复述练习 与 逻辑分析

∷王颖冲

日常生活中，我们都有丰富的复述经验：向告假的同学转述课程重点、和朋友分享刚看过的书和电影。根据不同的情况和需求，复述有时以原语进行，有时需要跨语际；有时注重细节，有时只抓梗概（gist retelling）。能够复述说明你听懂了说话者的意图，也可以用清晰的语言重新呈现给他人。

复述练习是口译训练的重要方法，因为它强调捕捉、理解和记忆信息的主干，而非外在的字词，其实践运用也具有理论依据。早在20世纪六七十年代，巴黎释意派（the interpretative approach of the Paris School）的学者们就指出，口译者常常基于自身的认知，通过译入语的语言符号对原文进行一种解释，而不是追求语言单位的对等，所谓“得意忘言（字词）”便是复述的精髓。

逻辑分析是复述和口译的基础。笔者曾在课堂上提过这样一个问题：在不涉及数字、陌生概念和词汇的前提下，复述200字的中文语篇难吗？大家几乎都认为听母语理解和记忆起来易如反掌，可是接下来的练习结果却出乎意料。同学们听完一小段中文的政府工作报告后，即便配合笔记也很少有人能够完成任务。大家普遍反映罗列项目和修饰性词句较多，脑子里一团糟。

相对汉语的意合而言，英语的语法是形合的，含有较多关联词来指示逻辑关系，如表转折的就有but, yet,although, however, despite, nevertheless等。如果能把握住这些“路标”，便能理顺思路。在强调了源语复述要“抓主干”的策略后，笔者又放了一段英文音频：

Investing is a way to make money with your money. First, you have to earn money. As a kid, you get money from allowance, gifts, services, or from selling goods such as lemonade. Try to save some, if not all of this money. // The next step is to make your money grow through investing./

There are two main reasons why you should invest. The first is to stay ahead of in flation and the second is to achieve financial goals. In flation causes the increase of prices. When a Big Mac goes up from $1.20 to $1.50 or when gas goes up from $1.30 to $1.70 a gallon, we say that is in flation. You need to make more money just to keep up with the rising cost of living.//

Financial goals can be separated into two types:short-term goals and long-term goals. The first refers to the things that you need or want now or within the year,such as a bike, a computer, or a video game. Generally,it takes less money to reach these short-term goals. ///However, long-term goals are expensive and require some planning. They are things you need or want in a few years or more, for example, going to college,buying a house, and even starting a business./

Although investing can make money with money,the downside of investing is that there is a risk of losing your money. The key to investing is to minimize the risk and to maximize the financial reward.

这一次，大部分同学都专心抓逻辑“路标”（粗体和下划线部分），哪怕不借助笔记也能完整、准确地进行源语复述，疏漏主要在列举部分，但总体质量较高。这段篇章的层次分明，大致可用下图来表明：

1. Steps in Investing

1) Earn money: examples

2) Make money grow

2. Reasons for investing

1) Stay ahead of in flation

2) Achieve financial goals

a. Short term goals: examples

b. Long term goals: examples

3. Risk of investing

当然，这两段音频的对比并不是为了说明复述英语篇章比较容易，而是旨在强调逻辑分析在听、记、说、译各个阶段的重要性。以上述那段英文为例，如能梳理清楚不同层次的意群，便能轻松搭起架构。

复述练习的材料很容易搜集，速度适中的讲话或论述都可以，普通的听力材料也可抛却那些选择、填空题，以新的方式利用起来。这项训练能够培养边听边分析的好习惯，将音频转化为有层次、相关联的信息点和信息段，同时提高译文的流畅度和条理性。无笔记的复述练习对初学者尤为适用，它提倡依靠短期记忆来承载经过分析处理的信息，以免过度依赖笔记。进行源语复述时，我们也鼓励学生脱离原文的外壳（deverbalize），用不同的表达方式来重现内化了的信息和情感，这样就不会拘泥于个别复杂的句式和抽象的词汇，避免只见树木不见森林。