The "Explicitation" Feature in Chinese-English Journalistic Translation: The Perspective of the Translator's Risk Management

中譯英新聞文本之明朗化特色：譯者風險管理之觀點

10.29786/STI.200812.0001

史宗玲(Chung-Ling Shih)；蔡佩珊(Pei-Shan Cai)

明朗化 ； 語料庫翻譯研究 ； 比較語料庫 ； 風險管理 ； explicitation ； CTS ； psychological analogy ； risk aversion

翻譯學研究集刊

11輯（2008 / 12 / 01）

1 - 24

英文

本研究旨在證實使用連接詞所產生之明朗化(explicitation)特色，不僅存在不同語對及不同文本種類的譯文中，也同時存在中譯英的新聞譯本中。更重要地，我們將以譯者心理活動之觀點，來探討譯文明朗化傾向與譯者風險管理之關係，如：避免溝通不良及遭受讀者指控譯文品質低劣。我們將以55萬字左右的比較語料庫(a comparable corpus)來測試翻譯明朗化之假設。此比較語料庫含有中譯英新聞文本(Chinese-English translated journalistic texts)是非翻譯之英文新聞文本(non-translated English journalistic texts)二個次語料庫。語料分析結果發現，中譯英新聞文本比非翻譯之英文新聞文本使用更多的that、連接詞(conjunctions)及轉折詞(transitional words)，故前者之翻譯明朗化程度較後者高(a rise in the level of explicitness)。我們推論導致此翻譯明朗化之原因，乃是譯者於翻譯過程中運用風險管理(risk management)之策略，如：謹慎判斷(prudent judgment)、譯者與讀者間之心理類比(analogy between translators and readers)及風險轉移(risk aversion)。由於此研究成功地證實新聞翻譯明朗化之假設，我們建議今後可使用更大規模且不同語對之語料庫，進行翻譯語言明朗化特色之研究，以求得更確切的結果及更具意義之洞見。

This research project investigates whether or not the explicitation feature that results from the use of connectives exists in the Chinese-English translation of journalistic texts as it does in the translations of other types of texts in other language pairs. More importantly, we probe how the explicitation tendency relates to the translator's psychological operation to avert the risk of miscommunication and the accusation of a bad， irresponsible translator. We test the explicitation hypothesis on a nearly 550,000-word comparable corpus that contains a subcorpus of Chinese-English translated news articles and a subcorpus of non-translated English news articles. The findings justify the explicitation hypothesis because translated journalistic texts shows a higher level of explicitness than non-translated texts as the result of the use of that, conjunctions and transitional words. We infer that the explicitation phenomenon concerns the translator's attempt to enhance the audience's comprehension through the use of some risk management strategies such as prudent judgment, psychological analogy between translators and readers, and risk aversion. In the light of this successful corpus-based translation studies (CTS), we recommend that the explicitation research be replicated in the future larger-scale journalistic translations of other language pairs to gain the more genuine result and more significant insights.

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