从语境意识看肢体语言的翻译

更新时间：2023-06-03 05:01:01 阅读量：实用文档文档下载

说明：文章内容仅供预览，部分内容可能不全。下载后的文档，内容与下面显示的完全一致。下载之前请确认下面内容是否您想要的，是否完整无缺。

培养语境意识推荐度：
相关推荐

译者在翻译时应时刻保持语境意识。本文把Hatim和Mason提出语境三个层面理论作为理论基础,指导肢体语言的翻译。表面上非言语交际描述的翻译是文本间的翻译,而实质上是两个不同非言语系统之间的转换。本文全面阐述了非言语交际的定义,特征,研究状况并探究了肢体语言翻译中存在的问题：一是缺乏对非言语交际中文化信息的意识;二是忽视了上下文中非言语交际描述的功能。因此,如何提高译者翻译肢体语言时的语境意识是本文的核心。

课程：翻译中的语言学标题: 从语境意识看肢体语言的翻译

专业：外国语言学及应用语言学姓名: 郝娟娟学号: 201030810288

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the valuable guidance from my tutor, He shaobin, and my dear

teacher of the ever course, Wei qingguang, who have spent generous time directing and polishing my thesis, and whose academic insight, critical acumen and constant encouragement carried me through the travail of writing this paper. Without the benefit of his superior knowledge, detailed advice and meticulous scholarship, I wouldn t have had the courage to tackle and complete such a formidable and challenging topic.

My appreciation also goes to Foreign Language Department of my university. Thanks for all

the teachers who have given me lectures during the four years and I would like to express my gratitude for their enlightening instruction and warm-hearted assistance.

Last but not least, many thanks go to my classmates and family for their sympathetic

understanding and unfailing support during my studies and during my preparation of my thesis.

ABSTRACT

Non-verbal communication plays an important role in communication. How to effectively and reasonably describe the translation of non-verbal communication has attracted many researchers interested in translation theory. Similarly, the body language translation is also inseparable from the context. The translator should always have a sense of context. This article is mainly based on three dimensions of the context theory Hatim and Mason proposed to guide the translation of body language. In translation, the translator does not immediately face with the context but the original author of description. It seems that the non-verbal communication describes the translation between texts; in fact, they are two different non-verbal systems conversion. This paper comprehensively expounds the definition of body language, its characteristics, previous researches and explores problems in body language translation, there was a lack of non-verbal communication in the sense of cultural information; second, non-verbal communication ignore the context of describing functions. Therefore, how to improve the context awareness of body language is the core of this article. Chapter one gives a brief introduction of this topic. I t introduces some background information related to contextual awareness in body language translation. Chapter two introduces the basic concepts of body language and summarizes the classification and the role of body language in the translation problems and some related research. Chapter three introduces the definition and classification of context, including some basic information, and then links context and body language which reflects the importance of context in body language translation. Chapter four details the strategies and methods of translation, and lists a large number of typical examples to show some effective ways of improving contextual awareness and improving the quality of the translation. Chapter five is the summarization of the whole thesis.

Key Words: body language translation; contextual awareness; approaches

摘要

非言语交际是交际系统中不可或缺的一部分,如何有效和合理地描述肢体语言的翻译已经引起很多翻译理论研究者的兴趣。同样，肢体语言的翻译也离不开语境。译者在翻译时应时刻保持语境意识。本文把Hatim和Mason提出语境三个层面理论作为理论基础，指导肢体语言的翻译。在翻译中,译者面对的不是即时发生身在其中的非言语交际而是原文作者对其的描述。表面上非言语交际描述的翻译是文本间的翻译，而实质上是两个不同非言语系统之间的转换。本文全面阐述了非言语交际的定义，特征，研究状况并探究了肢体语言翻译中存在的问题：一是缺乏对非言语交际中文化信息的意识；二是忽视了上下文中非言语交际描述的功能。因此，如何提高译者翻译肢体语言时的语境意识是本文的核心。本文的第一章是引言部分，介绍了与肢体语言翻译中语境意识相关的一些背景知识。第二章介绍了关于肢体语言的基本概念，特征，相关研究以及肢体语言翻译中存在的问题。第三章首先介绍了包括定义和分类在内的语境的一些基本信息，接着将语境与肢体语言联系起来，体现了肢体语言翻译对语境的不可分离性。第四章详述了翻译的策略和方法,并列举了大量典型例子说明，提出了一些提高译者语境意识和译文质量的有效途径。第五章对全文做了总结。

