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有插图版:汉语中夹杂外语的原因未必是崇洋媚外
Thread poster: hj58
ysun
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文字獄 Jun 15, 2014

hj58 wrote:

汉语中夹杂外语的原因未必是崇洋媚外

不知是什么人在指责“汉语中夹杂外语的原因是崇洋媚外"? 某些人就是爱给别人扣“崇洋媚外”的帽子。甚至连“裸官”们都会在公开场合指责别人“崇洋媚外”!

BTW,“裸官”如何译?


 
ysun
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裸官 Jun 15, 2014

外国人能明白什么是 “luo guan” 或 “naked official” 吗?
http://www.economist.com/node/21555961
THE phrase “naked official”, or luo guan, was coined in 2008 by a bureaucrat and blogger in Anhui province, Zhou Peng'an, to describe officials who have moved their family abroad, often taking assets with them. Once there, they are beyond the clutches of the Communist Party in case anything, such as a corruption investigation, should befall the official, who is left back at home alone (hence “naked”).


 
wherestip
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Unique foreign words and concepts Jun 15, 2014

ysun wrote:

外国人能明白什么是 “luo guan” 或 “naked official” 吗?
http://www.economist.com/node/21555961
THE phrase “naked official”, or luo guan, was coined in 2008 by a bureaucrat and blogger in Anhui province, Zhou Peng'an, to describe officials who have moved their family abroad, often taking assets with them. Once there, they are beyond the clutches of the Communist Party in case anything, such as a corruption investigation, should befall the official, who is left back at home alone (hence “naked”).


Yueyin,

A similar term of this nature would be "goose fathers", a term coined by South Koreans. I heard it on an NHK program some while ago and mentioned it here in the forum.

http://www.proz.com/post/2278855#2278855

IMO, some of these terms are one-off, and will remain so because the English-speaking community cannot readily identify with the phenomenon. For example, it takes almost a whole dedicated article just to explain the strange but simple, yet poorly translated "naked official" phenomenon. The end result is neither the English transliteration of the Chinese term "luo guan"nor the superficially-coined mutation "naked official" readily finds its way into the mainstream English lexicon.

On the other hand, some terms and concepts do gain traction and get picked up by the English-speaking world. One such term or concept that immediately comes to mind is "birth tourism". Yet still, the concept is popularized in the form of regular English words, not so much a transliteration of Chinese or Spanish.

Someone mentioned the saying "no zuo no die" not too long ago - of course I had to look it up to understand what it meant and how it came about. I doubt Chinglish of this nature would ever really amount to anything but something bandied about in some subculture, or worse, a laughing matter for the rest of the English-speaking world.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=no%20zuo%20no%20die

p.s. 据我所知,“作” 本来是东北话或北京话,比如 “作祸”- 🈯️ 没事儿干作自找倒霉的事儿 ; 吃饱了撑的引火上身、自讨苦吃。 “作” 发音为平声(一声)。 这种方言别说学中文的外国人了,土生土长的中国南方人都不一定懂。 ...


[Edited at 2014-06-16 07:36 GMT]


 
Fargoer
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英文单词多数如此 Jun 15, 2014

hj58 wrote:

“这个文件的大小是多少?”

一个人看见这句话会怎么理解?

所以“大小”还不合适。


clearwater wrote:

很多新的外来概念不仅没有中文名称,连外文原文都不宜使用,民间也没有提出过什么翻译方案,专家们倒是可以去带头研究一下这些名称应该如何翻译。例如一个电子文件占用的字节数,在英语里叫“size”,但中文里直呼“尺寸”似乎不合适,因为这会和文件的几何尺寸(长宽厘米数)相混淆;叫“兆数”,也不合适,因为很多电子文件的字节数很少,远远不到一兆字节。


size:处理成“大小”不就得了吗?

用“大小”来形容“文件”,很自然啊。


您这样的论证还像不太令人信服。因为只有机器才会翻译出“这个文件的大小是多少”这样的句子。

一般正常人会说“这个文件多大”?

