【Abstract】This paper discusses the problem of untranslatability between Chinese and English, including linguistic and cultural untranslatability. English belongs to the Indo-European language family, and Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. The phonemic system, character structure and figure of speech are all completely different, and most of these in one language do not have equivalent in the other language. This causes linguistic untranslatability. Different country and region have different cultural background, such as history, religion and society, and so on, these are not exist in other country and region. So it is difficult to translate. But untranslatability is not absolutely, we should understand the co-existence of translatability and untranslatability. Base on the understanding, we can use some method to compensate in order to less the barrier in translation and promotes language and culture communication.
【Key words】untranslatability; linguistic untranslatability; cultural untranslatability; method of compensation 【摘 要】本文讨论汉英翻译中的不可译性问题，包括语言不可译性和文化不可译性。英语属于印欧语系，英语论文题目，而汉语属于汉藏语系，其语音系统，文字结构和修辞措施都完全不同，这些绝大多数都无法在另一语言中找到对等语，这便造成了语言的不可译性。不同的国家和地区有着不同的历史、宗教、社会等文化背景，这些在别的国家和地区都是不存在的，所以给翻译造成了困难。但不可乙性并非绝对的，我们必须在理解可译性与不可译性是共同存在的，在此理解的基础上，我们可以采用补偿措施，目的在于对不可译性进行一定程度的补偿，尽量减少翻译障碍，促进语言与文化交流。
【关键词】不可译性；语言不可译性；文化不可译性；补偿措施 1. Introduction
Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.
“J.C.Catford, a celebrated translation scholar of linguistics school, raised the issue of untranslatability in 1965.He argues that the linguistic untranslatability is due to the differences in the source language and the target language, whereas culture untranslatability is due to the absence in the target language of relevant situational features.”[1]
“Nida presents a rich source of information about the problem of lose in translation, in particular about the difficulties encountered by the translator when facing with terms or concepts in the source language that do not exit in the target language.”
“Peter Newmark has once briefly talked about the deviation in translation.”
In China today, many translation experts and scholars have also discussed the problem to some extent in their papers.
The problem of untranslatability is always a disputed issue. Nowadays, it is well accepted that translation is a possible and feasible task. However, there are still some language points that are difficult to translate, which is called the phenomenon of untranslatability.
Linguistic and cultural differences, the two categories of untranslatability phenomenon are caused by different factors. These resulting from the linguistic differences will hardly change while those resulting from cultural differences may become translatable in the future by using the methods of compensation and the skill of translators. 2. Linguistic untranslatability
Professor Liu Miqing wrote in his Modern Translation Theories that “The structure of language commonly shows the characteristics of the language, these characteristics only can be found in relative language, the similar transfer is difficult to find in non-relative language, for it need to change the code completely.” P107 View from the etymology, English belongs to the Indo-European language, but Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language, so there exit the linguistic untranslatability, which includes the following aspects: phonology, character, figure of speech, and so on.
2.1. Untranslatability in phonology
Any language has its own special phonemic system, which cannot be replaced by other language. There are large differences between Chinese and English, and most of the pronunciations in one language do not have equivalent in the other language. Therefore, they can not be translated into the target language. For example:
(1)“石诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮……”
The author wrote the whole passage in homophone words. This is a typical example of untranslatability caused by phonemic system. See another example:
(2)“Cat, cat, cat, catch the fat rat fast.”
If translate it into: “猫，猫，猫，快抓住那只肥老鼠” that will lose the phonemic effect, and it only translates the meaning.
2.2. Untranslatability in character structure
Chinese words consist of characters that have their meaning, but English words consist of alphabets that are meaningless. They are completely different in writing. Chinese has a writing skill of describing characters, for example: (3)“人曾为僧，人弗可以成佛，女卑为婢，女又何妨成奴”，“鸿是江边鸟，蚕是天下虫”，“琴瑟琵琶八大王，王王在上，魑魅魍魉四小鬼，鬼鬼靠边”。 They are all using the special feature of Chinese characters, to describe the character structure in poetry, also having their meaning. But English has no such structures in alphabetical system, so they are absolutely untranslatable.