关键词：肢体语言翻译；语境意识；方法

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. II 摘要 ............................................................................................................................................... III

Chapter One Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Significance ............................................................................................................................... 1

Chapter Two Concept of Body Language and Review of Its Translation ................................ 2

2.1 Definition of Body Language. ................................................................................................... 2

2.2 Characteristics of Body Language ............................................................................................ 3

2.3 Previous Researches on Body Language Translation ............................................................... 3

2.3.1 Foreign Study ................................................................................................................... 4

2.3.2 Domestic Study ................................................................................................................ 4

2.4 Problems in Body Language Translation .................................................................................. 5

2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 6

Chapter Three Study of Body Language Translation from Contextual Perspective .............. 8

3.1 What is Context? ....................................................................................................................... 8

3.1.1 Definition of Context ....................................................................................................... 8

3.1.2 Classification of Context .................................................................................................. 8

3.2 Context and Body Language Translation .................................................................................. 9

3.2.1 Functions of Context in Body Language Translation....................................................... 9

3.2.2 Interpretative Function ..................................................................................................... 9

3.2.3 Restrictive Function ....................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 10

Chapter Four Approaches to Body Language Translation ..................................................... 12

4.1 Communicative Approach to Body Language Translation ..................................................... 12

4.1.1 User-related Varieties- Dialect ....................................................................................... 12

4.1.2 Use-related Varieties- Register ....................................................................................... 13

4.2 Pragmatic Approach to Body Language Translation ............................................................... 13

4.2.1 Speech-act- theoretic Approach to Body Language ....................................................... 13

4.2.2 The Cooperative-principle-theoretic Approach to Body Language Translation ............ 14

4.3 Semiotic Approach to Body Language Translation ............................................................... 16

4.3.1 Transfer of Designative Meaning in Body Language .................................................... 16

4.3.2 Transfer of Linguistic Meaning in Body Language ....................................................... 16

4.3.3 Transfer of Pragmatic Meaning in Body Language ....................................................... 17

Chapter Five Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 19

5.1 Contributions ........................................................................................................................... 19

5.2 Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 19

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 20

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background

With the development of globalization, intercultural communication plays a more and more important role in toady s life. Body language as an important non-verbal form of communication should be realized. However, the same body language in different cultures may show different meanings and understanding the different cultural implication of English and Chinese body language is very necessary to promote people s cross-culture communication competence. Failure to clearly understand the original meaning of different body language may lead to great mistakes to some extent. A majority of body language is cultural-bounded which definitely proposes many difficulties and obstructions in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the importance of body language translation to accelerate intercultural communication is increasingly embodied. It is obviously not difficult to perceive the importance of context from the English saying. Equally, the translation of body language is also indispensable from context. Translators should always keep contextual awareness while doing translation.

1.2 Significance

As body language translation is so different from that of verbal translation and the

translation of body language is compatible with context, we must pay more attention on this problem. Building language contextual understanding, improving analytical kills of language context, and using language context theory in translation practice will help people achieve great success in communication. So having a strong contextual awareness of body language translation can help avoid misunderstanding while communicating with people from different culture and improve the intercultural communication effectiveness between Chinese and English.

