Case Study on Importance of Translator’s Subjectivity in Translating Discourses Written in Non—mother—tongue

Liu Yanli

【Abstract】Translation has been given more and more attention and translators subjectivity has been recognized and accepted gradually in translation circle. Successful translation is the organic combination of deconstructing with reconstructing， which requires translators to make proper adjustments in certain context， i.e. to bring translators subjectivity into full play in translating processes， especially when translating discourses written in non-mother-tongue.

【Key words】Translators subjectivity； Discourses written in non-mother-tongue； Deconstructing and reconstructing

1. Introduction

Translators subjectivity takes a decisive influence on choosing wordings， sentence patterns， etc. and translation strategies. Translators subjectivity includes his active roles as a reader and researcher in the DICP process， substitute for the author， re-creator and mediator in the DPCP. （Li， 2008： 58-59）. Accordingly， translators subjectivity counts for helping translators produce adequate translations.

2. Importance of Translators Subjectivity

Translating is a process to produce equivalence between source languages and receptor languages at different levels. Most of people think that there must be equivalents in the receptor language for the source language， but it is not true. Hence， translators subjectivity should be brought into full play to produce dynamic equivalence （Xie， 2009： 173）. In addition， different nations have varying cultural habits and thinking modes， which results in diversified language patterns. Any language is restricted to its own certain cultural context， so the key to producing an adequate translation is translators subjectivity.

3. Cases for Importance of Translators Subjectivity

Influenced by the negative transfer of mother tongue， it is inevitable for an author to make mistakes in writing in a foreign language， so translators subjectivity is needed for translators to correct mistakes before starting the actual translation. Some examples are excerpted from a paper whose author is not an English native speaker to show the importance of translators subjectivity in translating discourses written in non-mother-tongue.

3.1 Lexical Level

3.1.1 Misuse of Prepositions

Prepositional collocations are fixed， which cannot be changed at random. E.g. “… including … as well as the possible implications of Customs Union accession by Kyrgyzstan on its garment production sector.” For the word in bold， it is usually used in the following structure： “implication of something for something”， but not “implication…on”.

3.1.2 Spelling Mistakes

Spelling mistakes are common in discourses written in non-mother-tongue. E.g. “Disgruntled workers usually leave their employees the day after they receive their salary.” It is obvious that “disgruntled workers would resign from their positions without hesitation as soon as they received the salary”. Workers are not the owners of the enterprises they work in， so even though they want to leave， they would leave their employers or colleagues， not their employees.

3.2 Syntactic Level

3.2.1 Grammatical Mistakes

To reproduce the message in the translating， one must make a good many grammatical adjustments （Nida & Taber， 2005： 12） i.e. translators should deconstruct the source text grammatically before the actual translation. E.g. “The Kyrgyz Government and donors， … joint efforts to promote the apparel industry.” Analyzing the sentence at grammatical level， it is easy to find there is no predicate verb “made”， so translators should bring translators subjectivity into full play to correct the mistake and complete it grammatically—“... made joint efforts to...”

3.2.2 Expression Obscurities

There must be some obscure expressions in discourses written in non-mother-tongue. E.g. “The volume of imported man-made fabric in the first ten months of 2012 and corresponding period in 2013 decreased by 38% in Kyrgyzstan.” The sentence is correct at grammatical level， but it is obscure for understanding. It is easy to find the Government of Kyrgyzstan issued decree N. 573 on 17th August 2012 on the Internet， which introduces import tariffs for specific types of goods were raised. Therefore， the exact meaning of the sentence should be “2013年一月至十月进口的人造纤维量比2012年同期下降了38%。”

4. Conclusion

It is safe to conclude that bringing translators subjectivity into full play is not only indispensable for deconstructing source texts successfully， but essential to reconstructing them and reproducing the closest natural equivalents of source-language message for target-language readers.

References：

[1]Eugene A.Nida，Charles R.Taber.The Theory and Practice of Translation[M].Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2005.

[2]李占喜.关联与顺应：翻译过程研究[M].北京：科学出版社，2008.