英语新闻导语及其翻译【lunwen+开题+综述】

BI YE LUN WEN（20_ _届）英语英语新闻导语及其翻译English News Lead and TranslationContentsAbstract (4)1 Introduction (5)2 Lead (6)2.1 The inverted pyramid form (6)2.2 Development of lead (7)2.3 Characteristics of lead (8)2.3.1 Information concentration (8)2.3.2 Compact syntax (9)2.3.3 Dateline and news source (9)3 Translation of Lead (10)3.1 Separation and combination (11)3.2 Restructuring of information (12)3.3 Changing the position of news source (13)3.4 Changing the form of time (14)3.5 Backgrounding (14)4 Conclusion (15)Bibliography (16)Acknowledgements (17)摘要本文以英语新闻导语作为研究对象。

先简要介绍新闻的广义与狭义的定义，分类和体裁。

新闻报道作为最广泛使用的一种新闻体裁，通常由标题、导语和正文三部分组成。

倒金字塔结构作为新闻报道最通用的写作结构，它的问世带动了导语的发展，先后产生了三代导语，并且在今天仍不断地向着多样化的方向发展，呈现出百花齐放的局面。

导语在新闻中的作用日渐显著，它的发展丰富了新闻的内容，使新闻更具有可读性。

导语大体上分为直接性导语和延缓性导语。

导语信息浓缩，句法紧凑，注明电头和消息来源。

本文的研究重点为导语的翻译策略，根据导语的特点，结合中英新闻导语的差异，翻译导语过程中需要采用拆分与整合，信息重组，消息来源位置置换，更换时间的表达形式和背景解释等策略。