Chapter Two Concept of Body Language and Review of Its Translation

In the social interaction，when we converse with others we communicate by not only the

words. According to Valdes, there are three classes of nonverbal behavior—body language object language and environmental language; and body language includes movement，gesture, posture，facial expression，gaze，touch and distancing(1986). By our expressions，gestures and other body movements we send messages to those around us. And we have found that there is no body motion or gesture that can be regarded as a universal symbol. In order to make successful exchange in cross-cultural communication, we should know the body language from different cultures. And we should realize that body language, like verbal communication and culture, also has many similarities all over the world.

2.1 Definition of Body Language

There have been a great number of scholars who tried to give scientific definitions to

body language. An easily comprehensible definition given by Miller is that: “Body language is not a language in the strict sense of the world language . It is to express how one feels by one s sitting, standing, moving etc, rather than by words. In other words, body languages are those body actions for face movements to transmit or help transmit messages between people.” Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe and Mark V Redmond gave a concise definition of kinetics (body language). They proposed that body language is the study of human movement and gestures. (Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe and Mark V Redmond, 1999, p.220)

From the definitions above, body language can be defined both in a broad sense and in a

narrow sense. In a broad sense, it refers to all the nonverbal language used in human nonverbal communication, including both body language in the narrow sense and paralanguage. In a narrow sense, the term “body language” refers only to gesture, posture and manner of the body movement, including facial expression, eye-contact and so on. To fulfill the special purpose of this thesis, I prefer the definition of body language in its narrow sense.

2.2 Characteristics of Body Language

According to some researchers abroad, in people s daily life, nonverbal communication

takes part over 65% in all of information exchange. And body language is an important part of

nonverbal communication. Many experts have shown the importance of body language in the cross-cultural communication. A psychologist proposed a formula: “the total impact of message = 7% verbal + 38% vocal +55% facial expressions and behavior.” It is clear without body language we can t finish our informational exchange. Body language, like verbal language, can express emotions, exchange ideas and deliver information. In this case, characteristics of body language should be taken into consideration.

Generally speaking, body language possesses the following characteristics on the basis of

analysis.

(1)Polysemy: A body language that has more than two meanings is called polysemous

body language. Polysemy of body language can influence people s communication in a specific context. Certain body language descriptions often have a variety of meanings, sometimes entirely opposite in meaning in different cultures or regions. If the communicators were not conscious of this, they would feel puzzled and confused. For example, shrug one's shoulder can mean confusion, in desperation, have no idea, etc. in different contexts.

(2)Synonymy: One meaning can be shown by more than two body languages, for instance,

gestures of shaking hands, nodding, or raising hand can mean the same thing of greeting somebody.

(3)Culture-bounded: Different nations have different cultures. For instance, it is a

common phenomenon of social greeting that a male and a female can have physical contacts. However, it is a taboo in some Asian cultures.

(4)Geographic Distribution: Geographic distribution of body language is regular. There

exists a large quantity of body language zones and they have their own features. A good example comes from the people living in Tibet. They share the same series of secret body language to worship, which is unknown by the people from other places.

(5)Ambiguity: Ambiguity refers to a word, a phrase, a sentence or a group of sentences

with more than one possible interpretations or meanings. In this sense, people should be aware that body language, an essential component of nonverbal communication, is dominated by ambiguity, which results from the context, the relationship between the interact-ants, socioeconomic status, and the mood or feeling of the sender and the receiver in addition to being culturally bound.

The body language we use influences, to a large extent, the quality of our communication.

Under modern circumstances, body language becomes increasingly important in cross-cultural communication. Realizing its characteristics mentioned above is good to become conscious of our own and others body language and can help people reduce barriers in communication so as to achieve efficient communication and to avoid misunderstanding.

2.3 Previous Researches on Body Language Translation

The description and translation of nonverbal communication are popular among

researchers of translation theories. This part would provide both foreign and domestic researches on the translation of nonverbal communication, focusing on that of body language.

