英语俚语及其翻译
05-25, 2014
I. Introduction
As the development of culture and society keeps marching on, there are also something new being created and enriches language. In English language, there are a part of that language spoken by a certain group of people, people outside can hardly understand. That is called slang. The word “slang”, of uncertain origin, has been dated to about 1750 and was soon thereafter defined at least once as “street language”. Slang originally denoted cant, the restricted speech of the low, often criminal classes of society. However, the idea slang gradually evolved to denote more subcultural speech, both high and low, as well as more general but unconventional vocabulary.
Slang is informal, shared by certain group of people and full of cultural connotations. In American English, slang takes a pretty large part of that language and plays a positive important role in Americans’ lives in all aspects. Learning and obtaining some slang is very important for our English learners, especially for people in interpretation field.
Slang translation is a very tough job to do. Translators have to do whatever is possible to achieve language equivalence, stylistic equivalence and socio-cultural equivalence while interpreting slang. In order to do this, translators have to get quite familiar with western countries’ culture and the background of the slang. Meanwhile, translator should be a really good master of his or her mother language. In this essay the author will mainly focus on the introduction of slang and the ways of slang translation.
II. English Slang and Its Main Features
As it is known to all, English slang is widely used in every corner of this shrinking world. And English slang varies from place to place, race to race and nation to nation,which made it unique in English language and popular among all people. On the other hand, English slang has a lot of obvious features. The author will mainly focus on rhetorical feature,vividness and informality and so on.
2.1 Definition
English slang is a very complicated linguistic phenomenon. And some normal dictionaries defines that slang is a kind of highly colloquialized informal language, which is made up of new words, new meaning and some certain rhetorical devices. And all that made English slang vivid, sharp and humorous.
About the definition of “Slang”, there are various ideas coming up , but no standard definition has been given .
“What is slang? It is hard to define. Slang mainly refers to non-traditional words and phrases which used to express the new coming up things or new expressions toward things which already exist.” ( The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume16, William Bemton, 1952, p.850)
“Slang is a high-standard oral form, which is considered to be under the standard qualified language level, and usually constructed by non-prescriptive language order. Generally speaking, its function mainly to lower the solemnity of conversation and writing.” (Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume12, 1973, p.595)#p#分页标题#e#
“Slang usually is used in oral version, especially by certain group of people ,and usually for people within the group only . And it is difficulty for people outside the group. Slang could be humorous , meaningful , clever and imaginative and creative.”(Everyman's Encyclopaedia, Volume11, D.A. Girling, 1978, p.132)
The three ideas above indicate the features of slang from different perspectives. The first is all about the timeliness of slang. The second is about the non-prescriptive while the third is about the range of application of slang.
In a word, the author regard slang as an informal form of language, which is less formal than colloquialism but much more meaningfully in figure of speech .Slang has a strong sense of present time and it riches in cultural connotations. But it usually applicates on informal occasions. Possessing a great resource and created in relatively obdurate groups , slang may spread outside its originating area.
2.2 Features of English Slang
It is well known that English Slang has already wide spread and has become popular among common people. But why English slang has been adopted so widely and more and more English slang are taken into dictionaries. And this is because English slang has unique effect that no other vocabulary can bring to the text.
2.2.1 Rhetorical Features in Slang
As the beginning and development of literature culture, rhetorical device is not only the art of speech but also appears in everyday use. At the same time, English slang gradually comes out of English language by using rhetorical devices. There are some obvious rhetorical features in English slang, and the author will discuss that in details below.
2.2.1.1 Metaphor
G.K.Chesterton , a British poet and novelist, once said:" The word of slang is a kind of topsyturudom of poetry." Slang has strong local color and is very creative in the words it chooses which made the language vivid. And metaphor is the most common rhetorical device among English slang words. In order to illustrate something in a vivid way, people tend to adopt different vocabulary categories to convey meaning, and then makes the language much more expressive.
For instance, "He is a hard nut to crack" and "He doesn't know people are calling him a museum piece."
In these two sentences, it use "hard nut to crack" and " a museum piece" to state a person who is called out of date by others.
Metaphor also exists when people use "Are you taking a bird out?" to replace " Are you taking a girl out?".
Metaphor also appears in a lot of phrases. For example, people usually use "to be fed up with , a pain in the neck" to replace "a bothersome man or event".
The adoption of Metaphor in English slang has enriched the English language , and strengthened the comprehensiveness of the text by bringing imagination to the listener.
2.2.1.2 Euphemism
The language of slang tend to be humour and concise. In the process of social intercourse, there is something too embarrassing for the two conversation participates to bring up directly, but they are on some degree have to talk it over. And on this kind of occasion, English slang has play a very positive role in replacing the sensitive words by using euphemism, and eventually ease the embarrassment. Especially when the conversation is referring to death or other kind of topics, people usually use " to go west.to go up the flame,to turn one's heels, to be a goner, to turn one's toes up,to kick the bucket" to describe the truth of people's death. And this can ease people's pain by avoiding use "to die, to perish" or other words of the same kind.#p#分页标题#e#
At the mean while, it is will be much more proper to use slang when a context needs highly colloquialism to express local custom. And this is also tend to be more objective and can create a close and humourous effect in a given context, which is much more lively and close to common people. For instance, people using "my worse half "to replace "my husband","one's better half " to replace "one's wife",which enables the listener to feel the humorous and closeness. People also use "my egg,my fruit" instead of " dude, brother, friend", "to be in the family way,to have a touch of the sun,to have a bun in the oven" to replace " to become pregnant, to be with child". Maybe this kind of words are a little bit too coarse, but they can ease the awkwardness which brought by this kind of topic.