关键词：新闻导语；发展；特点；翻译AbstractThis paper focuses on news lead. Firstly it briefly introduces the news’ definition of both general and narrow senses, classification, and types of journalism. As the most extensive type of journalism, news report usually consists of headline, lead and body. The introduction of inverted pyramid form, which is the most popular writing structure of news reporting, results in the development of lead. Lead has experienced three generation of development, and it is still developing toward the direction of diversification, showing a flowers-in-bloom situation. Lead is increasingly significant in news; its development enriches the content of news and makes it readable. Concentration of information, compact syntax, indicating dateline and news source are lead’s characteristics. This research focus is lead’s translation strategy. Based on the characteristics together with the differences between English and Chinese leads, 5 translation strategies are involved in translating news leads between English and Chinese—separation and combination, restructuring of information, changing the position of news source and the form of time, and backgrounding.Key words:news lead; development; characteristics; translation1 IntroductionNews is increasingly getting more and more people’s attention because of its sense of modernity, pluralism, practicality, quickness and authenticity. According to statistics, there are about 80% of publication and Internet information publishing by English. Nowadays people get English news not only as a way to know the world but also a way to improve language level. Lead is the first sentence or paragraph of a report; it is the basic summary and concentration of news contents. Translating lead can make target readers get known the core of news more quickly and English learners train ability. So it becomes an issue for news translators and language learners that how to translate lead better. This paper describes lead’s development history and present situation, characteristics, and then goes to study on its specific translation strategies.The definition of news has both broad and narrow senses. General news refers to all the articles appeared in the media, while news in the narrow sense means the informat ion of objective reports of recent events not influenced by reporters’ feelings or opinions. There exists no universal definition about general news that can be widely accepted since different country explains its functions in different ways.Recognize d newsworthy news in Western media includes VIPs and celebrities’ activities, any type of government activity, new and bizarre events (e.g. crimes and disasters), disclosure of exciting or shocking truths (involving sex and gossip), and new social trends.News’ goal is to disseminate information, i.e. to report current news at home and abroad promptly and correctly. Truthfulness, objectivity, timeliness are the main principles of news reporting. Accordingly it requires accuracy, simplicity and clarity in terms of writing, which are the features of journalistic English. Meanwhile, to attract more audiences and achieve better reporting results, it is also required that the expression should be vivid and powerful.Usually, news is divided into three categories, according to the degree of timeliness and factualness and the difference of application of expression techniques. The first level is called pure hard news, which is not only fresh but also serious and objective. The third level is pure soft news, which contains most entertainment and owns human interest. The middle level is between the above two and of the widestscope.The classification of types of journalism is not unified, but there is a tendency to classify them into news (in narrow sense), feature, and editorial. News reporting is the current reports of facts with brief words, which is the most extensive and regular type of journalism. Its structure usually consists of headline, lead, and body.2 Lead2.1 The inverted pyramid formThe most popular English news writing structure is the inverted pyramid form, which has its origins in the Civil War and the application of telecommunications.After the war broke out a large number of journalists followed the army. In order to be the first to report the latest progress of the battle, some tried to send messages through the telegraph. At that time, narration in chronological order was still adopted in the news writing, and the telegraph’s just coming into use resulted in unsteadiness that sometimes discontinuity happened for the duration. All these things made the news without results could not be news. Moreover, the troops needed telegraph lines because of military action, so it was impossible for reporters to send long messages. Then those reporters figured out a new method for sending dispatches. The most important was placed at the beginning. Therefore, once the lines were interrupted or temporarily took by the army, newspapers could also publish the latest information as long as they received the first part of a message. Hence their forced emergency measure has been developed into a kind of news structure, i.e. the inverted pyramid form.The inverted pyramid, as the name implies, is a triangle with its bottom upside down. That is to say, the most important is the news’ first paragraph in which the lead locates and weighs heavily, and the rest are arranged in descending order of importance. The inverted pyramid form is a fixed writing mode. It is beneficial for editors to delete from the back in accordance with required space but still remain the most significant information. For people without enough time or patience, it is easy to know the general idea by scanning the lead or beginning paragraphs. Despite its inflexible structure and weak ending, the inverted pyramid form really fits pure hard news writing and will never be outdated (海敦，1980).2.2 Development of leadThe lead is of great importance in news reporting. Generally it is the first sentence or paragraph of a piece of news, and quickly points out the topic and main facts with few words. It gives audiences a general idea first and then draws their attention to go on. It can be said that lead is the generalization of body and headline is that of lead.Lead is a product of reporters’ imp rovisation. After the inverted pyramid form was introduced (the Civil War in 1860), lead writing begun to have its own uniform rules. There have been three generations of lead. The first is the summary lead. It requires five W’s (who, what, when, where, wh y) to be written in a lead. Its advantage is the generalization of the main facts of a piece of news in one sentence which makes audiences understood the whole within the shortest time, but it appears lengthy, rigid, not concise and vivid enough. Especiall y it states five W’s evenly regardless of priorities, stereotypical and formulaic. Although it gives information, people often feel puzzled and can not catch what is the core of event.Summary lead had dominated nearly one century. Until in 1950s when the West entered the TV era and electronic news challenged traditional literature news, a new mode of lead writing replaced summary lead. That is the main fact lead. This kind of lead stresses one or two elements and leaves the remaining in the body or end, and thus highlights the point.The third generation of lead is also made up by some of five W’s (and how), but what it differs from the first and second is its development of prose tendency and popularization. Under the condition to ensure the accuracy and truth of facts, at the same time, many news reports in modern West almost have vivid, fresh-and-blood leads. These leads, lyrical or descriptive, are moving in the direction of prose tendency. With the development of technology, news media have developed rapidly. Nowadays TV and Internet become the main media for people to get information. It is these two media that require news lead to be more popular.Currently, a new trend of lead writing emerges. This kind of lead stresses liberalization and attractiveness, at the same time