2.3.1 Foreign Study

Body language has long been a research topic in the West and large quantities of scholars

begin to pay more attention to nonverbal communication including body language and its translation. One collection of papers called Nonverbal Communication and Translation: New Perspective and Challenges in Literature, Interpretation, and the Media, edited by Fernando Poyatos(1997), is the first book, within the interdisciplinary field of Nonverbal Communication Studies, dealing with the specific tasks and problems involved in the translation of literary works as well as film and television texts, and in the live experience of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. Its contributions by translation scholars and professional interpreters from fifteen countries, deal with discourse in translation, intercultural problems, narrative literature, theater, poetry, interpretation, and film and television dubbing.

Another relevant article is “The translation of Gestures in the English and German

Versions of Manzoni s I Promesse Sposi ”written by Pierangela Diadori, who points out that translators often add their own explanations of gestures likely to be unfamiliar to the reader. Alternatively, they substitute functionally equivalent gestures, which the reader would know, or even add illustrations depicting the gestures.

2.3.2 Domestic Study

Scholars at home also have contributed a lot to the translation of body language. Some

scholars (Wang Bingqin, 1995; Lu Jun, 1995; Fan Weiwei, 2000; Zhang Zhiying, 2000) have researched the translation of nonverbal language from some different aspects and perspectives.

Wang Bingqin (1995) states four functions of nonverbal communication and cultural

differences between different nonverbal communications and emphasizes influences of culture on translation of nonverbal communication. Lu Jun (1995) points out the description of nonverbal communication occupies considerable coverage in the literary works and is an indispensable part, and simultaneously emphasizes the nationality and fuzziness of nonverbal language. Fan Weiwei (2000) puts forward the notion of description of nonverbal symbol, and states that the translation of nonverbal symbol, rigidly speaking, is to translate the nonverbal messages written in the source language text. Then principles and procedures of translation from an intercultural perspective are proposed. Zhang Zhiying (2000) focuses on utterance meaning of paralanguage in the literary works and divides paralanguage into four kinds, vocal alternants, segregates, characterizers and modifiers. Accordingly, some proper ways of translating paralanguage are also put forward.

Both the foreign and domestic scholars mentioned above integrate nonverbal

communication including body language with translation from different perspectives, which founds a good basis for further studying translation of description of nonverbal communication systematically and have made their contribution to the research of body language translation. Since the specific researches on the translation of the description of body language is quite limited, the thesis will probe into the issue from the perspective of context systematically.

2.4 Problems in Body Language Translation

It is very easy to misunderstand each other during the intercultural communication if the

two people conversing don t know the cultural background of each other，and it will lead the communication to fail. Like our verbal language, body language is also a part of our culture. But not all body language means the same thing in different cultures. Nonverbal messages written in the source text is somewhat much more complicated than that of the real nonverbal messages because it is less straightforward: the implication of real nonverbal messages can be understood correctly from the specific context, environment, interpersonal relations etc.

There are two common problems in the translation of nonverbal communication: being

lack of the awareness of cultural messages included in the description of nonverbal communication contextually; neglecting functions of nonverbal communication in the context. If the translator can remove these obstacles in translating process by improving awareness of cultural messages and functions of nonverbal communication they may get great success in

translation.

1. Unawareness of cultural messages in body language contextually

The difficulties arising out of cultural differences constitute the most serious problems

for the translator and have produced the most far-reaching misunderstandings among readers (Zheng Shengtao, 1994). Hall (1995) states, most of our nonverbal behaviors, like culture, tend to be elusive, spontaneous, and frequently beyond our awareness. Nonverbal languages may be classified into two types: 1) non-cultural nonverbal languages and 2) culture-specific nonverbal languages. Culture-specific nonverbal languages pose a threat for successfully translating a text into another culture or even group of people of another sub-culture under the same cultural background. Translators are required to familiarize himself or herself with the cultural background of the original text and take into full consideration those elements decided by culture and environment (Wang Bingqin1995; Lu Jun, 1995). For example:

“You should not be discouraged. Mother said to us gently. ”

We all shook our heads.

