M&A 200761739

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MODL5001M StudentID: 200761739

MODL5001M

Commentary

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Translation

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Source

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Target

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Translation Specification

Source text Author (name and/or function)

A journalist from the Daily Mail

Title(of whole text)

Clampbuster

Language variety English(the UK)Length wordsReadership lower-middle classDate of publication

16 October 2003

Place of publication

The UK

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Target text Default value Overriding valueLanguage variety Chinese Simplified ChineseLength +/- 10% of source

textAt translator‟sdiscretion

Translator’s notes (footnotes orendnotes)

Not permitted

Readers’ knowledgeof subject

Limited

Readers‟ knowledgeof SL culture

Varied May be limited

Date of publication UnknownPlace of publication Unknown

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Source Text

CLUMPBUSTER!

(Excerpt)

Pony-tailed, tall, gangly, looking youger than his age andquitely spoken, he reminds me of Neil, the hippy in the YoungOnes, although he won’t even give me a clue about his Christianname, so I end up calling him ‘Angle’.

He is deadly serious about what he is doing. ‘I think it is timewe reminded politicians that they serve us. If we all stood up tothem more, then we’d have something closer to the democracy,’hesays. ‘They regard motorists as an endless source of revenuewithout ever thinking through the reasons why we all have todrive so much.’

The wheelclamp, says Angle, is the ultimate symbol ofpoliticians’ contempt for the public.

He says he does not have a problem with people penalised forparking, say, on red routes. Nor, despite threats from privateclampers, does he have a gripe with them. ‘I know some of theirscams - the tiny signs and decoy parked cars - but privateproperty is private property and I’ve never done a privateclamp.’

His wrath is aimed at elected councils. ‘Whoever voted for themto go round side roads clamping cars which are not causing anobstructionpurely to make money? No one.’

Needless to say, the councils see it differently. ‘What this manis doing is illegal,’ says a spokesman for one of Angle’s regularvictims, Southwark Council.

He takes another sip of his lemonade - he gave up booze and fagsa few years ago - and warns me: ‘You must shut me up on politics.When I get going, I don’t stop.’

For the record, he voted for Mrs Thatcher throughout most of her

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reigh, then became a keen supporter of the Natural Law Party (theyogic flying brigade) and voted Lib-Dem last time around,although he now believes that all the main parties stink. Theyoung Angle enjoyed a happy, conventinal childhood. So what dohis parents and two siblings have to say about his clamp-breaking? ‘I rang them when the publicity broke. I got a lukewarmresponse which, I suppose, is what you get when you say to yourfamily: “I’ve decided to become a wheelclamp superherovigilante.”’

Having dropped out of a civil engineering degree, Angle went onto do ‘every job you can think of’. He’s been a factory worker, achildren’s entertainer, a driver of food supplies to Chinesetakeaways, and once had his fingers badly burned in the propertymarket.

It was last year, though, that the AGM story began. Driving to ahospital appointment in South London, his car was clamped in alocal residents’ bay, despite a traffic warden’s assurance thathis ‘pay and display’ ticket was acceptable.

Hopping mad, Angle refused to pay the £85 release fee. Instead,he hired an angle-grinder for £30 from a builder’s merchant andcut himself free. He paid for the parking ticket, but heardnothing about the clamp.

Jubilant, he stuck a photograph of the broken clamp in the windowbeside a sigh saying: ‘Please do not clamp me. I have aensitivenature.’ It won many admiring comments and an idea was born: whynot do it for others?

He spent months developing his website (www.anglegrinderman.co.uk)and decided a superhero costume would be appropriate. ‘I thoughtI have to send myself up bacause the whole clamping racket is sostupid.’

From Daily Mail, 16 October 2003

617 words

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Target Text

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡（）

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡一，，，，

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡‘卡卡卡’卡。，。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡“卡卡”卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ’卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’一。。，一，：，一。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡——卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡——卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’。，，。一，，。。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’。？，。。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ’‘卡卡卡’卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，。。一，。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡——卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡——卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡一：

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，。，（）。一

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡 ’卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡。西。一 / 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，，，、？

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’，。。，一，。

‘卡卡卡’卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’ 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，，。，，，一一。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡。一，一。，

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡。

卡卡 ‘卡卡卡’卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，， 85 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡， 30 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡一一，，。，。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ’卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡，一，：，。，，一：？

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡（www.anglegrinderman.co.uk 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 ‘卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡’），一。，。

卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡〇〇卡卡卡卡卡卡

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Commentary

The ST is an excerpt from a report on the story

of an everyman. A journalist interviewed the man

called “Angle” and wrote a report on him which

was published on Daily Mail , a newspaper aimed

at “lower-middle class market”(Pilger 1998:440)

in the UK. Although a report is generally to be

seen as more of an informative text type(Munday

2012:112), the author had to catch the most

exciting part of the story with vivid and plain

language so as to attract the targeted readers,

advocate Angle’s magnanimous act undertaken for

the public good and voice for the infringed

individual right.

