On Functions of Transliteration Based on the Analysis of Its Features

刘明菲

（对外经济贸易大学英语学院，北京100125）

1.The context and definition of transliteration

During the long development process of every language,one of the most important sources of vocabulary expansion is to borrow foreign words.So does Chinese.Ever since the translation of Buddhist scriptures in Eastern Han Dynasty(25-220 AD),there have been a large number of foreign words coming into Chinese system.With the development of times,the process of globalization has been accelerated.International exchange is increasingly frequent day by day in all fields.More and more new terms along with fresh things poured into Chinese culture,gradually became a part of it.Absorbed,improved,most of them are used till today.In this trend,transliteration,being a convenient method of introduction and transference,is widely used.

Transliteration is the process of spelling or representing in the alphabets or characters of another language.Different from other translation procedures,transliteration saves the pronunciation of the source language without conveying its meaning.Therefore,to better reappear the essence of source language,as well as to redress the wrongs and loss,makes higher demands on the form of target language.Being used in a broad range,transliteration shows some main features as below.

2.Features of transliteration

2.1 Time-effectiveness

Originally,transliterated words appear mostly because some foreign words,which have no native corresponding words due to the different historical and cultural backgrounds between nations,have to be replaced with native texts that sound alike.As the profound differences between Sino-Tibetan language family and Indo-European language family,the combination of Chinese characters transliterated from English usually has no continuity in between,and thus can only represent sound with hardly any meaning.

Besides names of people and places,there are a great many examples of transliterated words in the domain of science and technology,medicine and pharmacology,as well as for articles of daily use like foods,instruments and so on.For instance,nanometer transliterated as纳米,penicillin transliterated as盘尼西林,sandwich as三明治,saxophone as萨克斯.Some of the former transliterations are too obscure for understanding,some are too complicated for pronouncing,some too long to be remembered.In the mists of time,they are led tow ards three destinations.

2.1.1 Used to this day

Since the meanings of transliterated words are least related to their contexts,thosenewly introduced ones keep only one sense-sound-of their foreign nationality.It is after frequently used that they develop additional senses–meaning,sub-meaning,extended usage as well as form.Only those who are easy to understand and remember,as well as spreading far and wide,can stand the test of time.For example,“humor”has undergone several modifications before it is transliterated as幽默by Lin Yutang,the only version that has been accepted by the public and passed down.Originally treated as a noun,it can be split and used as a verb as幽他一默nowadays.Words like logic(逻辑),utopia(乌托邦),coffee(咖啡)arealsothiskind of simpleterms.

2.1.2 Replaced by meaning translation

Along with the global economic integration and cultural exchanges,the gaps between nations are narrowed,new and exotic things become familiar and localized.A lot of phonetic translationshave been replaced by meaning translations that can well describe the material,characteristics and purpose of things.For example,德律风,the original transliteration for“telephone”has been long forgotten;we simply call it电话now.And水门汀for“cement”has fallen out of use while水泥took itsplace.

Those former transliterations which are longer than five Chinese characters have almost become extinct as the code of language for Chinese are used to rhythm of no more than four characters.Transliteration should agree with the Chinese word-building and phrase structures.Besides,transliterated words should avoid the uncommon and rarely-used Chinese characters,and choose those positive-meaning characters catering to Chinese tradition.“President”which was represented by a long word with complicated characters as柏理玺天德isnowsimply named as总统.And wicked prankslike由你玩四年for“university”is alsodifficult tobeaccepted widely.

2.1.3 Coexistence of phonetic translation and meaningtranslation

From a historical perspective,most of introduced loanwords have gone through the process of“phonetic translation to meaning translation”.This is mainly because the objectsor concepts these words stand for usually have no match in our culture or lives.Nevertheless,there are also some words,whose Chinese corresponding words have been formed later,but as the original transliterated words are already widely accepted,exist in both versions.For example,both引擎and发动机refer to“engine”,both拷贝and复制mean“copy”,both摩登and现代stand for“modern”,etc.