Version 1:妈妈轻轻对我们说:“别泄气…”

我们都摇摇头。

Version 2:妈妈轻轻对我们说:“别泄气…”

我们都点点头。

In this passage, we come upon one body movement “shook our heads”. Due to

differences in logic thinking between English-speaking people and Chinese, this nonverbal behavior “shaking heads” performed by people in English culture is a positive response to mother s words, expressing our agreement with Mama not to be discouraged. While in Chinese culture, the same nonverbal behavior carries different meaning 一 “disapproval” in this case. The literal translation of “shook heads”，一 “摇摇头” (Version 1), in the Chinese nonverbal sign system, means, “我们不行，没有自信” whereas “shook our heads” in the original text actually means “No, we don t be discouraged.” Therefore, for the sake of logical consistency of the translation text, the translator discards the image of “shaking head”, and replaces it with the opposite image “点了点头” (Version 2) which is of logical sense in the translated text.

2. Neglect of functions of body language in the context

Functions of nonverbal communication in the context are often neglected. Body language

can serve six primary functions: repeating, complementing, substituting, regulating reinforcing and contradicting. And these functions of body language are not isolated from one another, and many of the same communications can serve two or more functions---sometimes at the same time. Let's look at an example about description of one common gesture: When Tom won the first prize in the composition competition, we all patted him on the back.

Version 1:当汤姆在作文竞赛中获一等奖时，我们都拍了拍他的背。

In the English culture, the behavior of “pat one on the back” is one gesture of praise or

approval which substitutes “Congratulation!” In Version 1, the substituting function of this gesture is neglected by translator. The reader may be confused by this behavior if not complementing necessary information. Therefore, the following version will be much better.

Version 2:当汤姆在作文竞赛中获一等奖时，我们都拍了拍他的背向他表示祝贺。

2.5 Summary

From the above review of definitions, characteristics and translation problems of body

language, we can get a general and brief view of the goings-on in this specific field of body language studies. Fruitful as these previous studies are, their limitations should be admitted here that their investigations of body language only reveal one side, one aspect or one typical form of body language. They mostly can only provide a partial answer to the translation of body language description. They fail to systematically account for how to translate body language efficiently and shed light on the contextual awareness. These problems are just what we intend to explain by investigating the translation of the description of body language from the perspective of context.

Chapter Three Study of Body Language Translation from Contextual Perspective

3.1 What is context?

3.1.1 The Definition of Context

Before studying this topic we must understand what is context first. Context refers to the

environment in which language is used. Specific context can influence the conveyance of meaning of words, sentences, paragraphs and even texts in particular language environment. Because of different understanding of the contextual connotation, many linguists still can not reach the agreement on its definition, classification and functions.

Generally speaking, the term context is used in two senses: the narrow sense and the

broad sense. In the narrow sense, context refers to the words, phrases and sentences in which a word is used, which is known as linguistic context or linguistic settings. And in the broad sense，it refers to the physical, social and cultural settings, etc. which are known as non-linguistic settings. Most of the modern linguistics view context in the broad sense.

3.1.2 Classification of Context

Based on different criteria, there are a lot of kinds of context. Malinowski was the first

linguist who developed the theory of context and classified context. From Malinowski s point of view, context was classified into context of culture and context of situation.

Firth inspired by Malinowski s theory, first included in the context “not only spoken

words, but the whole group of people present during an exchange of utterance, and the part of the environment in which these people are engaged.” (Firth, 1962) Firth divided these influential factors into linguistic context, cultural context and situational context. His theory is still of great importance nowadays.

However, Halliday classified context into “field, tenor and mode”, which are different in

form, but similar in essence. Actually, after Firth, various classifications of context are more or less based on that by him, such as classifying it into linguistic and nonlinguistic context (Hymes, 1972).

