免费英语论文范文(14)
Version A: 迟到总比丧命好!
Version B: 晚了总比完了好! [6]
This public advertisement of “safe driving”reminds one of a well known idiom “better late than never”, whose translation is “迟做总比不做好” . In the advertisement, the first “late” means “coming or occurring after the correct, usual, or expected time; delayed” , while the phrase “the late” means “the dead, especially recently deceased” . So considering the difference in the two languages, we know that the original pun can not be preserved as the two meanings in the original can’t be kept intact in a Chinese word or phrase. This may be the reason why someone thinks that an “established translation” should be adopted instead of more relevant approaches. For instance, they would think that as there is already “an established translation” there，why not borrow its structure? Hence, “Version A” comes into being. However, in order that the translated and the original resemble closely enough in relevant aspects, the translator has to，if possible，retain the linguistic features in the original. In Chinese, we know that “late” can be rendered as “晚了”, its close match in sound being “完了”，which literally means “over or finished" , so put together,they can make up a new pun．In “Version B”, we can see that the two words “晚了/完了” (/wǎn/and/wán/)sound almost the same, therefore, it is a new pun that better conveys the features of the original. Besides, considering the reader’s cognitive environment, we know that this translation also makes perfect sense. It warns people of the danger of fast or unsafe driving: it is better to be late than killed in a traffic accident. So the reader can get adequate contextual effects without spending his/her unnecessary processing effort，and optimal relevance is achieved.
3. 3 Compensation
