长句和复杂句的翻译

 

科技英语为了表示严谨、精确的含义，长句使用较多。长句主要是由基本句型扩展而成，其方式有增加修饰成分如定语、状语，用各种短语如介词、分词、动名词或不定式短语充当句子成分，也可能是通过关联词将两个或两个以上的句子组合在并列复合句或主从复合句。英译汉时，往往要先分析句子结构、形式，才能确定句子的功能、意义。如前所述，在遇到长句时，宜通过形态识别，突显主、谓、宾、表等主干成分，了解其“骨架涵义”及次要成分的涵义，理解这些成分之间的逻辑关系和修饰关系，然后通过适当的方法翻译出来。

英语利用形态变化、词序和虚词三大语法手段可构成包孕许多修饰成分或从句的长句或复合句，句中各部分顺序灵活多样。通常英语句中的表态部分如判断和结论在先，而叙事部分如事实和描写在后，汉语则正好相反；英语句中先短后长，“头轻脚重”，而汉语也正好相反；英语借肋形态变化和连接手段而将句中成份灵活排列，汉语则常按时间和逻辑顺序由先到后、由因到果、由假设到推论、由事实到结论这样排列。此外，汉语少用长句，多用短句、分句、流水句按一定的时间或逻辑顺序，分层叙述，这就需要对英语长句通过分解、拆散和重组等变通手段进行灵活处理。因此，长句翻译时根据叙述层次和顺序，分为顺序法、逆序法、拆分法和重组法四种。

 

        一、顺序法

        如果长句中定语和状语较少，或者有但其总体叙述层次与汉语相近，则可按顺序法翻译。

To produce this recombinant molecule, the vector, as well as the DNA to be cloned, must be cut at specific points and then joined together in a controlled manner.

为了产生这种重组分子，载体和要克隆的DNA必须在特异位点切开，并以可控制的方式连接起来。

This simple fact show that the more of the force of friction is got rid of, the farther will the ball travel, and we are led to infer that, if all the impeding forces of gravitation and resistance could be removed, there is no reason why the ball, once in motion, should ever stop.

这个简单事实表明，摩擦力去除得越多，球会滚得越远；由此我们可以推定，如果一切起阻碍作用的引力和阻力去除的话，就没有理由认为处于运动中的球还会停下来。

 

        二、逆序法

如果英语长复合句叙述层次与汉语正好相反，就需要将英语长复合句包孕、切断后，按汉语句子的展开顺序进行调整。通常调整后的顺序是原句的全部或局部倒置。

So it was that the farm poor were caught in their own past, the double victims of technology: exile from their home by advances in agricultural machinery; unfitted for life in city because of the consequences of industrial mechanization.

农民由于农业机械的发展而被赶出自己的家园，又由于工业机械化的结果又使他们不适合在城市生活，农民就这样成了技术发展的双重牺牲品，陷入旧日的困境中。

I believe strongly that it is in the interests of my countrymen that Britain should remain an active and energetic member of the European Community.

我强烈地认为，英国应该继续是欧洲共同体中一个积极而充满活力的成员，这是符合我们人民利益的。

The assertion that it was difficult, if not impossible, for a people to enjoy its basic rights unless it was able to determine freely its political status and to ensure freely its economic social and cultural development was now scarcely contested.

如果一个民族不能自由的决定其政治地位，不能自由地保证其经济、社会和文化的发展，要享受其基本权利，即使不是不可能，也是不容易的。这一论断，几乎是无可置辩的了。

 

三、拆分法

       由于英汉两种语言的表达差异，在英语长句翻译成汉语时，要尽可能“化整为零”。按在原句的关系代词和关系副词引导的从句处、主谓连接处、并列或转折连接处，切断分成几个意义片段，分别译成汉语分句。

Matter is composed of molecules that are composed of atoms.

物质由分子组成，而分子则是由原子组成。

A substantial minority of each party in strong opposition to the other party is sometimes the key factor in the party’s policy making.

每一政党中坚持反对另一政党的有实力的少数派，往往成为这一政党在决策时的关键因素。

The statement declared that the international economic order must be changed or the gap between developed and developing countries would continue to widen.

声明宣称，国际经济秩序必须改变，否则发达国家和发展中国家之间的差距将继续扩大。

    有时，由于长句中的某些成分如单词、词组或句子的存在，翻译时句子整体难以按照顺序法翻译，这时可考虑将这些成分析出，置于句首或句尾。如：

The number of the young people in the United States who cannot read is incredible-about one in four.

大约有四分之一的美国青年人没有阅读能力。这简直令人难以置信！

The very important oil industry, which has done much to rejuvenate the economy of the South since the end of World War II, made considerable headway especially in the five states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

第二次世界大战后石油工业对振兴南部经济起了很大的作用。这个十分重要的工业部门物别是在阿肯色、路易斯安那、密西西比、俄克拉荷马和得克萨斯五个州取得了很大的进展。

 

四、重排法

由于英汉思维习惯和表达方式的差异，对于结构复杂的长句，需要在语法和语义结构理解的基础上，对深层结构进行切分，翻译时通过改变语序、重组结构，按照逻辑或时间顺序译出。重排法是长句翻译的一种常用手段。

Manufacturing processes may be classified as unit production with small quantities being made and mass production with large numbers of identical parts being produced.

制造过程可以分为单件生产和批量生产。单件生产就是生产少量的零件；批量生产就是生产大量相同的零件。

There is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary person as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher who weighs out his goods in common scales and the operations of a chemist who performs a difficult and complex analysis by means of his balance and finely graduated weights.

    科学家的思维活动和普通人的思维活动之间存在着差别，这种差别就跟一个面包师或一个卖肉者和一个化验师操作方法上的差别一样。前者用普通的秤东西的量，而后者则用天平和精密砝码进行艰难复杂的分析。其差别不过如此而已。

Category Ⅱ contains only four items, and I shall say no more about them except that, since they are under consideration, we should not let the grass grow under feet, but attempt, as early as possible, to arrive at a common understanding in the interest of humanity.

这个并列复句，包括多个修饰语和从句，表达五层的意思。汉语要表达同样的意思，必须按照逻辑顺序要重新安排，拆成七个部分，组成三个句子，顺序为1—3—5—4—2。

第二类只包括四项，而且都已在审议之中。为了人类的利益，我们应该不失时机，力图尽快求得共识。除此之外，别的我就不多说了。

 

问题

一、翻译下述长句

1.         These years of activity and discovery were followed by a lull, a period of anticlimax when it seemed to some molecular biologists (as the new generation of geneticists styled themselves) that there was little of fundamental importance that was not understood.

2.         A whole new methodology was developed, enabling previously impossible experiments to be planned and carried out, if not with ease, then at least with success.

3.         The exact nature of the procedure used depends on the size of the DNA molecule involved, with the techniques applicable for small molecules, such as normal and recombinant versions of plasmids and phage chromosomes, being different from those used for gene location on the large DNA molecules contained in eukaryotic chromosomes.

4.         As the correct solution of any problem depends primarily on a true understanding of what the problem really is and wherein lies its difficulty, we may profitably pause upon the threshold of our subject to consider first, in a more general way, its real nature; the causes which impede sound practice; the conditions on which success or failure depends; the direction in which error is most to be feared.

5.         In reality, the lines of division between sciences are becoming blurred, and science is again approaching the ‘unity’ that it had two centuries ago-although the accumulated knowledge is enormously greater now, and no one person can hope to comprehend more than a fraction of it.

 

参考文献

陆国强. 现代英语词汇学. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1999

连淑能. 英汉对比研究. 北京：高等教育出版社，1993

赵振才，王廷秀等. 科技英语翻译常见错误分析. 北京：国防工业出版社，1990

张志鸿. 科技英语汉译叙要. 上海：上海科学技术文献出版社，1987

刘宓庆. 文体与翻译. 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，1998

冯伟年. 最新简明英语翻译教程. 西安：世界图片出版西安公司，2001

汪淑钧. 科技英语翻译入门. 广州：广东人民出版社，1979

东万育. 实用科技英语翻译. 武汉：湖北科学技术出版社，1985

韩其顺，王学铭. 英汉科技翻译教程. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1990

保清，苻之. 科技英语翻译理论与技巧. 北京：中国农业机械出版社，1983

王泉水. 科技英语翻译技巧. 天津：天津科学技术出版社，1991

阎庆甲，阎文培. 科技英语翻译方法. 北京：冶金工业出版社，1981

 

转载本文请联系原作者获取授权，同时请注明本文来自刘进平科学网博客。
链接地址：https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-39731-40334.html

上一篇：英语专业文献的翻译：简单句的翻译
下一篇：为什么要进行科技翻译？