Considering the greetings before a class starts between student and teacher, teachers in United States have adopted a totally different way from the Chinese teachers because teachers in the US use "Hi! Guys,how are you doing today?" to replace "Good Morning,class." of the Chinese version. Obviously, the version of the American teachers' has passed a message of closeness to every student in the class,which also shorten the distance between teacher and student psychologically and makes the class much easy and acceptable.
2.2.2 Limitations of English Slang
Socio-linguistics believes that different social cultures worship different cultural mode, and language of a certain group varies with the context. So, language has different functions in different societies and even people in the same cultural group use different variants of the same language. Using English slang to communicate may create a more vivid and expressive effect than by standard language. For instance, "Jane is no chicken.She 's 35 if she 's a day". Here, "no chicken" means that she is not very wrong. "Stop beefing about your stomach-ache and get on with your work". And here "to beef about" means to complain and it also tend to criticize in a peaceful way in order not to hurt the feelings of the counter-partner.
On the contrary, Because English slang vocabulary comes from the subculture of US and British social groups, some of the slang reflects the living style of these groups and there are a lot of coarse words used by the people from the bottom of the society. So, in a word, the usage of slang is specified to some certain context,otherwise,it will cunning outwits itself.
Zheng yanchang, a well-known scholar in China, raised a example in his book"Language and Culture": The Queen of a European country is paid a visit to The United States, when she arrived Chicago, people there threw a big banquet reception for her and everything went well. When the visit about to end and Queen was going to leave, the mayor, on behalf of Chicago municipal made a speech on the banquet in order to extend his warm heart-felt amicableness, and he said:" The next time you come,bring the kids along." The mayor wanted to said that maybe next time the honourable Queen visit, please take her own children with her. But unfortunately, he used slang,which totally changed the effect. And the Queen and her Chancellors took it as the mayor has insulted their prince and princess by using improper title. So the atmosphere in the meeting changed dramatically, some of the attendants are stunned, some think it is unbelievable. Finally the American were totally embarrassed, and the Queen's Chancellors were in anger. (zheng yanchang, language and culture)#p#分页标题#e#
As you should see that English slang do have their own limitations to some degree. Slang belongs to certain group of people and varies with different situations. One should really keep an eye on this when we find ourselves engaged in some special occasions in international intercourse.
2.2.3 Representing Certain Specific Culture
It is believed that every layer of this society and every subculture group have their own contributes to the accumulation of slang words and its usage. And so slang is fully saturated in the subculture and reflects the value of cultural traditions in western world. And cross-culture communication is always a significant consideration in the translation process. Something like culture crash, culture conflict and culture misunderstanding are always unavoidable. At the mean while, because of there are culture blanks between cultures and it is difficult to find the target language in our Chinese language, the translator has to interpret the slang instead of translating it directly.
"Big wheel" in the United States is a slang for an important or self-important person, while in Britain it just means the Ferris wheel in an amusement park.
"Bloomer" in current American speech is a humorous term for girls' or women's underpants( their name deriving from the name if a costume worn by American feminist Amelia Jenks Bloomer). While bloomers in Britain are blunders in speech, or bloopers, as they would be called in America.
2.2.4 Synchronic Feature of Slang
Because the creation and perishing of slang have high birth and death feature, to obtain the most popular and latest slang for a translator is very difficult. There is slang dictionary that goes out of date when it passes the whole publish process. And the slang which is downloaded from the Internet are lacking of authority and reliability. And from what just have been discussed above, one knows that English slang has its synchronic feature and varies from time to time.
III. The Formation of Slang
In English, the forms of slang result from the same ordinary word-building processes that produce the general vocabulary. To create new words, one can change the meaning, form, pronunciation, or part of speech of old ones; one can borrow from foreign language; one can coin new combinations of old words and word parts; or one can consciously invent some type of code device or acrostic based on unknown words.
English slang can be created in various of ways. Common ones are as follow;
3.1 Combining Words that Already Exist to Form New Words.
As it is known to all, English slang is very popular nowadays and the number of vocabulary grows bigger and bigger. Some of the new slang are created by combine words that already exist to form new words and give them new meaning.
For instance, snazzy(时髦的) is a new word blended by slang words snappy and jazzy .And embrangle is blended by embroil and entangle.
3.2 Creating New Compound.#p#分页标题#e#
Compounding is a new way to create new slang in English speaking country. It would be much easy to create new slang in this way because compounding is simply to combine two words together.
For instance, stag party(party or prom for males only), blind date(a date between different sex set by a third person ) and bachelor girl ( a unmarried girl )etc.
3.3 Adding New Meanings to the Words that Have Been Misunderstood or Misused.
Because the education difference between people, not all people can use standard language in communication. Some people with lower education may use the wrong word or phrase to express themselves, but they are being understood. And as the influence of these people grows, the people from the upper class try to understand their language by adding new meanings to the words that have been misunderstood or misused.
For example, lay off ( stop or leave alone, lay off hitting me, means "put something aside") , drop out( run away from reality or renounce the world , The hippies dropped out completely means "drop or fall from" )
3.4 Creating New Phrases by Using Figure of Speech.
Once you study English slang carefully, you will find that they are many phrases in slang are very vivid and can easily arouse people interests in them. And nowadays, people around the world are creating new phrases by using figure of speech in order to be unique in expressing themselves.