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http://dict.youdao.com/w/magnanimous/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/good/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/public/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/the/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/for/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/undertaken/

http://dict.youdao.com/w/act/

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The ST was choosen for translation due to the

fact that as the culture exchanges between China

and the UK increases along with bilateral

business and trade, more and more Chinese people,

from businessmen seeking international markets to

the parents planning to send their children to

study abroad, have a desire to know the actual

situation of social life in UK. However, the

mainstream media in China always covers breaking

events, while the story of an ordinary English

man, which could be a real reflection of daily

life in the UK, is seldom available to Chinese

readers. The ST was translated to this regard.

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The translator encountered difficulties during

the translation process. To begin with, the ST is

in English, a language that has huge difference

from Chinese in every aspect including

characters, syllables, morphemes, words and

grammar(Wong and Li 2010:7). For example,in

English, long sentences with explicit structure

often be used, while in Chinese short sentences

with a great deal of ambiguity are always

preferred as long as the meaning is

conveyed(ibid..:40). Thus, in the ST line 8, the

sentence, “Pony-tailed, tall, gangly, looking

younger than his age and quitely spoken, ..., so

I end up calling him ‘Angle’”, which constitutes

a whole paragraph, has to be seperated into two

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short sentences when being translated into the

TL.

In addition, the lack of cultural overlaps

between China and the UK forms another problem.

The translator shall take into consideration the

cultural enviornment of the TT’s audience as

well(Bassnett and Lefevere 1990:11)to render the

TT comprehensible. For instance, in the sentence,

“...he reminds me of Neil, the hippy in the Young

Ones...”(ST line 9), the Young Ones is a well-known

British sitcom and Neil, a character in that

sitcom, is probably familiar to most people in

the UK. However, it is a totally different case

in China. Therefore, more detailed information

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shall be provided in the TT, such as the time and

type of the sitcom.

The last but not the least, the function of the

text in the SL is different from that in the TL.

As we analized in the first paragraph, the ST is

aimed at advocating an act of good, however,

through the discussion of purpose of translation,

we could see that the TT is more of informative

function, in which “the language dimension used

to transmit the information is logical or

referential, the content or ‘topic’ is the main

focus of the communication”(Munday 2012:112). In

order to retain the meaning of the content of the

ST to the largest degree, the translator has to

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distinguish the useful information(ibid.:91)which

might have substantial influence on readers of

the TL, from the information that is not

essential to comprehension. For example, special

attention should be paid to “clampbuster”, which

is the title of the ST. As there is no

equivalence of clampbuster in Chinese while the

simple word matters to the understanding of the

story, the translator has to put great effort in

working out a translation which convey the

meaning of the word explicitly and concisely.

Therefore, after sincere consideration,

clampbuster is translated as “ 卡卡卡卡卡卡 ” (TT line

68), which means a man battling against those who

clamp others’ cars for no good reason. In

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contrast, other specialized words that also have

no eauivalence in Chinese such as “Southwark

Council”(ST line 28) and “Natural Law Party”(ST

line 34), could be paid less attention because

they may not play a vital role in rendering the

meaning of the story to readers.

Considering those problems I mentioned above, the

translator approached Nida’s equivalence

theory(Munday 2012:66-68). Nida favors dynamic

equivalence whose goal is to create an equivalent

effect that satisfy the readers’ cultural

expression with natural expression(ibid.:67).

Nida’s theory could well resolve the problems of

language difference and the lack of cultural

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overlaps. Again, we take the sentence “Pony-

tailed, tall, gangly, looking younger than his

age and quitely spoken, ..., so I end up calling

him ‘Angle’”(ST line 10) for example. Given the

differences between English and Chinese discussed

above, it is hardly possible to seek formal

equivalence, while dynamic equivalence which is

more flexible on grammar and lexicon level so as

to achieve equivalent effect, could come into

use. From that sentence in the ST, “looking

younger than” implies that the man wants others

to think him older than his real age, maybe

because he expects that people would trust him

more if he seemed to be more mature. This point

should be reflected in the TT. “Angle” literally

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means “ 卡 ” , however, if translated so, an

equivalenced effect could not be reached since in

Chinese culture,“ 卡 ” is a word in the realm of

geometry which is irrelevant to the ST. In the

end, “Angle” is translated as “卡卡卡”, meaning a

man who is good at cutting wheelclamps, after a

comprehensive analysis of the ST.

However, when it comes to text functions, Nida’s

equivalence theory might not be the best

solution. To tackle that problem, the translator

approached Skopos theory(Munday 2012:122-125).

The purpose of the TT is to provide information

about life in the UK and the TT has to be

tailored to fit that purpose. For instance, when

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translating “the hippy in the Young Ones”(ST line

9), additional information should be added

because the readers of the TT are not familiar

with the Young Ones, even having no idea whether

it is a book, a movie or a show. Thus, it is

translated as “卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡《》 ”(TT line 71),

which means the hippy in the Young Ones, a TV

comedy shot in the early 1980s.

