英汉笔译,词汇

A brief introduction of literal translation

10英师4班

郭菲 2012200992

摘要:本文主要探讨的是翻译方法中的直译。通过讨论直译的概念，特点以及如何正常地使用直译。直译是一个不错的选择，它保持了原文的形式，使原语言意思更直观、细腻，保留形式。但是直译并不是一字一字地翻译。有些句子不应该从字面上翻译。因为这些句子包含一些成语或不符合语言习惯。所以在翻译中能够直译就尽量直译。

关键词：直译意译逐字翻译源语言目标语言

Definition of literal translation

Literal translation, as a notion at the heart of most translation controversies for many centuies,has been given different definitions.Defined by dictionary of translation studies, Literal translation id the direct transfer of a source language text(SLT) into a grammatically and idiomatically appropriate target language text(TLT) (shuttleworth & cowie 2004;95) according to Barkhudarov(1969;10),a literal translation can be defined in linguistic terms as a translation “made on a level lower than is sufficient to convey the content unchanged while observing TL norms”. Catford put literal translation between word-for-word translation and free translation. In China, translators and scholars also have various interpretation of this translation approach. As an advocator of literal translation, Lu Xun definedit as:literal translation means faithfulness and expressivness. It must contain two aspects: 1) being easy to understand 2)retaining the manner of the SLT(Zhang Jin&Zhang Ning,2005;322) Xu Chongxin explained literal translation from the perspective of sentence structure. He regarded sentences as the basic units. For example, if the original text consists of one sentence only, the target text should should be one sentence as well. Profeeor Liu Zhongde defines literal translation in a relatively complete way,”in the pross of translation, literal translation treats sentences as basic units and meanwhile takes the whole passage into consideration; a translator who attaches great importance to literal translation does his or her best to reproduce the ideas and writing style of original work, retaining in the version as many rhetorical devices and sentence structures of the original as possible”(Tan Weiguo,2005;15) Considering all these scholars’ definitions together, I’d like to define literal translation in a few sentences. Literal translation, as the most common and most important translation approach, treats sentences as basic units and meanwhile takes the whole text into consideration. Literal translation preserves in the version both the original form and content,including sentence structures, rhetorical devices, writing style and the basic tone, as well as implicit and explicit meaning of the source language text.

1．Significance of literal translation

Literal translation preserves the original intent of the text; it keeps the original use of language, syntax and diction. However, it can confuse the reader sometimes because there are differences between languages, and it would seem silly if everything is translated literally.

Literal translation can also denote a translation that represents the precise meaning of the original text but does not attempt to convey its style, beauty, or poetry. Charles Singleton's translation of The Divine Comedy (1975) is regarded as a literal translation.

That is to say, it is necessary for translators to study and master interference elements of