For instance, paint the town red (entertaining by holding a party and drinking alcohol), chew up the scenery (a performance that overdo) and see pink elephants ( delusions when one is drunk) etc.
3.5 Giving Words New Meanings.
There is another way to create a new English slang. And that is to simply give words new meanings. Because some of the words which exist a long time and their original meaning can not satisfy people's language demand any more.
For instance, to make (achieve a goal), rag (dull and boring magazine. You actually buy those rags), into ( like. I am really into gulf.)etc
3.6 Abbreviation.
Language tends to be concise as it develops. The most common way to be concise nowadays is to replacing the full form of words with just few letters. In another word, it is call abbreviation.
For instance , "DJ" is from disc jockey or dinner jacket; "pop" is from popular or popular music. And a lot of compounds are generated from "pop", for example, pop-art, pop-culture, pop-star, pop-fan etc.
There are a lot of ways to create a slang, among which giving new meanings to words is the most popular way.
IV. Classification of Slang
A domestic translation textbook has given the classification of slang like this: “Generally speaking, slang can be classified into three categories, first, euphemism; second is curse; third is coarse.”This reflects the linguists within the nation have a strong sense of prejudice against slang. Actually, slang has a strong life-force and creativity, so it spread in every fields of our every daily life. Slang have a wide-range of resource. Here are the categories according to resource.#p#分页标题#e#
4.1 Slang from Military
Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. It often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or derivations of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, or otherwise incorporates aspects of formal military concepts and terms. Military slang is often used to reinforce or reflect (usually friendly and humorous) interservice rivalries. Military slang has often been incorporated into wider usage. Military slang and jargon are distinguishable, as the latter has official currency, while the former is a grassroots phenomenon.
Some military slang terms have been come to be considered derogatory to varying degrees and audiences, and attempts have been made to curb their use.
And Military slang are usually used to comfort soldiers by understate danger and uncomfort..The tow World War set up lot of examples, like big Bertha, buys the farm, Dear John, gas house etc.
4.2 Slang from Media and Papers
Public media like paper, broadcast and TV etc also create lots of slang. For instance, docu, sitcom(situation comedy),phone-in(audience listening or coming to a show),chat-show(talk show),angel(sponsor of a show),bomb( faile in something),dry run(rehearse) etc.
4.3 Slang from Sports
Sports activities also produce slang. Sportsmen and sport journalists create slang and spread them out, and these slang usually also quite popular outside the sport circle. For example , call foul ,heavy weight( important people or a person who can drink a lot),hit a homer( success , comes from baseball),kick off something ect.
4.4 Slang from Modern Technique
With the development of modern science and technique, slang also develops within the field. For instance, bird (Telstar), chip head (a person who crazy about computer), the hard-wired (originally it refer to object, but now its reference is human) and the most hard-wired (the top people in technique) etc.
4.5 Slang from Campus
Campus definitely is one of the most productive places of slang. Students are very creative and language is the most welcomed access to present their unique personality. For example, ace a test( get high score in exam), book(leave a place), bummer (disappoint about something or someone), cake( pretty easy), crash( sleep), jam(hurry up), pull an all-nighter( stay up all night) .
4.6 Slang Created by the Black People.
American slang is getting to a globally influencing height in recently. Since talk about American slang, we can not mentioning the black slang. One can say that most American slang are come from or base on the Black slang. Here are some examples which come from Black slang; air out (take a walk), big eye (greedy man). chimney(head or hat), cool out(calm down), eighty-eight(piano), fat city(satisfied), four-and-one(Friday—a day on which get paid) etc .
4.7 Slang From Tourism
Slang also appears in Tourism industry. For the English slang in Tourism, there are two kinds of people who take the it in a two totally different. One group of people thinks that most of the slang is coarse language and informal and as a tour guide should not learn; some of them even believe that slang should be forbidden in Tourism industry as it is ruined the standard language. The other group think that English slang is kind of language which is fresh, feasible, vivid and visualize and it works like an necessary flavor of the English language. English slang applies in informal occasions.#p#分页标题#e#
Let see some English slang in Tourism, "a bit hit" means very popular; "bring down the house" means win a great game and son on.
4.8 Slang From Internet
Internet slang (Internet language, Internet Short-hand, netspeak or chatspeak) is a type of slang that Internet users[ have popularized and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols and shortened words are often used as methods of abbreviation in Internet slang.
In other cases, new dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup memes rather than time savers. In leet speak, letters may be replaced by characters of similar appearance. For this reason, leet is often written as l33t or 1337.
4.9 Slang in Business English
English Slang is more and more popular in business activities. Business English,as a special branch of English language,has its own unique social language background and connotations and plus the difficulties in the translating of English slang, which made the communications in the business field much more hard. Especially, when someone works as a business man, and not so capable in understanding the slang, he will be put into a very negative position when it comes to business negotiation.
Like how to understand this sentence, " I wanted her to know that many managers nowadays play the army game not only with their business counterparts, but also with their girl employees."
4.10 Slang in Sexuality
Sexual slang is a set of linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite or improper. Some of these add sexual meanings or referents to words that have non-sexual meanings in ordinary language, such as "pussy" or "gash" for vagina (actually vulva), "prick", "package", or "cock" for penis, "nuts", "sack", or "balls" for testicles, etc. Occasionally people's names are used as well for these purposes, e.g. "dick" or "johnson" for penis.
