从功能对等理论看政治辞令的英译(5)
There is but one China in the world, and both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no pision.
From the above examples, we can see that translation of no-subject sentence is flexible. With the choice of the appropriate subjects, functional equivalence is well obtained.
3.2.2Change of Word Order
Word order involves the fight arrangement of words or phrases in a sentence. Generally speaking, the Chinese uses word order and functional words such as prepositions and adverbs to realize grammatical functions. Modern English also depend on word order and functional words to realize grammatical functions. There are fewer changes in the English suffixes. So word order is more important in English.
For example:
减少和规范行政许可和行政审批。
Reduce the number of matters requiring administrative examination and approval, and standardize procedures for doing so.
The internal logic of the original should be given the priority in translating and one should make sure not to confuse the order. The translator should not adhere rigidly to the original order, and the idiomatic usage is an important factor to be taken into account. Changes should be made where they can contribute to clear and idiomatic expressions.
3.3 Discourse Level
3.3.1 Combination
Combination is to combine two or more words or sentences in source language into one in target language when translating and it is common that some seemingly independent short sentences belong to the same semantic unit. In the translation from Chinese to English, the method of combination is usually recommended.
今年要千方百计争取农业有个好收成。努力增加农民收入，推进社会主义新农村建设。
We will do everything possible to ensure a good harvest this year and work to increase farmer incomes and build a new socialist countryside.
物价问题与人民生活密切相关，各级政府一定要把稳定市场物价放在更加重要的地位。
Government at all levels must give high priority to keeping prices stable. Because price stability has a direct bearing on the quality of people’s lives.
3.3.2Division
Contrary to combination, pision is employed when all the loose phrases or clauses in one sentence do not belong to one same semantic unit. For example:
加快建立现代金融制度。深化金融企业改革。健全内部机制。强化经营管理。
Work to institute a modernized financial system needs to be accelerated. Financial enterprises, on their part should deepen their reform to improve the mechanism of their internal operations, and strengthen their management.
In this example, the first clause in the original is actually the key clause of the whole sentence. It serves as the semantic focus and regulates the semantic content of the whole. Such a clause tends to be located either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence. Therefore, the translator treats it as an independent part so that it will receive more attention and force.
4. Functional equivalence in interpretation of press conference
The adequacy of translation has traditionally been judged on the basis of the correspondence in lexicon and grammar between the source and target languages. However, interpreting lays stress on the instant communication and accuracy. Some scholars believed that translating and interpreting can be regarded as “twins”, the two kinds of the same intercultural communicative interaction based on a source text and with the same mission—to reproduce the ideas of the source language in the target one. The interpretation is a special linguistic communication activity which distinguishes itself sharply from the written translation.
4.1 Features of interpretation
To make it simple, translation involves taking a written text (such as a book or an article) and translating it in writing into the target language.