Translation Shifts翻译转换

Translation shiftsTranslation shift, as an inevitable phenomenon in translation activities, has been paid much attention to and studied by translation scholars for a quite long time since the 1950s.1.Definition of translation shiftCatford‟s definition: Deviation which corresponds with form occurs in the process of conversion of source language into target language.Popovic‟s definition: All that appears as new with respect to the original, or fails to appear where it might have been expected.2.Theoretical GroundSince the 1950s, western translation theorists and practitioners began to undergo researches from the perspective of linguistics which kept developing quickly. It put emphasis on scientific, precise and careful description of the source text and target text.3. Research Representatives(1)Vinay & DarbelnetVinay and Darbelnet working in the field of comparative stylistics, developed a system of translation strategies (direct/oblique translation) and procedures: borrowing, calque, literal, transposition (change in word class), modulation (change in semantics), equivalence (completely different translation), adaption (change of situation due to cultural differences) were put forward. There is a slight prescriptive undertone in the work of them, because they state that oblique procedures should only be used if a more direct one would lead to a wrong or awkward translation. Though he discussed and described translation shift but he didn‟t give them a definition. No matter what approaches they adopted, their thoughts were influential and provided a solid foundation for the further study.(2)CatfordTranslation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL). J.C. Catford considers the translation process as transference which means transplant some of the original meaning to the target language.Catford is the first one to introduce the term “shift” into translation. He followed the Firthian and Hallidayian linguistic model and analyzed language as communication, operating functionally in context and on a range of levels and ranks. Shift is defined as deviation which corresponds with form occurs in the process of conversion of source language into target language. And then he divided shifts into two kinds: level shifts and category shifts. By a shift of level, we mean that a SL item at one linguistic level (phonology, graphology, grammar and lexis) has a TL translation equivalent at a different level. Category shifts are departures from formal correspondence intranslation. We referred to unbounded and rank-bound translation. Unbounded translation refers to approximately “normal” or “free” translation in which SL-TL equivalences are set up at whatever rank is appropriate. Rank-bound translation refers to those special cases where equivalence is deliberately limited to ranks below the sentence, thus leading to “bad translation”. And he gave a brief introduction of the category shifts in the order of structure-shifts, class-shifts, unit-shift and intra-system-shifts. Structure shifts are amongst the most frequent category shifts at all ranks in translation. They occur in phonological and graphological translation as well as in total translation. Class shift occurs when the translation equivalence of SL item is a member of a different class from the original item. By unit- shift we mean that change of rank - that is, departure from formal correspondence in which the translation equivalent of a unit at one rank in the SL is a unit at a different rank in the TL. Intra- system- shift means a departure from formal correspondence in which one system in the SL has as its translation equivalent in a different –non- corresponding- system in the TL.(3) Czech TheoristsJiri LevyHe pays attention to how shifts are used in literary translation and its influences on aesthetics and style of translated text.Frantisek MikoHe concentrates on shifts of expression style in translation and maintains that retaining the expressive character or style of the ST is the main and perhaps only goal of the translator. The style under categories such as operativity, iconicity, subjectivity, affectation, prominence was analyzed.Anto PopovicIn Popovic, the main concern is with literary translation, and shifts are therefore defined as a stylistic category and termed …shifts of expression‟. He divided shifts into five kinds: constitutive, generic, individual, negative and topical shift.(4) Van Leuven-ZwartWithin the methodology of Van Leuven-Zwart, a distinction is made between shifts at the level of a text‟s microstructure (comparative model) and the effects of these shifts at the macrostructure (descriptive model).Comparative model has been devised as a practical method for studying syntactic, semantic, stylistic, and pragmatic shifts within sentences, clauses and phrases of literary texts and their translation. It consisted of four steps. Firstly, the units to be compared must be established, which are called transemes consisting of predicates and their arguments or of predicates adverbials. Secondly, the common denomination of the source and the target text transeme- VanLeuven-Zwart calls this the architranseme-must be determined. In a third step, the relationship between each transeme and the architranseme-either synonymic or hyponymic- is established. Finally, he two transemes are compared with each other. If both are synonymic with the architranseme, no shift has occurred. Otherwise, there are three major categories of shifts: modulation, modification and mutation. Descriptive model designed for the analysis of translated literature. Interweave the concepts of discourse level and story level with three linguistic metafunctions: interpersonal, ideational and textual.(5)Gideon TouryIn his Descriptive Translation S tudies and beyond, Toury mentions that “Many real-life translation situations indeed involve no complete acquaintance with the original prior to the commencement of its translation” (Toury 2001:87)Even the most adequacy-oriented translation involves shifts from the source text. Deviation from source-text patterns can always be realized in more than one way. The actual realization of obligatory shift is nonrandom and norm-governed. Non-obligatory shift occur everywhere. Tend to constitute the majority of shifts in any single act of human translation.Bibliography[1] Mona Baker. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004[2] Van Leuven-Zwart. The Field of Translation Studies: An Introduction [M], 1991[3]刘军平覃江华西方翻译理论名著选读[M]. 武汉:武汉大学出版社, 2012[4]牛宁范·路文兹瓦特的比较模式以及描写模式[J]. 东华大学学报（社会科学版）2009,9（2）。