In order to make the TT read more natural and

idiomatic, the translator also referred to “the

unit of translation and discourse

analysis”(Newmark 2003:54-67). The translator

keep “dialogue cohesion”(ibid.:57) and

“punctuation” (ibid.:58) in mind and chose the

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most appropriate words and punctuation to make

the register remain the same in the TT as in the

ST. For instance, in the dialogue “I think it is

time we reminded politicians that they serve

us”(ST line 13), “politicians” is translated as

“卡卡卡”(TT line 74), which has the implication that

those men use their politic power in their favor

rather than seek social goods. In addition, the

us in the ST is in italics, which functions as an

emphasis. The translator did not deal with it as

it was, instead, he put it in qoutation marks,

which is a Chinese way of emphasizing.

Described above are overall translation

strategies for the TT, and when the translator

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begin to work from one line to another, he may

use “five analytical steps”(Munday 2012:91). Take

the following sentences for example--“I rang them

when the publicity broke. I got a lukewarm

reponse which, I suppose, is what you get when

you say to your family: ‘I’ve decided to become a

wheelclamp superhero vigilante’”(ST line 37).

First, the translation units shall be

identified(ibid.:91). We could do that according

to the mian messages contained in the sentences,

which are “I rang them”, “I got a lukewarm

response”, and the same response “I suppose”.

Second, we should evaluate which are the

intellectual parts of each unit, and what are the

descriptive or affective ones(ibid.:91). In the

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first unit all the content is descriptive, which

only states a fact. The second unit is a mixture

of descriptive and affective content because

Angle depicted the scene with personal feelings.

The final one is purely affective, which is scene

Angle imagined. Third, we should reorganize the

context of the message while maintain the

meaning(ibid.:91). When translating, the

translator would put “when the publicity broke”

before “I rang them” because it is more idiomatic

in Chinese. The next unit shall go through the

same process. Fourth, attention should also be

paid to the language style of the ST(ibid.:91).

In the ST, the sentences are straightforward and

with strong emotions, which enable us to see a

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frustrated hero when he could not get any support

from his family. Therefore, the TT should not use

complex descriptions, but it should show Angle’s

moments of helplessness and loneliness. Finally,

we could write down the TT and make revisions to

it(ibid.:91). The translation of this part can be

seen in the line 98 of the TT.

When dealing with individual units of

translation, the translator also employed “seven

procedures”(Munday 2012:86-89), some of which

have been mentioned in this commentary. These

procedures include “transposition”, “modulation”,

and “adaptation”(ibid.:87-89). There are plenty

of examples of transposition in the TT, and I

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will list two of them. In the sentence “They

regard motorists as an endless source of

revenue...”(ST line 14), “an endless source of

revenue” is a noun phrase, which is translated as

“卡卡卡卡卡...卡卡卡卡”, a verb phrase which means getting

taxes endlessly. Similarly, “the ultimate symbol

of” is translated as “卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡”, meaning showing

something clearly. Those transpositions are

necessary because Chinese people generally tend

to use verbs to describe an action. Apart from

that, modulation, which consists of many

subdivisions, can also be found in use in the TT.

“Cut himself free”(ST line 50) is translated as

“卡卡卡卡卡卡”, which means cutting off the wheelclamp.

Although the subject are not the same, the phrase

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in the TT explains the same action as the one in

the ST, because by cutting off the wheelclamp,

the man sets himself free. Through that

modulation readers of the TT could get better

understanding of what happened since it makes the

action more concrete. Moreover, we can see the

example of adaption. The translator translate

“had his fingers badly burned” as “卡卡卡卡卡卡卡一 ”, a

phrase in Chinese referring to failing

disastrously, which literally means falling down

when walking. The use of adaption in this case is

inevitable because if this part in the ST is

translated literally, the meaning of the phrase

would be totally lost.

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According to the analysis above, the translator

successfully tackled the problems of language

difference, the lack of cultural overlaps, and

function difference between the ST and the TT. He

managed to do so by approaching Nida’s

equivalence theory(Munday 2012:66-68) and the

Skopos theory(ibid.:122-125). The unit of

translation and discourse analysis(Peter 2003:54-

67) is also employed to achieve higher

naturalness and idiomaticity. Apart from those

overall translation strategies, five analytical

steps(Munday 2012:91) and seven

procedures(ibid.:86-89) are used to ensure that

the TT functions well in detail. On the whole,

the TT is a good piece of translation.

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2021 words

Reference list

Pilger ,J. 1998. Hidden Agendas. London:

Vintage.

Munday, J. 2012. Introducing Translation Studies. 3rd

edtion. New York: Routledge.

Kam-Fai,W. et al. 2012. Introduction to Chinese Natural

Language Processing. Guangzhou: Morgan & Claypool.

Bassnett,S. and Lefevere,A. 1990. Translation, History

and Culture. 1st edtion. London: Pinter.

Peter,N. 2003. A Textbook of Translation. 8th edtion.

Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

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M&A 200761739

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Transcript of M&A 200761739