2.1.4 Phonetic translation and meaning translation mergetogether

The development trend of transliteration is to gradually merge phonetic translation and meaning translation into each other due to the inevitable emergence of Chinese localization.Terms coined in this way stand for the accumulation of Chinese traditional culture while retain the exotic western tasteand flavor.The most common methodsare:

1)Addingthedecorative-word categories asaffixes.

This is a flexible means of compensation for the loss of meaning while perfectly keeping with the code of Chinese language,in which the modifier-noun phrasesarevery common.In our daily life,the market of basic necessities is now flooded with imported commodities.When translate the name of newly introduced things,transliteration along is not enough.It calls for translation combining pronunciation and meaning.Because according to the code of Chinese language,the category and function of a thing is better to be revealed in its name.For that matter,there are many successful transliterations such as芒果for“mango”as果stands for fruit,台风for“typhoon”as风stands for wind.Ballet is translated as芭蕾舞by adding the determiner舞to indicate that ballet is a type of performance dance.Other examples having a functional equivalent word added in contribution to explaining are,太妃糖for toffee,保龄球for bowling,爵士乐for jazz,etc.

2)Choosing the meaningful character with the proper pronunciation.

Homophones are the most common language phenomena in Chineseas the essence of a Chinese character istoexpress the meaning instead of sound.This richness of language enables the various options of character as to select the most equivalent one for the source language.A good choice of word not only transplants the pronunciation of the source language,most importantly,it can be understood by readers of the target language without obstacles or confusion.Best of all,because of this special feature of Chinese character,some meanings of the transliterated word scan be judged at sight of the words.爱慕for amour,基因for gene,维他命for vitamin,are models of this method.

2.2 Cultural significance

In A Textbook of Translation,Peter Newmark defines culture as“the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression.”①He specifically distinguishes cultural language from universal language.The latter one usually has no translation problem.However,as language does contain all kinds of“cultural deposits”,②the real challenges lying in the way of translation are those caused by cultural obstruction.

2.2.1 “No-equivalent”word

Due to different historical and cultural background,there are many terms which have no equivalent words in the target language.Thus in the process of translation,the total cultural equivalence is by no means an easy job.The loss of meaning seems inevitable.This is when we use transliteration to borrow words.Transliteration can do more than simply absorb foreign language,it can absorb their cultural images as well.By this means,we could infuse new blood into our cultural factors.The culture of Chinese language possesses the property of incredibly inclusiveness.Along with the mutual borrowing of words,on one hand,vocabulary has been considerably enlarged;on the other,the acceptation system shows a certain tendency.This tendency,easing the tension of culture diversity and promoting culture exchange,has become a critical driving force of language development.Furthermore,as it is human nature to stay curious and keep a great appetite for something new,words filled with exotic flavor,sometimes even translationese,arewarmly pursued.Club(俱乐部),hormone(荷尔蒙),shampoo(香波)areall good examplesfall in thiscategory

2.2.2 Cultural characteristics of Chinese language

As mentioned above,there are a lot of homophones in Chinese characters.With the same pronunciation though,their forms as well as meanings can be miles away from each other.This causes so much inconvenience in the process of transliteration,but also brings about its colorful results.Therefore,when measure proper characters for the source language during transliterating,the factor of target language culture has to be taken into account.Given to the various feelings brought by different homophones,characters whose connotation are most close to the significance of source language culture should be applied.Thereby cultural equivalence can beachieved.

This principle can be reflected even in the transliteration of proper nouns,such as people’s names.Spartacus,Shakespeare,Karl Marx are three foreign names containing the phoneme[s].However,when transliterated into Chinese,they are respectively represented by three different characters–斯,士and思.