Context related to translation is generally categorized into three main kinds: situational

context, cultural context and linguistic context (Hatim, B.&Mason, L, 2001, p.36-37)

Situational context refers to the situational factors related to a text. According to Halliday (1985), context of situation consists of the field of discourse, the tenor of discourse and the mode of discourse, which will be expounded in the latter chapter. Cultural context refers to the cultural factors related to a text.

The classifications mentioned above are probed into from different perspectives and on

the basis of different criteria. They are interconnected and their essences are not contradictory at all.

3.2 Context and Body Language Translation

Literally, context is the situation in which the language is used. Context determines not

only how a word is to be understood, but also how it is to be translated. When translating the original, the translator should have a deep understanding of the meaning of the source language, and then analyze the meaning conveyed in the original; and with the help of the specific context the translator can achieve to catch the correct understanding of the original and finally reproduce the message of the source language to the readers. We can never let context aside when discussing the translation. Whatever one discusses or disputes over methods of literal translation or free translation and translatability of various styles and so on, he should never avoid taking contextual factors into consideration.

3.2.1 Functions of Context in Body Language Translation

Information can not be effectively extracted from a discourse unless the audience

considers the specific and mode. In translation, besides considering the elements of the target language, time, place, character, we should lay stress on the non-language elements which have a conditioned function on the discourse. So, without the analysis of language environment, it will lead to false translation. Therefore, the importance of contextual awareness in translation must be taken into full account.

In 1992, a Japanese scholar 西棋正光 pointed out in his article Context and Language

that context exerts eight functions: absolute function, design function, restrictive function, interpretative function, derivative function, filtering and supplementary function, transformative function and acquisitive function. (西棋正光,1992,p.26.) As a matter of fact, the interpretative function and restrictive function are considered to be the main ones, from which the other functions are derived. The functions of context also apply to the application of

context in translation. Thus, the author endeavors to probe into the functions of context in translation of body language from the interpretative and restrictive functions.

3.2.2 Interpretative Function

Interpretative function refers to the explanations and illustrations to some language

phenomena in language using. It combines the situations that the event happens with the conditions of surroundings together and offers us a general expression and the prediction of understanding in psychology. To be more concrete, it shows up more choices of understanding and then narrows down the choices according to situation, and then identifies the one that is most suitable.

Abundant examples can be cited to illustrate this function of context to body language

translation. For example:

咦!骑车的小伙子又回来了。陈静心里却紧张起来: “这么晚了，他 ” (吴金良，《醉

人的春夜》)

She watched nervously as the young rider returned a moment later, thinking to herself,

“Oh, dear...it s so dark, what will he…” (Translated by He Zhifan)

“陈静心里却紧张起来” is translated into “she watched nervously”, in which the “watch”

is added to indicate that she keeps watching the young man, fearing that some unpredictable thing might happen. With the added body language, the nervous psychological state becomes more vivid compared with turning it into “she was very nervous”. Occasionally one s body language speaks much louder that one s words. So sometimes we may add some kinetic descriptions to interpret certain words and to make the translated version more expressive.

3.2.3 Restrictive Function

Restrictive function refers to the influence of context on language application and

language study. From the broad sense, this function may influence the whole nature, the human society and the culture. And from the narrow sense, it may influence a sentence, a phrase or even a word.

Restrictive function is one of the major functions of context and also plays an important part in meaning understanding.

The example can be cited to illustrate this function of context to body language

translation. For example:

他不敢看了。(高晓声，《钱包》)

He dared not raise his eyes. (Translated by He Zhifan)

“看”appears in the kinetic description of the novels characters with almost the highest

frequency, and it is also a general verb in Chinese. When translating this verb into English, several different expressions can be used, such as look at, watch, glance at, glare at, daze at, stare at, peer into, have a look at, cast a glance at and so on, which are English synonyms of“看”.Therefore when translating this general word, the accurate choice of its equivalent according to the special context turns out to be very important. In the above example, the meaning of“看”is restricted by the context.

