What is an "open water" project?

——The phenomenon of paraphrasing meaning in foreign language translation Guo Yong Abstract: If paraphrasing in foreign language translation does not receive due attention, it will greatly distort the original meaning of the original work and make a huge difference.

Keywords: foreign language translation.

Everyone knows or has heard of the four major tennis Opens in the world, which are the US Open, the French Open, the Australian Open, and Winbledon. That's right, open here means open, which means open to professional tennis players; because a few years ago, they were only open to amateur players, and they couldn't be called open at that time.

The first time I heard about "open water events" was in a CCTV sports report, which seemed to be about an international swimming event in Qingdao. When I first heard this entry, I just felt awkward (except for indoor swimming pools, other swimming events seem to be called 'open water events', but experience tells me that is obviously not the case), and then I thought about the international swimming events. I think of sexual competition as a foreign word (translated from English, it's probably pen water or something like that). As a result, after searching online, there is indeed this entry - open water swimming. After a closer look, I learned that open water swimming is divided into two categories. One refers to swimming of more than ten kilometers, also known as water marathon, and the other is ten kilometers. The following outdoor swimming events. In other words, Open Water Swimming is more appropriately and accurately translated as long-distance outdoor swimming. Because, first of all, it has nothing to do with whether the water is open or not (open here means outdoor); secondly, according to the literal understanding of "open water", it seems that outdoor sports such as rowing and kayaking should also be included in it. .

Obviously, when the translator saw the word "open water", the words "open water" immediately popped into his mind, and as a result, the translator misunderstood the literal meaning in the language conversion.

Okay, now let me tell you, it comes from the English word buyer. At this point, I guess you should be surprised!

It’s absolutely true, that’s how the guy turned the buyer into a “buyer” by taking the word literally. It was only after I watched the entire program with great curiosity that I suddenly realized it with my mouth open. I'm really worried that (purchasers have become "buyers" here) I don't know if one day those salesmen walking on the streets and wandering in shopping malls will become "sellers" in the blink of an eye (according to this logic, of course, sellers deserve to be "Selling hands")!

Language learning all starts with imitation, which is a process that comes from practice. Therefore, an illiterate person can also become a speaker, because as long as there is enough observation and accumulation, a person who does not understand the structure of language and what grammar is can also master the basic skills of a language. Chen Yonggui, who emerged on the political and historical stage as an outstanding peasant representative, is a good example. It is said that when Chen was delivering a report at the Great Hall of the People, he could talk for hours without any speech notes. There are two meanings here: one is that he really has something in his head, but he recognizes too few words, and he cannot use it even if someone else writes the manuscript for him; the other is that he has extraordinary language logic and organizational skills, and can easily put himself into words Spread out your ideas as you please. It can be said that Chen Yonggui’s example just proves the saying “Practice brings true knowledge”.

On the contrary, if a language beginner starts writing in a hurry and rushes to write without a certain amount of accumulation, the result will most likely be full of mistakes. Search journal articles by category in the journal library. The learning and cultivation of foreign languages ??are also inseparable from this rule. I remember that I started learning English in junior high school. I didn’t learn a few words before the teacher started explaining various grammatical rules. After a few years, I suddenly found that I was fluent in answering exam questions, but I couldn’t speak (in a foreign language). It wasn't until I got acquainted with several sets of foreign textbooks that I realized there was something wrong with my learning path. Therefore, the sentence I emphasize most to students now is: read the original work vigorously and memorize the original work vigorously. People who do not have dozens or even hundreds of foreign original works in their heads had better not say that they understand foreign languages, otherwise the consequences will be serious.

So, the phenomenon of meaningless words in foreign language translation is by no means a technical error, but a conceptual error. It stems from a simplistic understanding of foreign language learning and a disregard for the vivid reality of language.

People who learn a language have this experience. When you learn a certain level, you will feel like you are walking on thin ice. It seems that every word and sentence in front of you seems so unfamiliar, as if you will fall into a trap if you are not careful. go. This is actually a lesson that the complexity of language teaches us: only if you treat every word and every sentence carefully can it faithfully convey your thoughts; otherwise, your message will be distorted during the transmission process. It ended up being an incredible mess.

At the same time, although the literal meaning in the translation is only one of the consequences of the shallow understanding of foreign languages, its harm cannot be ignored. Because most of the readers (or audiences) that articles with the flaw of "reading the text does not understand" are Chinese people who do not understand or do not know much about foreign languages. The vast majority of them cannot distinguish translation flaws similar to "reading the text does not mean the meaning". If we can laugh off the "meaning from the text" in Chinese, it is because Chinese is our mother tongue and we have a considerable foundation in identifying and analyzing Chinese characters, thus making the "meaning from the text" in Chinese become a lice on a bald man's head. As for the "literary meaning" in foreign languages, they may lose the filtering ability they should have, because it is unrealistic to require every Chinese reader to have a considerable degree of foreign language literacy. As a result, these readers can only follow the translator's approach of appropriation and take mistakes for granted. In fact, they may even spread the imported concepts by misrepresenting them and further expand their negative influence.

Back then, after the October Revolution in Soviet Russia, in the process of socialist transformation, contrary to Marxist classics, the large, medium and petty bourgeoisie were eliminated and transformed at the same time. The reason for this situation is said to be that the translators made a similar mistake of "reading the text literally" when introducing Marx's relevant works into Russia. They simply understood bourgeois as a "pan-bourgeois" concept covering all bourgeoisie, large and small, which made the Soviet-style Socialism was very rigid (and certainly purer) from the outset. Different from this, in China's socialist transformation, because the understanding of Marx's theory is different from that of the Soviet Union, the large and small bourgeoisie are treated differently to a certain extent, making the Chinese-style ownership reform process significantly different from the Soviet Big Brother model (more Flexible, more flexible).

If the above inference (or legend) is true, then looking back at the reform path and final outcome of the two major socialist countries of China and the Soviet Union, it is no exaggeration to say that it is simply "(Translator) "One word can make a country prosperous" (Translator) "One word can ruin a country"! It can be seen that low-level translation and translators who "read the text literally" not only harm people, but also harm the country.

So, how to eliminate this stubborn language problem? The fundamental solution is, of course, to improve the translator’s language literacy and generally reach a level of proficiency in both Chinese and Western languages. In addition, the lax control or irresponsibility of foreign language editors should attract our attention. In recent years, the quality of many translated publications has dropped to an alarming level. Such readings not only show contempt for readers, but also trample on the labor of the original authors! Language translation is originally a re-creation process, but in today's academic atmosphere in China, some people have reduced it to manual labor (there are reports that in order to save a translation fee, some publishers even bought it at a high price Foreign copyrighted works are given to college students for translation). I estimate that in the near future, someone will use Google Translate software to publish a book.

Back to the topic of this article again. The phenomenon of "reading text without meaning" in foreign language translation is not only widespread, but also has signs of becoming bidirectional. The two examples mentioned above are both "reading text without meaning" in "English-Chinese" conversion. Let me talk about an example of "reading text without meaning" in "Chinese-English" conversion. .

CCTV Movie Channel has a [Premiere] column that introduces new movies. The English name below is First Show (not used for ready-made premiere). The literal meaning is clear at a glance.

A joke is a joke, but at CCTV you don’t run a restaurant, you have to represent the main theme!