This is obvious not by chance,but a product of the influence of culture.斯in Chinese refers to rude,unrefined person of low birth.This is in line with the image of Spartacus–sold as a slave,fight fiercely as a gladiator.So Spartacus is translated as斯巴达克斯.On the contrary,士in Chinese usually refers to cultured,educated people like intellectuals or scholars,which corresponds with the status of William Shakespeare,the greatest dramatist of all time.Thereby Shakespeare is translated as莎士比亚.As for思,in Chinese it means to think.It couldn’t bemore proper totranslate Marx into马克思as he is honored as the greatest thinker of the 19th century.Seen from this,three different characters associated with three unique images characterize their each personality in thebest way.

2.2.3 Cyber-culturebrings cyberspeak

In the era of the internet,where comes the great explosion of the information,newborn things are updating in an accelerated speed.And there comestheabundant cyberspeaks changingwith each passing day.Most of them,of course,areborn in English.Mostly dealt by the method of transliteration,some of these strangenew thingsget aperfect Chinese equivalent word for their source language,such as黑客for hacker.Some has got a popular nickname.Such as猫for modem,a simplified version of its former name调制解调器,used in pairswith“鼠”标for mouse.Some are simply directly transferred from a source language word to a target language text,such as Windows,Office,Wi-Fi,etc.And not only technical terms,some non-academic words are simply used in its English form:as“hold住”,“game over”.Even those formerly“universal language”are now used as in a transliterated variety version,such as北鼻for baby(宝贝),or粉丝for fans(迷).People use these terms to show they ride the tide of fashion.As in one of Zheng Zhihua’s song,he sings“抱着beauty,开着Porsche,身穿Gianna Versace.”

However,new words stay in trend in an increasingly short period.Survivable doesn’t mean forever.Years ago,“cool”,transliterated as酷,is one of the most popular and the most used words,especially by the teenagers.They have even developed a particular aesthetic standard for being cool.But now,the use of this word is considered as“uncool”,because recently“cool”has been replaced by the new word给力.The latter has even been transliterated as a Chinglish word:“gelivable”.

3.Functions of transliteration

It has sometimes been said that the prime purpose of any translation is to achieve the equivalent effect.Eugene A.Nida calls it“dynamic equivalence”.Being a desirable result of translation,transliteration alsocontributesin its own way to the equivalenteffect.

3.1 Vocabulary development

Transliterati o n b rin g s in ne w wo r d s as acc o r d in g t o t h e s o urce

language culture is beyond question.In this process,it sometimes also enriches the usage of an long-existing Chinesecharacter.

In recent years,there’sabuzzword背包客transliterated from the English word“backpacker”.The character客in Chinese originally means“guest”.But in the word背包客,it has been given a much broader definition as referring to a group of people who are enthusiastic about travelling or other things.For example,the similar usage can also befound in the word沙发客(couch-surfer).客hasalso been used in other popular expressions of network,such as博客(blog),播客(podcast),referring to the online platform where one can publish personal articlesor spread personal broadcast.

Characters like客,once integrated into the Chinese language system,its meaning,usage,and even function are gradually altered,in most cases extended.The exotic color thus is gradually reduced.There are many other examples of this kind of characters,such as秀(originally transliterated from“show”,now can be used as秀场,作秀),麦(the simplified version of transliteration from the word“microphone”,now can be used as耳 麦,麦 霸),吧(originally transliterated from“bar”,now can be used in the collocation of words as水吧,陶吧),etc.

3.2 I nf o rmative functi o n

Among the large amounts of introduced foreign products,translation of brand name is considered as a hard nut to crack.Simple as it seems to be,a brand name has the informative function,vocative function and aesthetic function all rolled into one.And as lots of the brands of foreign products are named after the founder,how to interpret the metaphorical images as well as the business culture behind its name is truly a difficulty to deal with.Therefore,in the process of translation,thefollowingkey factorsshould betaken intoconsideration.

