Fathoming Translation as Discursive Experience: Theorization and Application

217 Pages·2021·2.43 MB·English

by  Chunshen Zhu

FATHOMING TRANSLATION AS
DISCURSIVE EXPERIENCE
With his positive approach to translation studies featured in this highly original
volume, Chunshen Zhu brings into perspective from the vantage point of
translation the workings of human factors in text production, interpretation, and
dissemination in and through translation in varying social situations.
This book examines a variety of key issues heatedly debated or largely neglected
in the field of translation studies and beyond – for example, meaning making, nature
of the unit of translation, augmentation of transitivity by modification, signification
of repetition, and cognitive effects of syntactic iconicity – by critically engaging
insights from functional linguistics and philosophy of language, among other fields of
study. These issue-driven, phenomenon-focused, and theorization-oriented studies,
presented in eight chapters with ample exemplification and case studies, form
a coherent whole to bring a network of correlations between theory and practice,
linguistics and literature, form and content, information structure and communicative
function, intention and effect, and textuality and experience to bear upon the study
of translation, fathoming its depths not only as a linguistic operation but more
significantly as a textually accountable process of intersubjective and cross-lingual
sign making that facilitates humans’ understanding of themselves and of the world.
The book is therefore a useful reference for scholars, teachers, and postgraduate
and research students who are interested in a comprehensive yet focused approach
to translation as an academic subject straddling linguistics and literary, cultural,
and social studies. It will also be useful for those who would like to observe
bilingualism and cross-cultural communication through translation in general and
translation involving the Chinese language in particular.
Chunshen Zhu is currently Professor of Translation Studies at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Translation,
Hong Kong Baptist University, and Adjunct Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool
University. Prior to this, he was a professor at the City University of Hong Kong.