Some riddles that are relative to the structure of characters or English words are also untranslatable, for example: (4)“田头长草” （苗）, “What makes a road broad?”(The letter B). If the latter riddle is translated into:“什么使道路变宽？” （字母B）Everybody will fell ridiculous, and no one can understand that.
2.3. Untranslatability in figure of speech
Most of the languages have their own figures of speech. Just because of the existence of figure of speech, the languages become vivid and interesting. In translation practice, if the target language can not show the figure of speech in source language correctly, it is not faithful to the content, thought and style of the source language. Although the meanings are similar, it will less the language influence of the source text. The people who speak Chinese and the people who speak English have large differences in the way of thinking and aesthetic, so when they express the same concept, they often use different figure of speech. These caused the untranslatability in Chinese- English translation. It has the following main aspects:
2.3.1. Puns
Pun means humorous use of a word that has two meanings or of different words that sound the same. Puns pack several meanings into one word, and it is extremely unlikely that any other language will pack into the same set of meanings, so it is difficult to translate into the target language. Example one:
(5)“杨柳青青江水平，闻郎江上唱歌声，东边日出西边雨，道是无晴却有晴”
Here“晴”is a pun, and it also means “情”，Zhang Qichun translate it into “The willows are green, green, the river is serene. Thence is his song rafted to me. In the east the sun is rising, in the west the rain is falling. Can you see if it’s fair or foul?” In this translation, the translator did very well, especially in “green, serene, fair or foul”, but he can not translate the pun completely.
Example two:
(6)“She is too low for a high praise, too brown to a fair praise, and too little for a great praise.”
The “low” and “fair” are all puns in this sentence. “Low” means short in height and low social status. “Fair” means pale skin, light in color and justice. There is no word or phrase in Chinese having the two meanings together, so the translator can not translate the two meanings into Chinese, only adapted one meaning, and will lose the other meaning.
2.3.2. Palindrome
“The figure of speech of palindrome means a word, verse or sentence that read the same when the characters or letters composing it are taken the reverse order.”P174There are many palindrome words in English, such as “Anna, dad, bob.” English palindrome is based on letters, the letters have no meaning, and it reads the same when the order is reversed. For example:
(7)“Was it a cat I saw?”
(8)“Able was I ere I saw Elba!”
(9)“Madam, I’m Adam”
If they are translated into “我看到的是猫吗？”，“在我看到俄尔巴岛之前还没有倒！”，“夫人，我是亚当。”,the effect are all lost without any palindrome, so it is almost untranslatable.
The palindrome in Chinese is untranslatable as well, for example:
(10)“客上天然居，居然天上客。”
(11)“雾锁江心江锁雾，天连海角海连天。”
2.3.3. Alliteration
Alliteration is using the same letter or sound at the beginning of the two or more words in succession. It is a common figure of speech in English, especially in proverb, advertisement, novel and so on., and most of the alliteration are untranslatable.P33 For example:
(12)To many parents, the three Gs, gays, guys, and gangs have replaced the three Rs as benchmark of school life.
关于许多父母来说，同性恋，枪支，帮派这三个词已经代替了读，写，算作为学校的基本尺度。
In this translation, the three Gs, gays, guys, gangs are alliteration, which emphasize the serious problems of the gays, guys and gangs, but after translating them into Chinese, we can not see this effect.
2.3.4. Malapropism
“Malapropism comes from Richard Sheridam’s comedy The Rivals, a honored lady name Malaprop, who often speaks wrong words or pronunciation. Malapropism is a figure of speech using wrong words with similar pronunciation tension or intension to reach the humors effect.” P75 Malapropism brings difficulties in translation. For example:
(13)“我推开澳门，看到地上铺的是巴基斯坦，桌上摆的是刚果……”
This is a sentence from cross talk, Chinese people know the humors naturally, but if it is translated it into: “Pushing open the ‘Macau’, I saw ‘Pakistan’ paved on the floor and ‘Congo’ on the table. English readers can not accept that, for ‘Macau’ is not a door, ‘Pakistan’ is not a blanket, and ‘Congo’ is not fruit either. Most of the younger generation in China have heard this humorous sentence:“我手持郑伊健，脚踏温兆轮，翻过赵本山，穿过关芝林，跨过潘长江，来到周星池……”It is untranslatable too. |
