1、1On Translation of Social Deictics Between English and ChineseIntroductionDeixis is a universal linguistic phenomenon. It is the single most obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the structures of languages themselves. According to Fillmore and Levinson,
2、deixis can be classified into five types: person deixis, time deixis, place deixis, discourse deixis and social deixis. Social deixis, in Fillmores view, concerns “that aspect of sentences which reflect or establish or are determined by certain realities of the social situation in which the speech a
3、ct occurs” . He goes further to include in social deixis much of the speech act theory, to which Levinson disagrees; Levinson believes that the term should be restricted to “those aspects of language structure that encode the social identities of participants, or the social relationship between them
4、, or between one of them and persons and entities referred to.” In spite of the disagreement on the range of social deixis the problem proper is not what this disertation bothers to solve. What it attempts to do is to provide some useful solutions from the perspective of context and cultural differe
5、nces to the problems which may arise in translation between Chinese and English deictics. Since there is less difficulty in translating personal pronouns and names, which some linguists attribute to social deixis, they are not included in the social deictic words and expressions which this disertati
6、on is devoted to.Language is the medium of culture. Differences between English and Chinese cultures manifest themselves in the English and Chinese languages. Social deictics are one of the differences reflected in the two languages. Westerners like the British and American people attach great impor
7、tance to 2individualism, which contributes largely to the non-typicalness of English social deictics. In contrast with western countries, China is a country in which etiquette is stressed. The differentiations between the old and young, and between close and distant relations are among social norms
8、one is supposed to follow. The Chinese language therefore abounds with typical social deictics which are loaded with strong national flavor. There are respectful terms referring to the addressee or the third person in a direct way, like 兄台，贵府，令郎；there are self-depreciatory terms used to express the
9、addressers respect for the addressee in an indirect way, like 小生，鄙人，奴才, to name just a few. Social deictics as a component part of language are obviously related to culture, therefore studying the translation of social deictics would be doing the impossible unless cultural differences are considered
10、.Language operates in context, so context is indispensible in understanding the reference and illocutionary force of a social deictic word or expression. Strawson affirms (Zabeeh, 1974:161), though in passing, the importance of context when he mentions the different references of the whale in senten
11、ces The whale is mammal and The whale struck the ship. Levinson, in discussing deixis, also attaches great importance to context, saying that deixis concerns ways in which the interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis of that context of utterance.” Since context plays so important a role
12、in the interpretation of social deictics, and the contrast formed by the non-typicalness of English social deictics on one side and a vast variety of typical Chinese social deictics on the other defies attempts to find all the time semantic equivlence of social deictics in these two deictic systems,
13、 it is justifiable to approach translation of social deictics from contextual perspective, adopting pragmatic solutions to translation problems in this domain. This thesis, therefore, approaches translation in terms of cultural 3differences as well as context.As for the distinctive treatment given h
14、ere to culture and context, it is necessary to make some additional remarks. As far as the extent and division of context are concerned, different linguists and scholars have proposed different views. For example, John Lyons has generalized six aspects of knowledge under the concept of context (Lyon
15、s,1977:574) and Professor He Zhao xiong regards context as consisting of three broad aspects(何兆熊，1998:25)：Linguistic knowledge, situational knowledge and background knowledge. Under background knowledge he places cultural factors. In this thesis, however, the author has no intention to join in the d
16、ebate about what an extent context covers and how to classify context. The differentiation made in the thesis between culture and context is mainly for the convenience of studying translation in the sphere of social deictics. Context, which is limited here to the narrow sense of linguistic context a