英文单词中大多数不能一对一地简单套用,难道都得音译不成?


 
ysun
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中国特色 Jun 15, 2014

Steve,

"Goose fathers" 的含义与“裸官”比较接近,但恐怕还得进一步定义,因为还有“裸商”。所以,也许要将这两者加以区分。例如:"Goose-father government officials"、"Goose-father business men" 之类的。而且,“裸官”的目的与 "Goose fathers" 有很大不同,不知会不会
... See more
Steve,

"Goose fathers" 的含义与“裸官”比较接近,但恐怕还得进一步定义,因为还有“裸商”。所以,也许要将这两者加以区分。例如:"Goose-father government officials"、"Goose-father business men" 之类的。而且,“裸官”的目的与 "Goose fathers" 有很大不同,不知会不会引起误解?
http://talk.ifeng.com/weiyulu/special/luoguanluoshang/

至于 "no zuo no die",我也同意你的看法。虽然该词已被收入 urban dictionary,但难以像 "Tofu" 那样被英语世界普遍接受。其实,在上海话里,“作死”的说法也很流行,大意是 "look for trouble" 或 "shoot oneself in the foot"。
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wherestip
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“作死” Jun 15, 2014

ysun wrote:

Steve,

"Goose fathers" 的含义与“裸官”比较接近,但恐怕还得进一步定义,因为还有“裸商”。所以,也许要将这两者加以区分。例如:"Goose-father government officials"、"Goose-father business men" 之类的。而且,“裸官”的目的与 "Goose fathers" 有很大不同,不知会不会引起误解?
http://talk.ifeng.com/weiyulu/special/luoguanluoshang/

至于 "no zuo no die",我也同意你的看法。虽然该词已被收入 urban dictionary,但难以像 "Tofu" 那样被英语世界普遍接受。其实,在上海话里,“作死”的说法也很流行,大意是 "look for trouble" 或 "shoot oneself in the foot"。



Yueyin,

You're right. Now that you mention it, the latter probably did come from the term "作死" in the Shanghai dialect. Hence, "zuo" and "die"

Who knows? "Luo guan", "luo shang" might eventually catch on. But so far it hasn't seemed to have happened.


[Edited at 2014-06-16 03:14 GMT]


 
ysun
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历史悠久 Jun 16, 2014

Steve,

《红楼梦》、《西游记》等古典小说里都有"作死"的说法:
http://www.zdic.net/c/c/150/333438.htm


 
hj58
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前面两位(wherestip,ysun)说得有一定的道理,但是 Jun 16, 2014

前面两位(wherestip,ysun)说得有一定的道理。但使用“college entrance exam”,可能难以使外国人意识到中国高考的独特性,以为就是和美国一样的大学录取考试,而无法体会到中国的高考的惨烈,它甚至影响到了幼儿园孩子的生活,高考的巨大压力,已经对整个中国教育的巨大的荒谬的扭曲作用。

文字都是有言外之意的,“高考”在中国已经使人闻之丧胆,所以译为�
... See more
前面两位(wherestip,ysun)说得有一定的道理。但使用“college entrance exam”,可能难以使外国人意识到中国高考的独特性,以为就是和美国一样的大学录取考试,而无法体会到中国的高考的惨烈,它甚至影响到了幼儿园孩子的生活,高考的巨大压力,已经对整个中国教育的巨大的荒谬的扭曲作用。

文字都是有言外之意的,“高考”在中国已经使人闻之丧胆,所以译为“gaokao”(当然还需要在文章中加以必要的解释)是有一定的合理性的,也是有语言学上的价值的。


我们作为中国人,可能难以理解 gaokao 一词对外国人的意义,我们可以使用中文译文来试一下。

例如我们如果把 chocolate 译为“黑香糖”,那么 chocolate 在中国人心中就难以形成独特的形象,更不会成为“浪漫”、“爱情”等的象征。

又例如,如果 WhiteHouse 译为“白房子”,中国人也不会意识到它的政治地位,以为不过就是一幢漆成白色的普通房子。

所以翻译不仅是把一国文字译为另一国文字,更要考虑如何传递原文具有的言外之意。







[Edited at 2014-06-16 01:24 GMT]
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hj58
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关于“裸官”的翻译:翻译经济学 Jun 16, 2014

