最近我看了一本用英文出版的論文集,是介紹我國(guó)改革開(kāi)放的情況的。書(shū)中共有文章18篇,其中13篇有譯者署名,并經(jīng)8人審閱,其余5篇沒(méi)有譯者署名,可能是作者自譯,也許是直接用英文寫(xiě)的。
這18篇文章均出自相關(guān)領(lǐng)域的專(zhuān)家學(xué)者之手,專(zhuān)業(yè)性比較強(qiáng),要譯好,或者要評(píng)論譯文的優(yōu)劣,必須有相關(guān)的知識(shí)。我們不具備這樣的條件,而且我們只見(jiàn)到譯文而見(jiàn)不到原文,因此我們只能就譯文本身提出一些看法。
一.名詞與冠詞
1.Over long period of time in our country, state enterprise is a main provider in respect to financial income of nation.
2.Those belonged to the latter approach pay much more attentions to the individuals.
3.... in term of both economics and environment.
4.In other word, what do we think...?
5.The actual situation is far from such a simple.
6.In addition, the development of economy always has periods of rise as well as fall.
7.Since 1990’s, “globalization” has almost become an “everyday word” of the mass media in various countries.
8.Those suffering more have to ask for aids from IMF and some western countries like U.S.
9.On June 5,1972 in Stockholm, United Nations held its first UN conference on Human Settlement, for the first time raising human environment issue into the agenda of international politics.
10....capacity building thus becomes an only effective approach to sustainable development.
英語(yǔ)的名詞分可數(shù)名詞和不可數(shù)名詞,而且往往要和冠詞連用。例1中的period, enterprise和nation都是可數(shù)名詞。period在這里是泛指,沒(méi)有說(shuō)是哪一段時(shí)間,因此要加不定冠詞,說(shuō)a long period of time。enterprise在這里也是泛指,泛指往往用復(fù)數(shù),或用單數(shù)加定冠詞,表明這一類(lèi)的東西,因此這里要說(shuō)state enterprises,或the state enterprise, 既不用復(fù)數(shù)又不用冠詞是不行的。nation在這里專(zhuān)指我國(guó),一定要加定冠詞,說(shuō)the nation。例9中的issue也是專(zhuān)指,要加定冠詞。
英語(yǔ)有些名詞既可用作可數(shù)名詞,也可用作不可數(shù)名詞。如preparation(s),negotiation(s),experience(s),success(es)等。這兩種用法,其含義有時(shí)無(wú)大差異,有時(shí)略有不同。例2中的attention一詞就屬于后一種情況。據(jù)詞典解釋?zhuān)?/span>attentions作為可數(shù)名詞的復(fù)數(shù),意思是things that sb does to try to please you or to show their interest in you。因此,例2只能用attention,不能用其復(fù)數(shù)形式。
英語(yǔ)有些短語(yǔ)是非常固定的,叫做idioms,不能輕易改動(dòng),如in terms of,in other words,等等。因此,例3和例4中用名詞的單數(shù)形式是不行的。
英語(yǔ)許多詞可以用作不同的詞類(lèi),這在詞典里都是標(biāo)明的。但我們也不能隨心所欲。例5 such a后面要跟名詞,放個(gè)simple在那里是不行的,其實(shí)這句話只要把such a刪去就行了。far from simple等于not simple,在語(yǔ)法上也是站得住腳的。
用economy一詞泛指一個(gè)國(guó)家或地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況,要用定冠詞。詞典舉例:The economy is in recession. | The new oil that we have found will improve the/our economy. | the slowdown in the Japanese economy 此三例選自三本不同的詞典,但都用了the,有一本詞典竟先說(shuō)明(often the economy), 然后才釋義。
用英語(yǔ)表示“二十世紀(jì)九十年代”,應(yīng)該是the 1990’s。那一撇是可有可無(wú)的,但定冠詞是一定要有的。這一點(diǎn),許多譯者容易忽略。
例8里的IMF要加定冠詞。詞典舉例:The IMF is an organization within the United Nations which is concerned with trade and economic development。在例8中,U.S. 用作名詞,前面也須加定冠詞。再如“歐盟”的縮寫(xiě)是the EU。詞典釋義中寫(xiě)道:The EU used to be known as the EC(European Community)。這幾個(gè)名稱(chēng),the IMF, the EU, the United Nations,無(wú)論是簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)還是全稱(chēng),在句子里作為名詞出現(xiàn)時(shí),都要加定冠詞。有沒(méi)有不加定冠詞的情況呢?有的。UNESCO,NATO,ASEAN,這些詞全不需要加定冠詞。有什么規(guī)律可循呢?根據(jù)Michael Swan 所著《英語(yǔ)用法指南》(Practical English Usage),首字母縮略詞(acronyms),其讀音像一個(gè)詞一樣,通常不用冠詞。
例10中的不定冠詞須改為定冠詞。根據(jù)《Practical English Usage》第65.4條,the經(jīng)常與最高級(jí)連用,因?yàn)橥ǔV挥幸粋€(gè)個(gè)體或集體稱(chēng)得上best或biggest等,其所指的是哪一個(gè)(或哪一些)是清楚的。由于同樣的原因,the經(jīng)常與first,next,last,same和only連用。詞典舉例:She is the only person for the job.
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