17、nd situational context, is comparatively more changeable than culture, Which, synchronically speaking, is stable. It is true that culture often interweaves with context in determining the meanings of words, but sometimes culture plays a unique role independent of context. In Chinese culture, for exa
18、mple, 寡人 ， 贱内 invariably refer to the addresser and the addressers wife respectively, regardless of what context they are put in . There fore, specifically, this thesis is to approach translation of social deictics from three perspectives: cultural difference, linguistic context and situational cont
19、ext.4Chapter OneContext and ReferenceIn translating social deictics translators are confronted with the problem of ascertaining which person a certain social deictic word or expression refers to, the first person or the second person or the third person. This problem sometimes proves to be difficult
20、 especially in translation of Chinese social deictics, because Chinese social deictic system is varied and complicated and there are not only social deictics whose references are conventionally fixed, like 鄙人 , invariably referring to the addresser, and 阁下 to the addressee, but also many social deic
21、tics whose references vary with situations. Take 兄弟 for example:（1）老残道：“宫保爱才若渴，兄弟实在钦佩的。至于不出来的原故，并不是肥遁鸣高的意思。 ”老残游记（2） “最近都忙些什么，兄弟？”（3）为了兄弟成家，他不分白天黑夜拼命干活挣钱。Though 兄弟 appears in all the above three examples its references are different as far as person is concerned. 兄弟 in example (1) is a self-deprecia
22、tory term referring to the addresser(老残 ) himself. In example(2) it is used by the addresser as an addressing term for the addressee, indicating intimate relationship between them though they are not brothers. In example(3),兄弟 obviously is in the third person role, referring to his brother . What de
23、termines the different pragmatic interpretations of 兄弟 is none other than contexts, hence different translations for 兄弟 are as follows:(1) Lao Tsan said, I deeply respect the Governors appreciation of men of ability. As to my reason for leaving, it is not that I seek to live in lofty seclusion, clai
24、ming to be high-minded.Tr. by Harold Shadick5(2) “What are you up to these days, old chap?”(3)He worked day and night to earn money so that his brother could get married.As references of social deictics are subject to contexts, pragmatic approach should be adopted in translation. Too much attention
25、to semantic faithfulness will frequently result in disagreement between reference of a social deictic in source language and that of its translation in target language, as in the following two negative examples:(4)旺儿打着千儿回道:“ 奴才天天在二门上听差事，如何知道二爷在外头的事呢？”红楼梦Little Wang bent one knee. “The slave performs
26、 his service at the second gateway day after day. How can he know what the master does outsides?”Tr. by Florence and Isabel Mchugh(5)那女孩浓装艳饰，从里面出来说道：“ 若非恩人垂救，怎能够有今日？”水浒传Then the girl ,beautifully dressed and coifed, came about from within the house Then she said, “If the Great Merciful One had not s
27、aved our lives how could we have come to our present good fortune?”Tr. by Pearl S. BuckThe context in example (4)makes it discernible to Chinese readers that 奴才 refers to the addresser(旺儿) . In the English version, however, The slave and he naturally leads the reader to thinking that the addresser i
28、s mentioning a third person rather than himself. Therefore, misunderstanding of the original text on the side of the reader is inevitable. The error made in 6example(5) is of the same kind. the Great Merciful One can only refer to a third person, while 恩人 in the source language text refers to the ad
29、dressee. As a result ,what is conveyed in the target language text deviates far from what is conveyed in the source language text. The following translations are pragmatically more faithful to the above two source language texts.(4)Lai Wang answered, bending one knee, “Im on duty all day long at the
30、 inner gate. How would I know about the second masters business?”(5)The girl emerged, neatly made up and attractively dressed “If you hadnt rescued us, benefactor, ”she said, “wed never possess what we have today.”Tr.by Sidney shapiroAll the positive and negative examples that have been discussed, b
31、oil down to the fact that very often context is to be taken into acount in ascertaining which person a social deictic word refers to.7Chapter TwoAddresserAs has been mentioned, Chinese is rich in social deictics. Many of them can refer to the addresser. Some invariably refer to the addresser indepen
32、dent of contexts, like 孤，寡人，在下，鄙人 ,etc, others can refer to the addresser in certain contexts, like 兄弟，奴才，爸爸，妈妈 etc. By comparison, the English language builds into itself no social deictics referring to the addresser. Of course, a persons name may, though rarely, be used to refer to the addresser.