在存在多种译文时,译文的简洁性是何种译文最后脱颖而出的关键因素之一。

即使比较简洁的译文一开始不为人们所知其含义,但随着时间的推移,大家知道存在这种同义的简洁译法之后,也会选择简洁的译法。

例如 pizza 在中国最初被译为“意大利馅饼”,但现在被称为“披萨”。

“裸官”和“作(死)”等的外译也都会这样。

如果简洁的音译译文携带了某国或某文化的特定内涵,那么简洁的音译更容易被外国人接受。

例如“披萨”就体现了异国风味,比同样简洁的“意饼”(意大利馅饼的简称)具备更强的竞争力。


 
wherestip
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历史悠久 Jun 16, 2014

ysun wrote:

Steve,

《红楼梦》、《西游记》等古典小说里都有"作死"的说法:
http://www.zdic.net/c/c/150/333438.htm


Thanks, Yueyin. That's a good thing to know.


 
wherestip
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Chinese English Jun 16, 2014

hj58,

I understand what you're saying - there are additional info in Chinese terms compared to their seemingly equivalent English counterparts. But the reality is quite simple: to be considered an English term, you need the English-speaking community to recognize the legitimacy of the coined words or phrases, whether transliterated or not. Or else all these coined terms are merely a product of wishful thinking, or to use an Anglicized Chinese idiom - yi xiang qing yuan.


 
hj58
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音译当然需要解释 Jun 16, 2014

音译当然需要解释,使目标语读者知道这个概念的延伸含义。例如我们可以在 gaokao 后面简单提及由于其设计不合理,因此它对中国学生是一场灾难等等。

实际上外国的东西进入中国时也这样,例如中国人仅凭“迪斯科”三个字不知道它说的是什么,还需要详细解释或其它辅助信息,例如照片和电影电视等。

我们如果把 disco 译为“抖抖舞”,中国人能够一�
... See more
音译当然需要解释,使目标语读者知道这个概念的延伸含义。例如我们可以在 gaokao 后面简单提及由于其设计不合理,因此它对中国学生是一场灾难等等。

实际上外国的东西进入中国时也这样,例如中国人仅凭“迪斯科”三个字不知道它说的是什么,还需要详细解释或其它辅助信息,例如照片和电影电视等。

我们如果把 disco 译为“抖抖舞”,中国人能够一目了然知道它是一种舞蹈,也知道其大致的跳舞方式,但迪斯科这种行为所象征的文化意涵全部没有了。

我现在提出的总结是:如果不能用三言两语(或不超过五个汉字)把事物的特征和文化内涵表达清楚,就采取音译+注释的方法(注释又分长短两种注释)。

wherestip wrote:

hj58,

I understand what you're saying - there are additional info in Chinese terms compared to their seemingly equivalent English counterparts. But the reality is quite simple: to be considered an English term, you need the English-speaking community to recognize the legitimacy of the coined words or phrases, whether transliterated or not. Or else all these coined terms are merely a product of wishful thinking, or to use an Anglicized Chinese idiom - yi xiang qing yuan.
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hj58
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当然,不译也是一种办法,不过 Jun 16, 2014

当然,不译也是一种办法,不过我还是想为 size 找到一个合适的中文译文,以用于非要译出来的情况。

当然,不一定要音译,因为这个 size 不涉及文化独特性。

我在原文中举 size 的例子更多的是想说明:很多司空见惯的小词,我们还没有合适的译法。

Fargoer wrote:

一般正常人会说“这个文件多大”?

英文单词中大多数不能一对一地简单套用,难道都得音译不成?


 
pkchan
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衣服鞋襪 size Jun 16, 2014

香港人是廣東話音譯'晒士', 或稱之為'尺碼'。文件是大小。

[Edited at 2014-06-16 16:42 GMT]


 
hj58
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我突然想到:size 用于电子文件时,能否译为“比特量”? Jun 17, 2014

我突然想到:size 用于电子文件时,能否译为“比特量”?

当然,三个汉字有点多了,最好再减去一个汉字。

pkchan wrote:

香港人是廣東話音譯'晒士', 或稱之為'尺碼'。文件是大小。

[Edited at 2014-06-16 16:42 GMT]


 
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有插图版:汉语中夹杂外语的原因未必是崇洋媚外






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