Related to sexual slang is slang related to defecation and flatulence (toilet humor, scatolinguistics). References to the anal tract are often given a sexual connotation in the context of anal sex (in particular, in a context of male homosexuality).
Except those categories have been mentioned above, there are still plenty of places where slang are produced, like stock market, politic and entertainment field etc. And slang also appears in the process of communications that happen between different peoples and areas. Although a part of slang are coarse language, which relates to criminal underworld, drudgers and prostitutes, made it difficult for ordinary people to accept, we should not have prejudice against slang by regarding it as inferiority language. The value of slang lays in it has meanings that standard language hasn’t, and slang always has a special effect in express ideas. If being used appropriately, slang can make language much more vivid. Study how to apply slang into practice and obtain the right ways is a necessary part of study task of our present students who now and then keep getting engaged in international intercourse, especially for those English enthusiasts who live by translating or read a lot.#p#分页标题#e#
V. Translation of English Slang
Translation has been known to exist since about 3000B.C., but as to the translation theories or principles, they are said to come into being in about 46 B.C. Peter Newmark has ever remarked on its origin:" Not a book, not an essay, not a treatise, not a paragraph, just a sentence or two from Cicero on the art of the rhetoric, telling a friend you should translate not the world but the sense, echoed by Danica Seleskovitch over 2000 years later. So translation theory was launched". (ibid,1997)
Yan Fu, a famous translator in China, proposed the "three principles of translation"— faithfulness, smoothness and elegance. These three principles were widely accepted as the essential criteria used to discuss translation ever since their first appearance and establish the foundation for Chinese scholar's investigation into the criteria of English- Chinese translation. Some of the scholars have brought new principles based on the former ones. Nowadays, a lot of people study the translation of English slang, which is a special branch in English language.
5.1 Equivalency in Slang Translation
According the definitions of slang, one can know slang’s features are “informality”, “strong sense of the times” and “richness of cultural connotations”etc. And these features determine the translation of slang should be different. Equivalency in slang translation refers to translate the text into the target language and do not lose its original meaning,culture connotation and style.
Once a famous professor divide the equivalence of translation into three apects; language equivalence, stylistic equivalence and socio-cultural equivalence. Among the three, language equivalence is the most important and should be considered in first place while translating. The professor’s equivalence classification is very brief and obviously would apply very well in translating slang. From the point of view of style, slang belongs to very “informal” style. From the language angle, the key of slang translation is to grasp the true meaning from the uniqueness of slang. And from the side of culture, a piece of slang contains special background and various cultural connotations. How to achieve the equivalence of language, style and culture while translating slang is what people are pursuing.
The professor further divides the language equivalency into pragmatic equivalence, semantic equivalence and grammar equivalence. Among the three, pragmatic equivalence comes first, semantic equivalence second and grammar equivalence last. But there is no fundamental difference between pragmatic equivalence and semantic equivalence since they are all about how to translate slang in a given context. For example, the meaning of words and sentences is learned and maintained by the use of which language is put in communicative situation. This point of view indicates that meaning is produced in the process of language use and closely relate to language application. Therefore, It is believed that what matters most about language equivalence is semantic equivalence in pragmatics (translated script has equivalent meaning with original version).#p#分页标题#e#
5.1.1 Equivalency of Meaning
Equivalency of meaning mainly refers that the translating version should contain all the information in the original version and have to be faithful to the original one.
As the previous paragraphs mentioned, most slang is created by add new meanings to the words that already exists. And the most common slang usually has lots of colorful meanings. Take “ace” for example, its original meaning is a “k”in poker. But in slang, it can be a noun which means someone very talented in some field (He is the ace of headwaiters) or a Dollar or baked sandwich. Also it can be a adjective, which can be used as “an ace professor”. In “He did it ace every time” “ace” is a adverb and a verb in “She aced him six times". When interpreting one should translate according to context. Lots of slang phrases are being used broadly, such as “get out here”in the conversation.
Marie: I agree. “Restaurants are to people in the 80’s what theater was to people in the 60’s. I read that in a magazine.
Jess: I wrote that.
Marie: GET OUT HERE
Jess: No ,I wrote that.
“Get out of here” is a slang phrase used daily. When used in different contexts, it can have lots of different pragmatic meanings, such "as surprise", "don’t trust", "impatient", ect. Throughout the conversation, Marie is surprised over the coincidence, so here it should be translated into “Are you kidding” which shows more faithfulness to the context. While “Get outta here” in the example below should be interpreted into “in no way that can happen”.
Is that your girlfriend? --- Get outta here!
Semantic equivalence comes first in translating slang, while grammar equivalence is based on the achievement of semantic equivalence. The author believes that grammar equivalence involves form not content, while focus too much on form only lead to interpret in a inflexible way. What must be pointed out is that concision in translation of slang has no difference with other material. “Concise and precise in language is one of the common standard of all Masterpieces, and this also can be adapted in translation.” (马红军，1999：22） The concision of slang requires the interpreted version should have the same quality of terseness.
5.1.2 Equivalence of Style
Equivalence of style refers to style of the translating version of a text should be the same or almost the same with the original one.
When language equivalence is presented, one should try to reach stylistic equivalence. “Informality” is one of the major features of slang, so when translating one should choose informal style to ensure the interpreted version is natural and vivid as the original one. For instance;
Annie: That’s what she called him at the show because he can’t sleep.
