试析时政新词汇的英译(英文)

4  Exploration of effective methods in translating Chinese current political words
Political words translation demands a higher degree of faithfulness due to its political sensitivity as compared with translation of other genres. In this part the discussion will go to the translation techniques of Chinese current political words. These following methods just provide some possible means of translating words peculiar to Chinese context. However, the choice of translation method depends more on the context and the expectancy of the readers.
4. 1 Replacement
For some expressions in Chinese political text we can find direct correspondence in the target language both in terms of meaning and function. Some of these words are actually borrowed from foreign languages, such as峰会:summit; 克隆:clone. In this case, the translation can conveniently replace the expressions in the source language with a correspondent idiom in the target language. Because of the alikeness and similarity between them, the target reader won’t have any difficulty in the process of reading. For example:
特许权使用费 royalty(not fee of special permitted right)
下岗工人 laid-off worker(not off-post worker)
传销pyramid selling or multi-level marketing(not marketing through broadcasting)
担保书English: warranty(not authorization certificate)
All the above examples have direct correspondents in the English thanks to the common core between Chinese and western cultures, so any attempt to give otherwise explanatory translation will prove to be awkward and unnatural to the target language readership[6]. Readers are likely to be confused at these translations. However, such words and expressions are limited in number.
4. 2 Literal translation
Nida proposes if a more or less literal correspondence is functional equivalent in both designative and associative meaning, then obviously no or little adjustments in form are necessary. Literal translation can be applied to cases when the translated version is grammatically correct, functionally equivalent to the original language and when the target reader can understand both the designative and associative meaning. It strives to reproduce both the ideological content and style of the entire work and retain as much as possible the figures of speech and sentence structures or patterns. Take the example of 纸老虎(paper tiger) which can not find an ready-made equivalent in English Literal translation “paper tiger” retains the same image in the target language. What’s more, the literal translation here is enough to get across both the original vividness and underlying meaning (which is fierce in appearance but weak in nature) to the target audience. The translation is vivid and easy for the ordinary foreign reader to understand. The aim of literal translation is to retain the national or local color, the original images as well as the foreign expressions so as to enrich the target language. These translations can be accepted by the target readers and even be incorporated into the target language. Further examples can be given: