Negation(正说反译、反说正译)

Translation concerning negation

Aims: to understand the features of Chinese and English as regards negation, the application of negation in the process of translation

Key points: the application of negation in the process of translation

Difficulties: affirmative 肯定in Chinese but negative in English, negative in Chinese but affirmative in English

Teaching procedures:

Negation being an important conception in one’s expression of thoughts, expressions of negations is to be found in any tongue. This is naturally true of Chinese and English. However, the ways of indicating negation are quite different in the two languages. This frequently causes a lot of trouble to translators, who if not careful enough, would often make mistakes.

1. Features of the two languages as regards negation

1. Both languages have negatives or expressions formed with negatives. In

modern Chinese, the much-used negative words are: 不,没,别. These words express three different meanings: 不signifies表示 denial of a statement;没denial of a being or occurrence(,非and 否can be put under this category);别dissuasion or

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prohibition(甭,勿,and 莫 can be put under this category)

The oft-used negatives in English are “not”, and “no”, in addition to

“nothing”, ”nobody” “none”, “without”, “ neither…nor”, “never”, etc.

Chinese negatives are generally capable of producing derivatives, particularly

the word 不, 无and 非. Their derivatives are equivalent to English words formed by adding affixes, e.g. 不法unlawful, 不便inconvenient, 无边boundless,非正规军irregulars

In English, apart from using negatives to express negation, words with a

negative sense can be formed by adding affixes to root words. The affixes thus used are mainly “less” suffix “un” “in”, and “non”

However, English words formed with affixes with a negative, while adjective

and nouns formed with “un” such as “unavoidable” and “unbelief” are negative, for instance, verbs formed with affixes such as “unclasp” and “uncork” affirmative.

In Chinese, words formed with negatives are generally negative in sense but

in some cases they assume new meaning like 非常, which practically means 很.

In English, the same word formed with a different affix differs in meaning

(compare discord with uncord). Sometimes, words formed with different affixes 词

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缀with a negative sense would produce words with different implications含义---derogatory贬义 and the other non-derogatory褒义. For instance, immoral means 不道德,and is therefore derogatory while unmoral means 非道德,无道德观念的,and is therefore non derogatory.

1． Warm-up exercises

2． I don't’ think Tom is correct.

3． I don’t think Xiaoming is coming tomorrow.

4． Are you not going tomorrow?---- No, I am not going .

5． Africa is not kicking out Western imperialism in order to invite other new masters.

6． The world today is far from peaceful.

7． Our PLA is worthy of being called a great army of the people.

8． He tried his best to overcome the lack of technical data.

9． The window refused to open.

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10． Yesterday he failed to get to school on time.

11． They excluded children from getting in.

12． The building is in a state of neglect.

13． He is often absent- minded.

14． To do this is beyond me.

15． Lei Feng’s noble deeds are above all praise.

16． I, rather than you , should do the work.

17． The truth is quite other than what you think.

18． She refrained from laughing.

19． She was refused admitance by them.

20． An opportunity is not likely to repeat itself.

21． Live up to the expectations of our own people and the people throughout the world.

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22． Slips are scarely avoidable when you are new to your work.

23． The meetings were marked by such an absence of lively discussions that at times they were almost on the piont of breaking up.

24． Avoid operating the keys roughly.

25． The scientists made a solemn plege at the conference, saying, “We’ll forever live up to what our Party expecs of us.”

26． The evidence is conclusive, excluding all possibilities of doubt.

27． That fellow is far from being honest.

28． Luan Ping stood still, trying vainly (in vain) to answer the battery of questions Yang Zirong raised.

29． That served to strenghen instead of weaken our determination.

30． But for their help. We should not succeeded in this experiment.

31． All that glitters is not gold.

32． All is not lost.

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33． All criminals are murderers.

34． But aal men are born to reign.

35． All that flatter you too much are not faithful friends.

36． Both children are not clever.

37． We never thought of nothing wrong.我们从来没有想到有什么错误。

2.英语为肯定式,汉语译作否定式(affirmative in English but negative in Chinese)



You are quite a stranger here.



Wet paint



Keep off the lawn



I failed to understand your meaning.



A person who does a regrettable action is often regretful afterwards.



一个人做了不该做的事,日后往往会懊悔.

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

Another person runs to avoid doing anything else, to dodge避让 a decision

about how to lead his life or a realization that his life is leading nowhere.



另一个人跑步则是为了避而不做别的事,不对如何生活作出决定,不去感受自己生活碌

碌无为.

3. 英语为否定式,汉语译为肯定式(affirmative in Chinese but negative in English)



Where is the wretched 可怜的girl? Why do you not come when I call you?



Pierre: hey, what the …! You old fool.



Lena: don’t talk to me that way! I am not your wife.



Even so, I still insist that for the individual himself nothing is more important

than his personal, interior sense of right and wrong and his determination to follow that rather than to be guided by what everybody does or merely the criterion of “social usefulness.”



即便如此,我仍然坚持认为,对个人而言,最重要的莫过于这种根植于个人心灵深处的是

非感，以及坚决按这种是非感行事的决心，而不是随波逐流，或仅仅以是否“对社会有益”为准则。



I have read your article. I expect to meet an older man.

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4. Double negative

There is no rule that has no exception.

There is not any advantage without disadvantage.

It never rains but it pours.

The sea food goes against my stomach.

His speech leaves no room to improvement.

The music is like nothing on the earth.

In Chinese, there to be found not a few instances where double negation is

used for euphemism purposes, e.g. 不无理由，（there might be some reason), 未尝不可（it is not impossible). Expressions of another kind of negation, called “pleonastic negation”(多余否定），exist both in English and Chinese. In English we often come across sentences like the following:

1. I asked if I could not do anything for him.

2.Try and think whether you have no friends to help you.

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The negative “not” in the first example and “no” in the second seem to

be superfluous多余的. But their use here is idiomatic. In translation it will not do for the first example to render word for word and say ,我问他我是否不能帮他做点什么。Similarly, it is not right to translate the second example as 想一想你是不是没有什么朋友帮助你。The proper rendering翻译 would be 想一想你是不是有什么朋友帮助你。

1.人来人往，好不热闹。

What a busy place with so many people coming and going.

2. 她脚一滑，差点没摔倒。

She slipped and nearly fell.

Idiomatic usage

Far from远远不/不

Your work is far from satisfactory.

Far from admiring his paintings I dislike them intensely.（very much）

Far from advocating nuclear war, China is the only nuclear power to have

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undertaken never to use nuclear weapons first.中国根本没有鼓吹核战争,是唯一承诺不首先使用核武器的大国.

Free from 没有

The Southeast Asian countries want to build a zone of peace, freedom and

neutrality, free from any form or manner of interference干预 by outside powers.

Free from anxiety

Free from arrogance傲慢and rashness轻率

人人有不挨饿的权力.Every person has the right to be free from hunger.

Too…to 不要总译为太…以致

38． He is too exited to speak.

39． In the past few years, some countries had strikes too many to list.

40． This book contained too much gossip, too many distortions and falsehoods to warrant有正当理由 comment.这本书里无聊的话太多,歪曲和弄虚作假之处太多,不值一评.

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41． He is too ready to speak.

42． I am only too delighted to accept your kind invitation.

Not too…to and cannot …too

A teacher should not too proud to learn from his students.老师应该向学生学习

He was too experienced not to know it .

We cannot praise him too much .我们给他一个很高的评价

Not …because 不是因为

The engine didn’t stop because the fuel was finished.

Don’t scamp草率地做 your work because you are pressed for time.

In that city, we had never suffered discrimination because we were Jews.

He didn’t half like the girl.

I couldn’t feel better.非常

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I couldn’t agree with you more.完全

If that isn’t what I want!

Half, nearly, possible 和not用在一起时的理解

43． Paper tiger is not half so fierce as it is painted.

44． Not half=not at all

45． The show is not half bad.= It is a very good show.

46． The earth does not pull the kitten to it nearly as much as it pulls a big rock.地球对小猫的引力根本不像对一块儿巨石那么大．

47． His last three novels are not nearly so good as the earlier ones.

48． Such a state could not possibly have waged发动 war against its neighbor without the backing from other countries.

exercises

1.But that’s very extraordinary. It seems against nature.

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2. The Theory of Relativity put forward by Einstein is now above many

people’s understanding.

3. She is too careful not to have noticed it.

4.Life may well turn out to be the true, rather than exception.

5.Bite off more than one can chew.

6. There is no evil without compensation.

7. They never work without helping each other.

8. He was in an uncomfortable 心神不宁的predicament.

9. It was inconsiderate未经熟虑的of him to mention the matter in her hearing.

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