Buckeye: And now 2000 women want his number. The guy could be a crack head, a transvestite, a flasher, a junkie, a chain-saw murder or someone really sick. Someone, like my Rick.#p#分页标题#e#
In this conversation there are three slangs --“crackhead”, “flasher”, “junkie”. If one translate the slang by using the formal meanings in dictionaries, the colorful and beautiful spirits of the original version would be totally changed. And translator should take full advantage of the mother language, avoiding any unnatural appears in interpret version.
5.1.3 Equivalence of Culture
Equivalence of culture mainly refers to the well expression of the culture connotations from the original text to the translated version. In another word, the translator should try all means to transmit the culture connotations to the translated version.
There is no need in mentioning the relationship between slang and culture. According to a research, slang takes up ten percent of a normal-qualified American’s total vocabulary and most of which are daily use. And using a huge amount of slang reflects that Americans are big fan of being different and eager about changing. At the same time, the change and development of slang reflect the development of the American society. What is more, a considerable number of slang is direct-representation of American culture, let us say, “Mickey Mouse”—very popular for a time, “John Wayne”—a superstar in movie industry are all become daily use slang. And they can change part of speech, like “Mickey Mouse around”—wasting time and “John Wayne it”—present a posture like John Wayne.
It is pretty hard to achieve cultural equivalence in the process of translating slang because of the huge differences between Chinese culture and western world culture in lots of aspects, such as thinking modes, concepts of value and living customs ect. Take a script in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” for example, “What did I use to say? Here is looking at you? Here is mud in your eye.” Translator should not really think the “Here is mud in your eye” is the literal meaning because it definitely not what the actor intended to say. Here “mud in your eye” obviously is slang and its real meaning is “I hope that I can defeat you.” Even translator the meaning of slang and the stories behind it, it is still pretty hard to achieve cultural equivalence while translating, and sometimes it is impossible accomplish. If it is translated literally, the Chinese audience would hardly understand because no Chinese say “You have mud in your eye” while drinking alcohol. So when translate it, translators have to give up the cultural equivalence, rub through with “Cheers for you” or “wish you the best luck”.
Although it is hard to achieve cultural equivalence, interpreter also should keep “translation is a process of cultural communication in mind and while translating slang translator should try his or her best to maintain the cultural connotations of the original version. Especially when dealing with vivid figure of speech, interpreter should keep the image if it would not cause any difficulty for the reader to understand. For instance, translate “cool as a cucumber” into “酷得像黄瓜” and “cauliflower ears” into “烂菜花耳朵” are also make sense. Translator should believe that the reader have that kind of imagination to understand something they are not quite familiar with but well modified by figure of speech. How to handle the cultural connotations is a complex task, interpreter can not ignore them or take all without counterchanging but judge by context and facts. Like the example below;#p#分页标题#e#
Harry:…Got .Malamars, the greatest cookie of all time, and you are about to give the Nicks their first championship since 1973.
Here “the greatest cookie” definitely can not be translated as “最伟大的甜饼干”because no one on earth can understand it. In this case, translator has to go with “家伙，汉子”.
Harry: I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you are looking at me like I am nuts.
“Nut” originally means a kind snack, in slang means people or the head of human. When it appears in plural form --“Nuts” which means something or somebody is crazy , and obviously has nothing to do with snack. Since there is no such phenomenon in Chinese culture which also make interpretation a much more job to do.
5.2 Translation of the Slang In News
The frequently adoption of slang in English news is another significant feature of nowadays English. It is very common for slang to appears in news report, and slang as a informal language contributes a lot in making the news vivid, humour, close to the reader and finally meet the taste need of the public. When a journalist replaces common words with slang, this is not only a switch of meaning but also contains the emotion communication. And this requires that on one hand, one have to achieve the equivalence of semantic meaning; on the other hand, one need to pursue the stylistic and cultural equivalence when we translate English slang.
Anyway, there are huge culture difference between English and Chinese language which makes the diversity in communicative function of language. And it is hard to find the exactly corespondent in Chinese for slang in translation.
If the airlines can fill every seat they can find at full fare", says one Washington aviation expert, " they'd be nuts to sell seat for 30 or 40 percent off."
'"Nut" in this sentence means a person who isn't smart in brain. And with the help of the stressing, it has fully express the unhappy emotion.
On the contrary, people should find the right words in translating the Chinese slang to English in order to give the translate version the spirit of slang. At the same time,we need to take the culture difference into consideration, and to meet the need of the foreigner in their thinking mode and psychological custom.
When one say" act as a light bulb", the foreigner would hardly understand, and actually we want to express here is a third person who stays in the company of the two people, especially lovers, who would prefer to be alone. The right version is play gooseberry. And this version not only fit the thinking mode of the foreigner, no cultural obstruction created, but also finely expresses this special meaning and slang spirit.
5.3 Translation of Slang in Business English
As it is known to all, slang has widely-spread in Business English. English slang also has a magic power in bringing people together in business world. How to translate English slang in business is a very important thing to do and we know that it is not easy. For instance, Buddy, how long have you been in the biz? Are you fit means are you ready. Pick up the check means pay the bill. Front money means deposit. Be on the ball means someone who is smart,like in the sentence; She must be on the ball, or a lady can not usually head a department.#p#分页标题#e#
In the business negotiation, people tend to use the English slang below: "As i was about to say, i move that we table the discussion until our nest meeting when everyone is present." People tend to use batter, hammer out a deal, wheel and deal instead of negotiate. When talking about price, people use knock down the price, come down and dicker.