FATHOMING
TRANSLATION AS
DISCURSIVE EXPERIENCE
Theorization and Application
Chunshen Zhu
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Chunshen Zhu
The right of Chunshen Zhu to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zhu, Chunshen, author.
Title: Fathoming translation as discursive experience : theorization and
application / Chunshen Zhu.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021002184 (print) | LCCN 2021002185 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138335868 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138335875 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780429443497 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Translating and interpreting. | Chinese language—
Translating into English. | English language—Translating into Chinese.
Classification: LCC P306 .Z48 2021 (print) | LCC P306 (ebook) | DDC
418/.020951—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002184
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002185
ISBN: 978-1-138-33586-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-33587-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-44349-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction: towards a positive study of translation 1
1.1 3 + 1 childhood diseases 1
1.2 ‘Theory’ 4
1.3 ‘Theories’ or ‘turns’ 5
1.4 Relativity of validity 8
1.5 Bourdieu’s language theory revisited 10
1.6 Insights from Friedman and Iser 12
1.6.1 Friedman’s (1953) characterization of positive
economics outlined 13
1.6.2 Iser’s (2006) conceptual framework of critical
theory outlined 14
1.7 Positive translation studies 15
1.8 B etween theory and practice: theorization and
application 18
1.9 About this book 22
2 S tructure of meaning (SOM): making of meaning and
triggering of discursive experience 26
2.1 Preamble 26
2.2 S ystemic functional linguistics (SFL): translation as
text re-creation 27
2.3 Speech acts: intentionality in translation 29
2.4 S tructure of meaning: an integrated three-dimensional
model of meaning making 34
vi Contents
2.4.1 The compositional dimension 34
2.4.2 The interactional dimension 34
2.4.3 The experiential dimension 35
2.5 Relationships between the dimensions of SOM 37
2.5.1 Dimensions of SOM: a generic view 38
2.5.2 SOM: form and substance 40
2.6 T ranslation: a discursive experience in three
dimensions 42
2.7 Summary 46
3 F rom structure to experience: meaning making
in translation 50
3.1 Preamble 50
3.2 W hat we have understood about translation: a brief
overview 50
3.3 Sense, meaning, and meaning making 51
3.4 D ynamics of meaning making: Ingarden’s conception
of ‘moments’ 53
3.5 Reading and experiencing: a tryout 57
3.6 E xperiment with focus management in translation 59
3.6.1 A linguistics text in translation 59
3.6.2 The opening sentence of The Old Man and the
Sea in Chinese translation 62
3.6.3 A linguistics text in translation re-examined:
management of information focus 64
3.7 Discussion and conclusion 65
4 T he sentence as unit of translation (UT): from function
to experience 70
4.1 Preamble 70
4.2 Between text and sentence: UT redefined 72
4.3 Case study one: within and beyond a sentence 78
4.4 Case study two: from sentence to text 84
4.4.1 Textual integrity of sentences in the source
text 84
4.4.2 A translation experiment from the perspective of
textual integrity 87
4.5 Discussion and conclusion 92
Contents vii
5 A ugmentation of transitivity: modification and attention
management in translation 98
5.1 Att- and adv-modification: a preliminary
framework 98
5.2 Modification: to indicate, to describe, or to define 99
5.3 Comparability between att- and adv-modification in
attention management 101
5.4 Modification: information distribution and attention
management 103
5.5 From external to internal modification: looking into a
word 111
5.5.1 Meaning structured in a word 111
5.5.2 Internal modifiers: morphemic and
sememic 114
5.6 From morphemic to sememic modification: looking
into a morpheme 116
5.6.1 Word meaning development and its
implications for translation 118
5.6.2 ‘Skewed’ correspondence and its implications
for translation 120
5.7 False and pseudo-morphemic modifiers 120
5.7.1 False morphemic modifiers 121
5.7.2 Pseudo-morphemic modifiers 122
5.8 A ttention management and manipulation through
modification: three case examples 123
5.8.1 Angry Birds, Twelve Angry Men, etc. 124
5.8.2 The Wife 124
5.8.3《鋼的琴》‘steel de qín’ 125
att
5.9 Summary 126
6 T ouching base with text: repetition and signification
in translation 131
6.1 Preamble 131
6.2 What kind of linguistics? 133
6.3 Why (not) literary texts and literary translation? 135
6.4 L eitmotif as VTU in literary translation: the mapping
of a textual network 136
6.5 Operation of leitmotif as VTU: case examples 138
6.5.1 From Chinese translations of John
Galsworthy’s The Apple Tree 138
6.5.2 From Chinese translations of F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby 141
viii Contents
6.6 Discussion: textual network, effect, and
apurposiveness of literary translating 142
6.6.1 Accountability for the network of signification:
leitmotif as VTU 142
6.6.2 The apurposiveness of artistic creation: from
illocutionary to perlocutionary 145
6.7 Conclusion 149
7 L anguage in action: syntactic iconicity and translation 155
7.1 Of arbitrariness and iconicity: from language to
text 155
7.2 Syntactic iconicity: form, function, effect 158
7.3 Iconicity as ‘foreignization’ in creative writing: Wang
Meng’s ‘The Eye of Night’ 160
7.3.1 Case one: iconicity of short sentences 162
7.3.2 Case two: iconicity in a long sentence 165
7.4 Iconic in translation: to be, or not to be 168
7.5 Conclusion 172
8 D eceptive language and conflict of experience: text
(re)production and dissemination through translation 177
8.1 Situation, culture, and text (re)production 177
8.1.1 Relating skill to situation 177
8.1.2 Culture: its behavioural dimension of tool
making 178
8.1.3 From tool making to sign making 180
8.1.4 Text as sign 181
8.1.5 Cultural awareness in text (re)production and
dissemination 184
8.2 T ext (re)production and dissemination: a case
study 185
8.2.1 The historical situation of the source text
production 186
8.2.2 A present-day situation of translation 187
8.3 Critique and discussion 189
8.3.1 The translation as a primary sign 190
8.3.2 The translation as a secondary sign 191
8.4 Conclusion 193
Index 197
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writing of this book brought back all the fond memories of my intellectual
growth from a student to a scholar. I am particularly grateful to my MA supervisor
at Fujian Normal University (1979–82), the late Professor Chongxin Xu, for intro-
ducing me to this engaging field of translation studies, and to my PhD supervisors
at the University of Nottingham (1988–93), the late Professor Walter Nash and
after his retirement Professor Michael McCarthy, for their unfailing encourage-
ment and insightful tutelage on language and linguistics. I am also indebted to
the late Professor Christine Fell for her generous support, which was indispensa-
ble in my successful application for a British Overseas Research Student Award
(1989–92), a University Postgraduate Studentship (1989–92), and Walter Nash
Bursary (1992) to fund my doctoral programme. I wish to express my thanks to
Norma Hazzledine and Hilary Bool as well for their friendship and support when
life became a bit challenging for an overseas student. The late Dr Allan Rodway,
my personal friend and mentor at Nottingham then, deserves a special mention,
too, for his interest in my work and valuable advice on research writing.
The conceptual framework of structure of meaning (SOM) for this book
originated in my doctoral research, while my interest in repetition in translation
goes back to my master’s project. My research at different stages since then was
published in a number of journal papers, some of which have been substantially
updated and thoroughly consolidated for inclusion as integral chapters in this
book. I wish therefore to thank the following publishers and journals and their
editors for permission to use these papers as the basis for Chapters 2, 4, 5, 6, and
7 respectively:
1 Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal for my publications in Meta: Trans-
lators’ Journal, viz. ‘From functional grammar and speech act theory to
Structure of Meaning: A three-dimensional perspective on translating’ (41:3,