How Far Is the Gap between Theory and Reality? A Study of Chinglish in Chinese-English Translation

[[abstract]]中文摘要 一般人認為，「中式英語」是一種錯誤的翻譯，譯者要加以避免，正統學者及政府官員也都主張全面加以根除。但在現實社會裡，「中式英語」似乎越來越多，想要全面根除已是一種不可能的任務。有鑑於此，筆者在此研究中要深入探討：為何「中式英語」會如此普遍，學者專家對於「中式英語」的不同意見，以及西洋人對於「中式英語」的接受度。 本研究的理論根據有二：一是尤金．奈達的「形式同義」理論與勞倫斯．魏努帝的「異化策略」，兩人均主張，譯文不能脫離原文，「字對字」與「詞對詞」的翻譯方法纔能表達原作的意義，許多「中式英語」的產生源自於此。另一種理論根據是恩斯特．格特的「關聯理論」與蒙娜．貝克的「語用分析」理論。兩人都討論文化層次對翻譯的影響。文化層次的深邃，常使譯者為了表達隱含的原文意義而做「過度翻譯」，這也是「中式英語」形成的原因之一。除了語言與文化因素之外，一些社會因素也助長「中式英語」的流行。 本研究採用質化與量化分析混成方式，共收集了42個中式英語樣本及一些評論中式英語的文章，研究結果發現在詞彙層面，造成中式英語的原因包括gloss 翻譯、直譯，而在句構方面包括照著原語序及結構翻譯。此外，語言外要素包括：不符合譯入語文化/表述之規範，entropy 物理效應(entropy effect)，譯者誤譯，教師誤用及網路機譯系統不當使用。關於學者專家對於中式英語意見則分成贊同與不贊同兩個陣營。有些學者專家主張：「中式英語」雖然背離正統英語的架構，其顯現中文語文的特質與文化傳達的功能不容抹煞。但是經過筆者的問卷調查，大多數的英語母語使用者，是無法接受大部分的「中式英語」的 (不接受與接受的比率約為11比3)。理論與現實之間仍存在著極大的鴻溝，譯者對於這種現象必須加以正視。 關鍵字：中式英語、形式同義、異化策略、關聯理論、語用分析、過度翻譯[[abstract]]Abstract People generally treat Chinglish as a kind of mistranslation A translator should avoid using it Conservative scholars and government authorities made a great effort to eradicate all the Chinglish expressions However Chinglish remains burgeoning and spreading Eradicating Chinglish becomes a mission impossible This reason motivates me to conduct present study and my investigation focuses on why Chinglish is so prevalent how different scholars have their opinions about Chinglish and what is Westerners’ reception of Chinglish The present research is set within the theoretical framework of Eugene Nida’s “formal equivalence” and Laurence Venuti’s “foreignization strategy” They both confirm that the TT should be close to the ST “Word-for- word” or “phrase- for- phrase” translation would be the best way to represent the original meanings By using the method Chinglish tends to be created The other theoretical foundation is Ernst-August Gutt’s “relevance theory” and Mona Baker’s “pragmatic analysis” both of which are concerned with cultural impacts on the translation process To explicate the subtle meanings of ST in the TT an overtranslation tends to be produced This is also one of the reasons for Chinglish Beside linguistic and cultural factors some social incidents also lead to the prevalence of Chinglish This research adopts a hybrid approach that consists of qualitative and quantitative analyses After the analysis of 42 samples of Chinglish the findings show that the linguistic factors to cause Chinglish include gloss translation and literal translation in the lexical area and non-compliance with the syntax of the target language in the syntactical/grammatical area Extra-linguistic factors to cause Chinglish involve disregard for the culture/discourse norms of the target language entropy effect misuse by incompetent translators and teachers and inappropriate use of machine-created translation on the web As regards scholars’ views about Chinglish they fall into positive and negative camps Some scholars debate that though Chinglish derails the norms of authentic English it helps manifest Chinese linguistic features and communicate Chinese cultural messages Nevertheless the results of my questionnaire-based survey show that most native English speakers don’t accept Chinglish usage (the ratio is about 11:3) The gap between theory and reality is quite big A translator should not neglect this phenomenon Key words: Chinglish formal equivalence foreignization strategy relevance theory pragmatic analysis overtranslatio