As a result of the blooming of English slang in Western countries, more and more slang will widely show up in movies, books, newspapers etc. Consequently, translators will undoubtedly encounter more and more slang in their translation not only of written data such as novels and magazines, but of spoken data like movies and plays. But to take a close view of present study of English in China, we are easy to find that scholars are not fully aware of the impor, tance of English slang study. It is true that some articles on certain aspects of English slang can be found in journals from linguistic view, yet few were aimed at the translation, some English slang into Chinese. As to the practice of slang translation, some English slang contained in novels or articles could be found to have been translated into Chinese, but the result is by no means satisfying as there are so many problems expounded in the previous discussion.
VI. Conclusion
Slang, from linguistic point of view, will definitely be widely touched upon as a more welcome way of communication than it is now. On one hand, no word is naturally or intrinsically meaner than another, so the existence and usage of slang are normal and justifiable; On the other hand, the distinctive characteristics of slang, such as novelty, innovation, brevity and humour, cater to the taste of modern people who seek a faster way of life. This essay mainly focusd on the introduction, formation, classifications of English slang and its translation techniques.
Having got a general idea of the significance of slang translation, the prosperous future of English slang and the unsatisfying and cold-shouldered status of slang translation, translators, who are supposed to build a bridge for the Eastern and Western culture, should become aware of the increasing significance of translating English slang into Chinese. Due attention and efforts should be given to the study of English slang translation and more work needs to be done into this special field. This paper is just an attempt into this field and hope to shed some light on the aspect of the slang translation.
In conclusion, author's idea is that informal as slang is, it comes from daily live and becomes a vivid language. Learning English slang can benefit a lot in understanding the western socio-culture, let's say their living habits, thinking mode and customs etc. Slang can help decorate language if used properly. In the process of slang translation, translators should try his or her best to achieve the equivalence of language, style and culture. Always remembering equivalence of pragmatic semantic is the most important factor in language equivalence. And this is the fundamental rule in slang translation. But semantic equivalence is far enough, translators should try everything possible to achieve stylistic equivalence. And about cultural connotations, translators should always keep in mind that "interpretation is cultural intercourse".#p#分页标题#e#
Bibliography
[1] Chamber’s Encyclopedia (New Revised Edition), Volume 12, London; International Learning Systems Corporation Ltd.1973.
[2] Dennis Andersen. The Book of slang, Jonathan David Publishers Inc, New York, 1975.
[3] Everyman’s Encyclopedia (Six Edition), Vol.11, edited by D.A. Girling, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd.,1978.
[4] New Dictionary of American slang, edited by Robert L. Chapman, The Macmillan Press LTD, London and Basingstoke,1987.
[5] Rod Laurence, 冯政·陈译文编译, Sleepless in Seattle, 成都音像出版社，1999.
[6] 何耀东. 《英文俚语与俗语》【M】。北京：华联出版社
[7] 马红军.《翻译批评散论》，中国对外翻译出版社公司，1999
[8] 汪福祥. 《现代英语俚语500例》 [M]. 外文社, 2000
[9] 杨芳. “商务英语中俚语的风格及翻译”.《上海科技翻译》2004.(1)
[10] 余郑璟. “对英语俚语翻译中等值性的思考”，《攀枝花学院院报》，2007
[11] 张佐成, 王彦. “商务英语的界定”[J].《国际商务》2002.(6).
As the development of culture and society keeps marching on, there are also something new being created and enriches language. In English language, there are a part of that language spoken by a certain group of people, people outside can hardly understand. That is called slang. The word “slang”, of uncertain origin, has been dated to about 1750 and was soon thereafter defined at least once as “street language”. Slang originally denoted cant, the restricted speech of the low, often criminal classes of society. However, the idea slang gradually evolved to denote more subcultural speech, both high and low, as well as more general but unconventional vocabulary.
Slang is informal, shared by certain group of people and full of cultural connotations. In American English, slang takes a pretty large part of that language and plays a positive important role in Americans’ lives in all aspects. Learning and obtaining some slang is very important for our English learners, especially for people in interpretation field.
Slang translation is a very tough job to do. Translators have to do whatever is possible to achieve language equivalence, stylistic equivalence and socio-cultural equivalence while interpreting slang. In order to do this, translators have to get quite familiar with western countries’ culture and the background of the slang. Meanwhile, translator should be a really good master of his or her mother language. In this essay the author will mainly focus on the introduction of slang and the ways of slang translation.
II. English Slang and Its Main Features
As it is known to all, English slang is widely used in every corner of this shrinking world. And English slang varies from place to place, race to race and nation to nation,which made it unique in English language and popular among all people. On the other hand, English slang has a lot of obvious features. The author will mainly focus on rhetorical feature,vividness and informality and so on.
2.1 Definition
English slang is a very complicated linguistic phenomenon. And some normal dictionaries defines that slang is a kind of highly colloquialized informal language, which is made up of new words, new meaning and some certain rhetorical devices. And all that made English slang vivid, sharp and humorous.
About the definition of “Slang”, there are various ideas coming up , but no standard definition has been given .
