语言不仅是一种工具（上）

∷林巍 文／译

原 文

[1] 一个人的语言与其在社会中的身份其实密不可分。记得我在澳大利亚生活时，一位邻居要竞选议员，他便每天早上起来练习发音，以令自己的讲话让人听起来悦耳、有身份。

译 文

[1] A person’s language and social identity are actually an integrated entity. When I was in Australia, my neighbor practiced his utterance every morning, making it both pleasant and privileged to hear, for the purpose of getting into the parliament.

[2] 的确，语言是一个人社会身份的标志，特别是在多民族、多元文化的社会里。所谓“身份”，也是一种知识结构，表明你来自那个社会群体的文化背景、知识程度、甚至地理位置等。

[3] 语言会影响对于相应文化的认知。例如，有人调查发现，对于讲双语的中国人，在用中文问到其关于文化观念等问题时，他们的回答显然比用英文问他们此类问题时显示出更多的中国人的做派。有意思的是，当讲广东话的港澳人被用普通话问到关于中国的文化、信仰等问题时，他们的反应往往比听到用广东话问到此类问题时更具西方人的表述。

[2] Language is indeed a marker of social identity,especially in a multiethnic and multicultural society. The so called “identity” may also be viewed as a knowledge structure, identifying the cultural background, knowledge level even the geographical location of the social group you belong to.

[3] Language may also affect our cognition on the cultures we are involved with. For instance, an investigation reveals that bilingual Chinese responded to questionnaires tapping issues of cultural values in a more “Chinese” manner when the items were presented in Chinese than when they were presented in English. Interestingly, the Cantonese speaking people in Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, responding to the questions of traditional Chinese culture and beliefs, when received instructions in Mandarin, they replied more like Westerners, compared to others who received instructions in Cantonese.

[4] 其实，对于学习外语的华人来讲，大部分的还不是真正意义上的所谓“双语人”，而是“双语使用者”；后者是在语言与表达层次，而前者则是思维与生活习性。但是，这个过程并不是静止的，而是可以转换的。

[5] 所以，语言学习者所学习的实际上是一种社会关系，一种他所理解的跨越时空所形成的关系。因而，他所面对的不仅仅是语言学的，而更是多重、变换着的社会身份问题。

[4] For most English-learners of Chinese, they are not“bilingual” in its true sense yet; they are “diglossias”. In a way, they are only practicing their skills at linguistic and expressive levels. For true bilinguals, on the other hand,they have already merged themselves in two languages in terms of thinking and way of life. The two processes,however, have never been held up but are still on the move of transformation.

[5] When a language learner is learning a language he is actually engaged in nurturing a relationship to the social world and how that relationship is constructed across the time and space he understands. The issue of social identity,which is more multiple and subject to change, a language learner has to deal with is thus no less than the linguistic one.

译 注

在[1]中，就“身份”的英文翻译而言，主要可考虑三个词语：status，capacity，identity。具体来讲，status的主要意思为A person’s social or professional rank or position, considered in relation to other people. 即主要指一个人的社会地位、专业资格和职位特征。例如：法官历来享有很高的社会地位（Judges have traditionally enjoyed high social status.）然而，在社会实践中，该词主要强调的是一个人在社会上的重要地位和身份。例如：他所做的这件事与其身份不符（What he did is incompatible with his status.）该词对于此处的“社会身份”来说过于严重和狭窄。而 capacity一般是指一个人的能力。例如：中译英的能力（A capacity to carry out Chinese-English translation）其更正式的用法则为in one’s capacity as something... 即表明某种身份或立场。例如：他是以翻译学会主席的身份参加此次会议的（He attended the meeting in his capacity as Chairman of the translation committee.）该词对于此处的“社会身份”亦颇显不够宽泛与分量。就 identity来说，其本义表示某人由其所从事的职业而表示出的身份。例如：凭身份证件购买车票（The tickets can be purchased on proof of identity）等等。显然，对于此处“社会身份”的转述，该词在幅度与深度上都更为恰当。

根据美国学者多纳德·泰勒（Donald Taylor）所言，人在不自觉中总是愿意给他人贴标签的；身份是自尊心的要素；比较之中难免带有偏见；偏向自我是一种趋势。这在相当程度上揭示了identity的客观性与主观性。就其词源而言，该词最初源于拉丁语identitas，表示“同一性”。在英语中，自其转变为identity后，其主导意思便是“整体性”、“个别性”、“个体性”或“一种确定的特性组合”等。所以，以identity 翻译此处的“身份”显然更为客观与合宜。

“他便每天早上起来练习发音”，其中的“发音”，若简单地译为pronunciation，字面意思似乎符合了，但该词的重点在 using phonetic symbols to represent the way a word that is graphically spoken，故显得过于狭隘与单薄了。而“utterance”的本质为a manner of speaking，如“雄辩的口才”（the ability to argue with forceful utterance），故不妨将此句译为“my neighbor practiced his utterance every morning”。而“以令自己的讲话让人听起来悦耳、有身份”中的“身份”则又非identity或entity，亦非status，而为形容词privileged，其本质为an advantage，immunity，or right held as a prerogative（特权）of status or rank，故此句不妨译为making it both pleasant and privileged to hear. 而“要竞选议员”，有几种译法，如enter into an election campaign for the membership of parliament; campaign for / run for parliament等，都显冗繁，不如for the purpose of getting into the parliament简单、明快。

在[2]中，“语言是一个人社会身份的标志”，其中的“标志”，可有sign， symbol，mark 等，但此处不妨为名词marker，而“你来自那个社会群体的……”的“来自”并非是come from，实则是“属于”之意，故为（the social group）you belong to.

在[3]中，“当讲广东话的港澳人……更具西方人的表述”是一种有意思的文化现象，也是作者所亲历的，表明了港澳人在两种文化之间的一种特色。其中的“被用普通话问到关于中国的文化、信仰等问题时”是一句状语，可用动名词短语responding to the questions of traditional Chinese culture and beliefs译出。

在[4]中，“对于学习外语的华人来讲……而是‘双语使用者’”，其中的“双语使用者”有别于bilingual，而是社会语言学中的专业术语diglossia，该词的主要含义为the use of two markedly different varieties of a language in different social situations.

对于“后者……，而前者……”，不一定要采用the later... and the former...的形式，而是将其分解为两部分内容翻译，即对于“diglossias”而言，they are only practicing their skills at linguistic and expressive levels；而对于“bilinguals”而言，they have already merged themselves in two languages in terms of thinking and way of life，以表述得更加清晰。同时，“静止的”也并未采用standstill，motionless， still，static，statio nary，standing，fixed，frozen，halted，im mobile，unmoving等词语，进而并未译成However, this is not a process of standstill but it is changeable. 而是将其稍加变通，使其更有“动感”：The two processes,however, have never been held up but are still on the move of transformation.

在[5]中，“语言学习者所学习的实际上是一种社会关系”，这里的“学习”，不是一般意义上的learn，其义主要为to gain knowledge of a subject or skill by studying it——那样过于“单纯”了；“社会关系”是一种更为复杂的学习对象，其掌握过程也要更为费时，故拟用nurture，其本质为to help an idea or feeling etc. to develop during a considerable period of time。对于“因而，他所面对的不仅仅是语言学的，而更是多重、变换着的社会身份问题”，若译为The problem they are confronted is not only a linguistic one but a multi-faceted and changeable issue—social identity固然不错，但似乎颇带“书卷气”，在社会语言学意义上显得有些突兀，故不妨换一句式。