3.3 Summary

From the above, great importance has been attached to a contextual approach to

translation of body language from the aspects of definition, classification, functions, etc. The reason consists in that context is an indispensable constitute in the process of translation and seems to be more advantageous to translation. Then it leads us to discuss the next problem: how do the three dimensions of context proposed by Hatim and Mason influence body language translation? The following thesis will expound them from different aspects.

Chapter Four Approaches to Body Language Translation

4.1 Communicative Approach to Body Language Translation

The communicative level of context in Hatim and Mason s theory derived directly from

Halliday s register analysis. Corder (1973) continued the study of the user-related dimension and named the varieties in this dimension dialect. As for the use-related dimension, Gregory and Carrol (1978) did further researches on it and employed the word “register” as the term to describe the variables in this dimension. Dialects show differences among language users while registers display the differences among the forms of languages such as grammar and lexis. Dialect can be further divided into some sub-categories according to various standards.

4.1.1 User-related Varieties一Dialect

Language varieties related to the user are named dialects, including geographical,

temporal, social, non-standard and idiolectal dialects, etc. As for body language, its language varieties are mainly embodied on the levels of geographical, temporal and social dialects, which will be expounded as follows.

(1) Geographical Dialect. Language varieties correspond to geographical variation, giving

rise to different geographical dialects. For example:

The young girl thumbed her way to the passing cars.

那个年轻姑娘站在路边向过往的汽车摆动着竖起的拇指表示要搭车。

The nonverbal behavior “thumb one s way to” is used by English-speaking people to the

passing cars to have a hitchhike. However, in China; we do not have this gesture. That is, this gesture belongs to geographical dialect. To avoid confusion and transfer cultural information successfully, the translation strategy of adding explanation is adopted and“表示要搭车”is added.

Equally, in Chinese, there are some general body language descriptions which have no

absolute lexical counterparts in the target language.

(2) Temporal Dialect. Temporal dialect reflects the development of language through time.

Facing temporal dialects of the past, the translator may hesitate between choosing modern language or the language of the past in translation and may face the dilemma of whether

adding explanation or not. Anyway, transferring the maximum information to the target readers is the main concern.

(3) Social Dialect. In addition to the geographical and the temporal dimensions, social

differentiation is also reflected in languages. Social dialects emerge in response to social stratification within a speech community. They reflect the differences in social status, age, generation, sex, occupation, etc.

4.1.2 Use-related Varieties一Register

It can reflect the speaker s social status and social function, that is to say, it is the embodiment of social structure.

According to Michael Halliday (1985), context of register consists of three types:

(1) Field of discourse: Different linguistic choices are made by different speakers

depending on what kind of action other than the immediate action of speaking they see themselves as participating in. For example, linguistic choices will vary according to whether the speaker is taking part in a football match or discussing football; making a political speech or discussing politics; performing an operation or discussing medicine.

(2) Tenor of discourse: The language people use varies depending on such interpersonal

relationships as mother/child, doctor/patient, or superior/inferior in status. A patient is unlikely to use swear words in addressing a doctor and a mother is unlikely to start a request to her child with I wonder if you could.…

(3) Mode of discourse: Linguistic choices are influenced by its medium of transmission

(spoken, written). For example, a word such as re is perfectly appropriate in a business letter, but it is rarely, if ever, used in spoken English.

To sum up, every text is associated with a particular situation which determines its

linguistic features. Unawareness of the situational context may result in failure in communication.

The above examples are used to illustrate how translation of body language is influenced

by context under the terms mentioned above. It not only founds a good basis and guidance for translators but also is beneficial a lot for people from different cultures to communicate with each other more easily and more successfully, thus it can promote cross-cultural

communication.

4.2 Pragmatic Approach to Body Language translation

Pragmatics is the study of the purpose for which sentences are used, of the real world

conditions under which a sentence may be appropriately used as an utterance. Hatim believes many pragmatic factors possess the power to influence the fulfillment of the communicative purpose of a text. To illustrate this point, Hatim chooses the concept of speech act and cooperative principle as two major examples.