asks for imaginativeness. It neither pays attention to the complete generalization of news fact nor asks for highlighting the most important part of news, but seizes the final key point in the narrative before the appearance of climax to as far as possible add a sense of drama in the complexevent, through a few light words or paragraphs. This streamlined structure of lead is the fourth generation of lead. It does not require being concise or brief, and does not adhere to the format. It attracts the attention of the audience and has a strong readability.The development of lead shows that there is no fixed rule writing news lead, but almost all leads can be divided into two categories. One is the direct lead, and the other is the delayed lead (梅尔文•门彻，2003). Direct lead is popular in news reporting. It tells people the most important elements of the news straightforwardly. Delayed lead is a new and special kind of lead. It does not follow direct lead’s writing principles but adopts the techniques with literary flavor which make lead more vivid to stimulate audiences’ interest. Delayed lead is used to create a sense of scene or an atmosphere, but it still has lead’s basic function. Now delayed lead not only is used in pure soft news and feature but also appears in news reporting.2.3 Characteristics of lead2.3.1 Information concentrationLead is the first paragraph of the news coverage and high summary and condensation of basic content. It is usually constituted by one sentence, answering the following five questions: who, what, when, where, why (or how). The five elements are called five “W’s” of news. Of course not all five questions should be answered, but elements closely related to the news must be refined and organized to summarize the key content. Thus lead is the essence of a piece of news for its highly concentrated information. Here is an example:(1)Earthquake toll now 29; Leader declares emergencyMEXICO CITY, Jan.22—President Vicente Fox declared a state of emergency today in Colima, a coastal state hit overnight by a powerful earthquake that rolled across central Mexico from the Pacific Ocean, killing at least 29 people and rattling millions of Mexico City residents.(段汴霞，2006)This lead answers the specific who (President Vicente Fox), what (declared emergency, earthquake), when (Jan.22, today), where (Colima). After reading it, people have known the basic event. Paragraphs after it further add details and situations about the earthquake.2.3.2 Compact syntaxBeing information concentration requires the sentence of lead is of high capacity and compact structure, for example:(2)JERUSALEM (AP)—Palestinian militant broke into a Jewish settlement in theGaza Strip on Tuesday night and opened fire, killing two Israelis and wounding several more, the army said. (段汴霞，2006)(3)WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters)—With tension rising sharply over NorthKorea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, the United State is sending 24 B-1 and B-52 bombers to the island of Guam in the Pacific to deter any aggression by Pyongyang in case of a war in Iraq, defense officials said on Tuesday. (段汴霞，2006)From the above three examples, it is clear that in order to hold enough information lead should be expanded on the basis of SV(O) structure. To answer when and where, adverbial modifiers of time and place are indispensable (e.g. in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in example (2)). Adverbial structures are also needed when answering how or why. “killing at least 29 people and rattling millions of Mexico City residents” in example (1) and “killing two Israelis and wounding several more” in example (2) are parentheses. In example (3) “With tension rising sharply over North Korea’s nuclear weapon ambitions” is the reason why the US sent bombers to Guam. Noun modifie rs are also employed to explain specifically who or what. In example (1), “a coastal state...” is the apposition of Colima, and the attributive clause “that rolled across...” modifies the earthquake. Hence one can see that lead’s basic sentence structure is SVO and on this basis adverbial and nominal modifiers are fully used to expand the structure to contain enough information.2.3.3 Dateline and news sourceThe above three examples all have datelines. In example (1) “MEXICO CITY, Jan.22” means this piece of news was reported in Mexico City on January 22. To mark it is because dispatches’ place and time are closely related to the news’ background. Some datelines also indicate the news agencies. Thereby the place, time and news agency are called three elements of dateline (周学艺，2007), for example, MOSCOW, Oct.10 (AP), is reported from the Associated Press in Moscow on October 10. If the news source is from Moscow, i.e. field report, this message seems to be moreaccurate and reliable; if the news source is from other place and the journalist reports in Moscow, the news report is discounted.In example (2) and (3) “the army said” and “defense officials said” are the news sources. News source is usually located at the end of the lead, and if it is at the front, it means this piece of news is quite important (段汴霞，2006). Source is marked in order to make the report true, objective, and credible. There are three kinds of sources. The first is the specific source. It specifies the exact organization and person, for example, according to PLO Leader Yasser Arafat. The second is the implicit source. Journalists’ indirect revealing takes two reasons into consideration. One is to keep secret of the news providers who are unwilling to reveal names. The other is because the news providers are not so important. News sources in example (2) and (3) belong to the second category. The third is the source that can not tell it is true or not. Journalists use some kinds of phrases to vaguely introduce it due to their cautious attitude or the uncertainty. In this way the report seems to be fairly objective, and journalists could shirk their responsibilities in case the report does not meet the truth. Such phrases as it is said…, it is learned..., reports say..., rumors say....3 Translation of LeadLead plays an important role in news reporting. Together with its characteristics summarized in Chapter 2, all makes translating lead a worthy practice. Translating English news lead involves two basic questions. First is the difference of word order between English and Chinese, and second is the difference of way of expression (陈明瑶，2001). To accurately convey the effect of the original’s information function, the translator must fully understand English lead’s ideographic feature and communicative function, and according to the differences between English and Chinese handle the question of sentence’s structure and form without losing sight of the original’s stylistic feature.In English various clauses are frequently used. A long sentence usually contains several clauses, which is like small branches of a bunch of grapes. The Chinese, on the contrary, explains clearly the contents, rarely using clause. Its way of expression is different from English that it is like a bamboo connected by joints one by one. In a piece of English news lead the most valuable is usually placed at the beginning. Thatis determined by the news value. When translate English lead to Chinese, translators should select the appropriate sentence according to expression habits and language characteristics along with news value.As communicators and audiences are in different cultural background, it is inevitable to involve cultural differences. Therefore when translate news lead, social and cultural difference must be paid, or the communication result can not be achieved accurately.3.1 Separation and combinationEnglish lead is simplistic while Chinese lead is detailed. Here are two reports of the same event in both English and Chinese:(AP)A Chinese court sentenced a man to life in prison Wednesday for taking US$5,000,000 in bribes while posing as a reporter and sometimes a top editor for the People’s Daily.（人民日报）日前，假冒人民日报社记者、编辑、副总编辑等身份行骗，在北京、湖北等地骗得钱款379万元的被告人刘永红，受到法律惩罚。