The product features should be fully conveyed in order to reflect the characteristics of a brand.Based on the pronunciation of the source language,among the many homophone characters,a proper one in keeping with the brand image should be chosen.It would be better if the chosen characters contain some specific characteristics according to the target language culture.Some good examples are席梦思for“Simmons”as梦refers to(sound)sleep,舒肤佳for“Safeguard”as a pun,for舒服means comfortable and肤refers to skin,奔驰for“Benz”as it’seasy for people to imagine driving in a high speed.

A good version of translation is usually also appealing,as a brand name is actually the live advertisement for its products.Therefore,aimed at winning the recognition of the public,as well as arousing their desire to purchase,brand names often agree to the psychology need of consumers.To meet their tastes,attractive characters should be involved in revealing the implied meaning composed in.The most successful example would be“可口可乐”transliterated from“Coca-cola”.Phonetically,it saves not only the clicking sound but also the four-syllabled rhythm.As for the meaning,this transliterated word does much better than its original English name.From taste to feeling,every sense is satisfied in this simple word.It swept the country not for noreason.

Moreover,In order to please the eyes and ears of consumers,the transliteration should be catchy.While choosing brief and rhythmical words to create certain beauty in its pronunciation,these characters are also often with positive meanings.Catering for customers’aesthetic standards,this is intended to stimulate their imagination of the products and entice their curiosity of having a try for it.As for incidence,香奈儿,which is transliterated from“Chanel”,is a word full of lure.The combination of these three characters has a sweet sound which is filled with a tender,dreamy,and a little bit sexy feeling.One can almost smell the fragranceof thisword.

3.3 A est h etic functi o n

Chinese characters,containing sounds,meanings as well as visual forms,unfold in two dimensions in contrast to the English phonetic words in the form of meaningless letters stringing together,which is only one dimensional.Therefore,the choice of proper characters can capture the picturesque scene in the source language text.

To reflect the beauty of source language,the hardest part lies in the translation of literary works.Mentioning literary works,the things immediately stand out are those rhetorical figures who have no equivalence in Chinese,such as alliteration.However,efforts can still be made to reproduce truthfully the original works’aesthetic effect,unique charm as well as the author’s style and emotions.

One way to translate alliteration is to employ binome,as syllables are to English words what radicals(the side component of a Chinese character named偏旁)are to Chinese characters.This method emphasizes on the form creating a strong visual effect but somehow lost the rhyme in pronunciation.Another way is to use reiteratives which remains the repetition of sounds while somehow images are lost.Other methods to translate alliteration include the use of four-character structure,homonymous imitation,borrowing of the Chinese onomatopoeia,etc.Each method has its own merits while all of them have something lost in the process of translation.In this sense,one of the best exemplifications of the equivalent word of Chinese characters tothe English phrase of“hustle and bustle”is熙熙攘攘.

Ialways suppose Xu Zhimo’s transliterated version of“Florence”-翡冷翠is a deluxe visual feast.翡in Chinese is used to refer to the color of blue as翠for green;and the finishing touch by using of the character冷means much more than just“cold”in this context.The feeling of being in a paradise on earth arises spontaneously at sight of this term.Unfortunately,this version is not widely spread but substituted by佛罗伦萨.This is probably because the characters themselves already have an existed connotative meaning which is closely associated with some kind of jade.So in order to avoid ambiguity,wesimply abandoned it.

4.Conclusion

Transliteration is a double-edged sword.The positive effect is that,as a medium,it promotes the cultural exchange between China and the Western countries while enriching their own vocabulary.And it somehow realizes the functional equivalent effect while avoiding ambiguities and confusion.However,transliterated words themselves hardly convey the original ideas of source language.Before being widely known,it requires the company of explanations and notes which reducethe readability of text.

Using properly,transliteration can both imitate the sound and convey the meaning.But it requires a fully understanding of the target language culture as well as the source language culture to produce the transliteration in accordance with the aesthetic standard of both languages.

注释：

①Newmark,Peter,A Textbook of Translation,Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2001.P94.

②Newmark,Peter,A Textbook of Translation,Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2001.P95.

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