4.2.1 Speech-act- theoretic Approach to Body Language

Austin first investigated the ability of sentences to perform actions. According to Austin,

sentences themselves can perform actions and these actions may influence the fulfillment of the communicative purpose of these sentences. He distinguished three kinds of actions that are performed when a language user produces an utterance (Hatim B.&Mason, I. 2001:59-60):

(1) Locutionary act: the display of nonverbal signs, such as gestures, postures, etc.

(2) Illocutionary act: the making of a promise, offer, etc. in showing nonverbal signs, by

virtue of the conventional force associated with it, namely, what is done and what is the speaker's real intension by displaying nonverbal symbols.

(3) Perlocutionary act: the bringing about consequences on the addresses by means of

displaying nonverbal signs, such consequences being unique to the nonverbal circumstances.

4.2.2 The Cooperative-principle-theoretic Approach to Body Language Translation

The cooperative principle coincides with the equivalence theory, which focuses on the

effect of the translation on the reader, aiming at achieving the same effect as that of the source language reader. This principle opens to us a new approach to the assessment of body language translation.

(1) The Maxim of Quantity

The maxim of quantity requires that the speaker make his word as informative as what

can meet the current purpose of exchange and that he does not make it more informative than is necessary. In translation process of body language, the maxim of quantity requires the translators to make information transferred to the extreme extent, so as to avoid making the readers in the target language confused. For example,

听人问价，摊主抹了抹睡眼，伸出两个手指摆成八字形。(毛炳甫，《剥皮香蕉》)

Hearing the question, the owner rubbed his eyes and stretched out two fingers to indicate

the number 8. (Translated by Xia Yihu)

In this example, if we only turn this body language description“伸出两个手指摆成八字

形”literally into “stretch out two fingers to indicate the number 8”, the reader of the target language may get confused. They may wonder how to use two fingers to indicate “8”. Therefore, the maxim of quantity requires the translators to add explanation to the translation of this body language, and the original sentence may be rendered into “stretch out two fingers to indicate the Chinese character eight.”

(2) The Maxim of Quality

The maxim of quality requires the speaker not to say what is not true or what cannot be

proved. Since most body languages are heavily culture-bounded, in the translation process of culture-specific signs, cultural equivalence is a very significant criterion to judge the quality of the translation. For example:

“谁认便骂谁！”他站起来,两手叉在腰间说。(鲁迅，《阿Q正传》)

“The one who answers me is the one to be reviled!” cried Ah Q with his arms akimbo. (Translated by Feng Qinghua)

In the example, the cultural kinetic description “两手叉在腰间” is substituted by its

equivalent kinetic description “with his arms akimbo” in the target language. The information in the source text is conveyed successfully so that the target language reader can have almost the same information as what is obtained from the source text by the source text reader, which accords with the requirement of the maxim of quality

(3) The Maxim of Relevance

The maxim of relevance requires the speaker to say what is relevant to the present

communication. In translation, it requires the translation to be coherent and relevant to the communication context to the extreme extent. For example,

“小李，什么时候请吃糖?”王奶奶笑着问道。

“还没定呢。”她脸一红。

Version 1: “Xiao Li,” Granny Wang smiled, “When can I eat your candy?”

“I don't know.” She blushed with shyness.

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/ahs1.html

相关文章：

正在阅读：

从语境意识看肢体语言的翻译06-03

坚持人民至上生命至上心得体会2022年范文精编07-30

七年级上册4-6单元词语解释07-23

CPA考试《经济法》第4章10-20

2011年中国国际收支状况分析10-02

复习题2.jsp01-22

2021年开展拥军优属宣传教育活动工作总结范文08-04

三年级上册科学单元备课03-08

Morlet小波在振动信号包络检测中的应用03-19

高三生物教学工作总结06-12

上一篇：12秋工程数学复习题下一篇：建筑起重机械安拆合同