“What is slang? It is hard to define. Slang mainly refers to non-traditional words and phrases which used to express the new coming up things or new expressions toward things which already exist.” ( The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume16, William Bemton, 1952, p.850)
“Slang is a high-standard oral form, which is considered to be under the standard qualified language level, and usually constructed by non-prescriptive language order. Generally speaking, its function mainly to lower the solemnity of conversation and writing.” (Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume12, 1973, p.595)#p#分页标题#e#
“Slang usually is used in oral version, especially by certain group of people ,and usually for people within the group only . And it is difficulty for people outside the group. Slang could be humorous , meaningful , clever and imaginative and creative.”(Everyman's Encyclopaedia, Volume11, D.A. Girling, 1978, p.132)
The three ideas above indicate the features of slang from different perspectives. The first is all about the timeliness of slang. The second is about the non-prescriptive while the third is about the range of application of slang.
In a word, the author regard slang as an informal form of language, which is less formal than colloquialism but much more meaningfully in figure of speech .Slang has a strong sense of present time and it riches in cultural connotations. But it usually applicates on informal occasions. Possessing a great resource and created in relatively obdurate groups , slang may spread outside its originating area.
2.2 Features of English Slang
It is well known that English Slang has already wide spread and has become popular among common people. But why English slang has been adopted so widely and more and more English slang are taken into dictionaries. And this is because English slang has unique effect that no other vocabulary can bring to the text.
2.2.1 Rhetorical Features in Slang
As the beginning and development of literature culture, rhetorical device is not only the art of speech but also appears in everyday use. At the same time, English slang gradually comes out of English language by using rhetorical devices. There are some obvious rhetorical features in English slang, and the author will discuss that in details below.
2.2.1.1 Metaphor
G.K.Chesterton , a British poet and novelist, once said:" The word of slang is a kind of topsyturudom of poetry." Slang has strong local color and is very creative in the words it chooses which made the language vivid. And metaphor is the most common rhetorical device among English slang words. In order to illustrate something in a vivid way, people tend to adopt different vocabulary categories to convey meaning, and then makes the language much more expressive.
For instance, "He is a hard nut to crack" and "He doesn't know people are calling him a museum piece."
In these two sentences, it use "hard nut to crack" and " a museum piece" to state a person who is called out of date by others.
Metaphor also exists when people use "Are you taking a bird out?" to replace " Are you taking a girl out?".
Metaphor also appears in a lot of phrases. For example, people usually use "to be fed up with , a pain in the neck" to replace "a bothersome man or event".
The adoption of Metaphor in English slang has enriched the English language , and strengthened the comprehensiveness of the text by bringing imagination to the listener.
2.2.1.2 Euphemism
The language of slang tend to be humour and concise. In the process of social intercourse, there is something too embarrassing for the two conversation participates to bring up directly, but they are on some degree have to talk it over. And on this kind of occasion, English slang has play a very positive role in replacing the sensitive words by using euphemism, and eventually ease the embarrassment. Especially when the conversation is referring to death or other kind of topics, people usually use " to go west.to go up the flame,to turn one's heels, to be a goner, to turn one's toes up,to kick the bucket" to describe the truth of people's death. And this can ease people's pain by avoiding use "to die, to perish" or other words of the same kind.#p#分页标题#e#
At the mean while, it is will be much more proper to use slang when a context needs highly colloquialism to express local custom. And this is also tend to be more objective and can create a close and humourous effect in a given context, which is much more lively and close to common people. For instance, people using "my worse half "to replace "my husband","one's better half " to replace "one's wife",which enables the listener to feel the humorous and closeness. People also use "my egg,my fruit" instead of " dude, brother, friend", "to be in the family way,to have a touch of the sun,to have a bun in the oven" to replace " to become pregnant, to be with child". Maybe this kind of words are a little bit too coarse, but they can ease the awkwardness which brought by this kind of topic.
Considering the greetings before a class starts between student and teacher, teachers in United States have adopted a totally different way from the Chinese teachers because teachers in the US use "Hi! Guys,how are you doing today?" to replace "Good Morning,class." of the Chinese version. Obviously, the version of the American teachers' has passed a message of closeness to every student in the class,which also shorten the distance between teacher and student psychologically and makes the class much easy and acceptable.
2.2.2 Limitations of English Slang
Socio-linguistics believes that different social cultures worship different cultural mode, and language of a certain group varies with the context. So, language has different functions in different societies and even people in the same cultural group use different variants of the same language. Using English slang to communicate may create a more vivid and expressive effect than by standard language. For instance, "Jane is no chicken.She 's 35 if she 's a day". Here, "no chicken" means that she is not very wrong. "Stop beefing about your stomach-ache and get on with your work". And here "to beef about" means to complain and it also tend to criticize in a peaceful way in order not to hurt the feelings of the counter-partner.
On the contrary, Because English slang vocabulary comes from the subculture of US and British social groups, some of the slang reflects the living style of these groups and there are a lot of coarse words used by the people from the bottom of the society. So, in a word, the usage of slang is specified to some certain context,otherwise,it will cunning outwits itself.
Zheng yanchang, a well-known scholar in China, raised a example in his book"Language and Culture": The Queen of a European country is paid a visit to The United States, when she arrived Chicago, people there threw a big banquet reception for her and everything went well. When the visit about to end and Queen was going to leave, the mayor, on behalf of Chicago municipal made a speech on the banquet in order to extend his warm heart-felt amicableness, and he said:" The next time you come,bring the kids along." The mayor wanted to said that maybe next time the honourable Queen visit, please take her own children with her. But unfortunately, he used slang,which totally changed the effect. And the Queen and her Chancellors took it as the mayor has insulted their prince and princess by using improper title. So the atmosphere in the meeting changed dramatically, some of the attendants are stunned, some think it is unbelievable. Finally the American were totally embarrassed, and the Queen's Chancellors were in anger. (zheng yanchang, language and culture)#p#分页标题#e#
As you should see that English slang do have their own limitations to some degree. Slang belongs to certain group of people and varies with different situations. One should really keep an eye on this when we find ourselves engaged in some special occasions in international intercourse.