33、Fortunately, this kind of usage is also the case with Chinese. Another word that can refer to the addresser is we or us. Likewise, 我们can be used in the same way. So ,as for such Chinese social deictics referring to the addresser as 孤，鄙人，在下，it is safe to put them into English as “I (or me)“. Other so
34、cial deictics like 爸，妈，兄弟 etc. after being ascertained according to contexts that they are addresser-referring, can also be safely translated into English as I(or me). For example:(1)那妇人听了这句话，一点红从耳边起，须臾紫涨了面皮，指着武大骂道：“你这混沌东西，有甚言语在别处说来！欺负老娘。 ”金瓶梅Golden Lotus listened, and the Crimson color spread acros
35、s her face. She shook her finger at Wu Ta, and addressed Wu Song through him, “You fool! What do you think you will gain by insulting me?“ Tr.by Clement EgertonIn the context, 老娘 refers to the addresser herselfGolden Lotus, So me is a pragmatic equivalent to 老娘。(2)这妇人情知不是，叉手望他深深拜了一拜，说道：“奴家一时被风失手，误中官
36、人，休怪。 ”8金瓶梅Golden Lotus bowed her head more deeply and said with a smile, “It was careless of your slave to strike you. Please dont be angry with me, my Lord.“ Tr.by Clement Egerton.Here 奴家 is also conditioned by the context to refer to the addresser herself. But your slave, which is in the third pe
37、rson role, is misleading because the reader will think that Golden Lotus apologized because the addressees slave struck the addressee. To use me instead would eradicate the readers misunderstanding.Guiltily the woman made a deep bow with her hands folded in front, and said, “It was careless of me to
38、 strike you. Please forgive me, my lord.“(3)婆子笑道：“却是甚话？便是押司生得凶眼，又酒性不好，专要杀人？休取笑老身。 ”水浒传The old woman laughed and said, “What talk is this? Are your eyes fierce and is your temper evil when you drink, and are you used to killing people? Dont make a joke of an old woman?”Tr. By Pearl S. Buck The contex
39、t makes it discernible that 老身 refers to the addresserthe old woman, so 老身 should be translated as me or an old woman like me; an old woman , which is in the third person role, actually represents a large group of women who are old in age. The preferable English translation might be:The old woman la
40、ughed and said, “What a nonsense! You want me to believe youve killed someone, just because you were born with fierce eyes and have a bad temper after drinking? Dont make a joke of me”.9To sum up, when a Chinese social deictic word is correctly judged (sometimes with the help of contexts) as referri
41、ng to the addresser, it is supposed to be translated as a rule into English as I (or me), because I (or me) is the only word in English that is used unmarkedly to refer to the addresser. It is true and unavoidable that addresser-referring Chinese social deictics, in the process of translation, will
42、lose strong national flavors they are loaded with. The only remedy seems to be the appropriate choice of grammatical structures and words. In exmple(2), for 休怪, Please forgive me, my lord may be claimed to be a better translation than Please dont be angry with me, my lord.In strict sense, there are
43、no deictics in English purely referring to the addresser, except I (or me). Of course, We (or us) and persons names may have marked use for referring to the addresser. For example:(4) (A manager replying to an applicant on his own decision)We have considered your application carefully, but regret th
44、at we are unable to offer you the post(We=I)我们认真考虑了你的申请，但是很遗憾，我们不能给你安排你申请的工作。（5） “This is political, political”, Eisenhower said again and again, arguing that it was highly inappropriate for a general to become involved in a streetcorner brawl. The general disagreed. “MacArthur has decided to go int
45、o active command in the fields,” MacArthur declared. (MacArthur =I)The Glory and the Dream 他的副官艾森豪威尔一再说：“这是政治事件嘛，政治事件嘛”。副官认为，街头打架，将军犯不着插手。可是将军不同意，他宣布说：“叛乱的苗头出现了，麦克阿瑟决定亲临督战。 ”王宗炎 译10In Chinese there are also such kind of marked usage for the first personal pronoun in plural and persons names, as in 我
46、们（=我）平时不象你那么认真，哪能吸格哟and 是的，你哪能瞧得起我，王德顺（=我）算什么东西， and literal (or semantic) translation is suitable for this occasion. It is just because deictics of this sort are less complicated and easier to cope with in translation that they are excluded at the very beginning from the study involved. So there is not much to discuss in Chinese translation of English social deictics as far as the addresser is concerned.
