingual dictionary. However, there are still some wrong translations. The present author has collected a first-hand example to illustrate this point.
For example:
minibus = 微型汽车（面包车）
the United Nations = 联合国
the Pacific Ocean = 太平洋
helicopter = 直升飞机
(SL): 南山，面朝南海，是中国最南端的山。
(TL): Nanshan Mountain (South Mountain), facing Chinese South Sea, is the southernmost mountain in China.
In the target language (TL), “南海” is translated into “Chinese South Sea”, however, the correct English translation of “南海” is “South China Sea”.
The correct version: Nanshan Mountain (South Mountain), facing South China Sea, is the southernmost mountain in China.
2.2.2 Pseudo-Equivalence
In the translation practice, how to find an equivalent word in the target language becomes one of the most perplexing problems. Pseudo-equivalence is superficial equivalence without fully comprehending the meaning of the word in different contexts. People tend to learn the meanings of foreign words by associating each word with a single expression in their mother tongue, thus causing many misunderstandings. In fact, the lexical item in one language and its counterpart in another are not remained in one-to-one relationship, but rather a one-to-many, many-to-one, or sometimes many-to-many correspondence. Therefore, the translators must make great efforts to distinguish these superficially equivalent words and strive to choose the right word for the specific setting so as to convey the information clearly and correctly. However, in the English translation of Chinese scenic-spot introductions, there are many cases of pseudo-equivalence. For example:
(SL): 白云阁
(TL): White Cloud Attic本文来自优-文'论-文~网
The word “attic” in the TL is a pseudo-equivalent word to “阁”, although in Chinese, “阁” also shares the meaning with the word “attic” to refer to space or room immediately below the roof of a house, which is used to store things. However, in most circumstances, “阁”means a light building used as a shelter rather than to store things. And the scenic-spot name “白云阁” is actually a pavilion used as a shelter for tourists. Therefore, in this context, the English word corresponding to Chinese “阁” is “pavilion”. In the TL, the translator translated the scenic-spot name into “White Cloud Attic” without considering the practical situation.
The refined version: White Cloud Pavilion
2.2.3 Redundancy
In some circumstances, the meaning, which has already been implied in the context, does not need further elaboration. However, in the English translation of scenic-spot introductions, there are still some words, which add nothing to the meaning but make the phrases or sentences tedious. In order to achieve conciseness, these words should be deleted.
The present author took a picture of the information board in Wuzhizhou Island, Sanya City, which gives a brief introduction of the island. There is a Chinese sentence“海水清澈透明，最高能见度达27 米。”which is translated into “The water of the sea of Wuzhizhou Island is limpid and transparent with the visibility down to 27 meters deep.” Wuzhizhou Island is famous for its clear water which has already been emphasized in previous sentences of the introduction, so there is no need to state “The water of the sea of Wuzhizhou Island”. “The water” or “The seawater” is enough to convey the information. Besides, “down” here means to the deeper or lower part, thus the word “deep” is redundant which should be deleted.
The refined version: The water is limpid and transparent with the visibility down to 27 meters.
2.2.4 Monotony毕业论文http://www.youerw.com
In Chinese, in some circumstances, the repetition of the same word indicates emphasis and strengthens the expressive power. While in English, in order to achieve the vocative function, people tend to use different words to express similar ideas. In the translation practice of scenic-spot introductions, monotonous wording is often spotted. The frequent repetition of the same English word will definitely lead to monotonous translation. Here is an example extracted from the introduction of Jingdezhen:
(SL): 感悟人生，感悟泥性，感悟瓷韵悠悠。
(TL): Feel the life, feel the porcelain, and feel the history.
In the TL, the repetition of the word “feel” is obvious. To be more attractive and impressive, we can revise it by using different words sharing similar concept. Despite the monotonous translation of the Chinese word “感悟”, the word “porcelain” is not properly used here. Porcelain is hard white translucent material made from china clay, but it is not clay any longer.
Therefore, it can not express the meaning “泥性”.
The refined version: Touch the clay, know the history, and feel the life.