点破“增长点”之“点”

秋千影

提及“增长点”，大多数人立刻会联想到相关搭配“经济增长点”;而对习惯于见到汉语即思考英文的人来说，马上会考虑其英语对应的说法。个别手潮译者恐怕还会不假思索地想到growth point。英语中固然有此表述，但它并非我们所谓的“增长点”，英文中的growth point释义为：A Growth Point is a technical term in cognitive linguistics and gesture research. It refers to the earliest beginnings of a spoken utterance in the mind of a speaker， combining the beginnings of a mimetic gesture with the preliminary verbal expression of the persons thought. 可见该短语是认知语言学术语。那么，汉语中的“增长点”到底该如何表述呢？

《牛津英語词典》网络版对growth area有如下解释：A commercial field that is developing rapidly.

随后提供了例证：

E-commerce is the biggest growth area for the company.

One of the biggest growth areas for tech companies has been in new identity cards.

《习近平谈治国理政》的英文版多处采用了这一译法，例如：

1. 原文：创造新的经济和就业增长点

译文：create new economic and employment growth areas

2. 原文：不断创造出更多利益契合点和合作增长点

译文：create still more converging interests and growth areas in bilateral co-operation

3. 原文：找到中非合作新的契合点和增长点

译文：identify new converging interests and growth areas for China-Africa cooperation

但在其他语境下，译者也采取了灵活处理，比如：

1. 原文：把能源技术及其关联产业培育成带动我国产业升级的新增长点

译文：transform our energy technology and related industries into a new pow-erhouse to drive the overall industrial upgrading of our country

点评：汉语语境下，“增长点”很多时候实指“经济增长的动力或引擎”，因而，powerhouse或者growth engine都是很好的选项。再如：中国新的增长点Chinas new growth engine。

2. 原文：“机器人革命”有望成为“第三次工业革命”的一个切入点和重要增长点。

译文：The Third Industrial Revolution would be a “robot revolution”.

点评：在这里，译者采用意译手法，直接忽略了“切入点”“增长点”等具体措辞，用英语直接表明了“机器人革命”在“第三次工业革命”中的重要地位。这再次说明，高明的译者有胆有识、无拘无束。

除了上述处理方式，有些情况下，也可以考虑使用growth industry表示“增长点”，《牛津英语词典》网络版有如下例句：

Worldwide， agriculture is forecast to be a major growth industry into the 21st century.

Clothing is Vietnams largest export， and its biggest growth industry， employing 2 million workers.                                                                                                  □

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