2.2.3 Representing Certain Specific Culture
It is believed that every layer of this society and every subculture group have their own contributes to the accumulation of slang words and its usage. And so slang is fully saturated in the subculture and reflects the value of cultural traditions in western world. And cross-culture communication is always a significant consideration in the translation process. Something like culture crash, culture conflict and culture misunderstanding are always unavoidable. At the mean while, because of there are culture blanks between cultures and it is difficult to find the target language in our Chinese language, the translator has to interpret the slang instead of translating it directly.
"Big wheel" in the United States is a slang for an important or self-important person, while in Britain it just means the Ferris wheel in an amusement park.
"Bloomer" in current American speech is a humorous term for girls' or women's underpants( their name deriving from the name if a costume worn by American feminist Amelia Jenks Bloomer). While bloomers in Britain are blunders in speech, or bloopers, as they would be called in America.
2.2.4 Synchronic Feature of Slang
Because the creation and perishing of slang have high birth and death feature, to obtain the most popular and latest slang for a translator is very difficult. There is slang dictionary that goes out of date when it passes the whole publish process. And the slang which is downloaded from the Internet are lacking of authority and reliability. And from what just have been discussed above, one knows that English slang has its synchronic feature and varies from time to time.
III. The Formation of Slang
In English, the forms of slang result from the same ordinary word-building processes that produce the general vocabulary. To create new words, one can change the meaning, form, pronunciation, or part of speech of old ones; one can borrow from foreign language; one can coin new combinations of old words and word parts; or one can consciously invent some type of code device or acrostic based on unknown words.
English slang can be created in various of ways. Common ones are as follow;
3.1 Combining Words that Already Exist to Form New Words.
As it is known to all, English slang is very popular nowadays and the number of vocabulary grows bigger and bigger. Some of the new slang are created by combine words that already exist to form new words and give them new meaning.
For instance, snazzy(时髦的) is a new word blended by slang words snappy and jazzy .And embrangle is blended by embroil and entangle.
3.2 Creating New Compound.#p#分页标题#e#
Compounding is a new way to create new slang in English speaking country. It would be much easy to create new slang in this way because compounding is simply to combine two words together.
For instance, stag party(party or prom for males only), blind date(a date between different sex set by a third person ) and bachelor girl ( a unmarried girl )etc.
3.3 Adding New Meanings to the Words that Have Been Misunderstood or Misused.
Because the education difference between people, not all people can use standard language in communication. Some people with lower education may use the wrong word or phrase to express themselves, but they are being understood. And as the influence of these people grows, the people from the upper class try to understand their language by adding new meanings to the words that have been misunderstood or misused.
For example, lay off ( stop or leave alone, lay off hitting me, means "put something aside") , drop out( run away from reality or renounce the world , The hippies dropped out completely means "drop or fall from" )
3.4 Creating New Phrases by Using Figure of Speech.
Once you study English slang carefully, you will find that they are many phrases in slang are very vivid and can easily arouse people interests in them. And nowadays, people around the world are creating new phrases by using figure of speech in order to be unique in expressing themselves.
For instance, paint the town red (entertaining by holding a party and drinking alcohol), chew up the scenery (a performance that overdo) and see pink elephants ( delusions when one is drunk) etc.
3.5 Giving Words New Meanings.
There is another way to create a new English slang. And that is to simply give words new meanings. Because some of the words which exist a long time and their original meaning can not satisfy people's language demand any more.
For instance, to make (achieve a goal), rag (dull and boring magazine. You actually buy those rags), into ( like. I am really into gulf.)etc
3.6 Abbreviation.
Language tends to be concise as it develops. The most common way to be concise nowadays is to replacing the full form of words with just few letters. In another word, it is call abbreviation.
For instance , "DJ" is from disc jockey or dinner jacket; "pop" is from popular or popular music. And a lot of compounds are generated from "pop", for example, pop-art, pop-culture, pop-star, pop-fan etc.
There are a lot of ways to create a slang, among which giving new meanings to words is the most popular way.
IV. Classification of Slang
A domestic translation textbook has given the classification of slang like this: “Generally speaking, slang can be classified into three categories, first, euphemism; second is curse; third is coarse.”This reflects the linguists within the nation have a strong sense of prejudice against slang. Actually, slang has a strong life-force and creativity, so it spread in every fields of our every daily life. Slang have a wide-range of resource. Here are the categories according to resource.#p#分页标题#e#
4.1 Slang from Military
Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. It often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or derivations of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, or otherwise incorporates aspects of formal military concepts and terms. Military slang is often used to reinforce or reflect (usually friendly and humorous) interservice rivalries. Military slang has often been incorporated into wider usage. Military slang and jargon are distinguishable, as the latter has official currency, while the former is a grassroots phenomenon.
Some military slang terms have been come to be considered derogatory to varying degrees and audiences, and attempts have been made to curb their use.
And Military slang are usually used to comfort soldiers by understate danger and uncomfort..The tow World War set up lot of examples, like big Bertha, buys the farm, Dear John, gas house etc.
4.2 Slang from Media and Papers
Public media like paper, broadcast and TV etc also create lots of slang. For instance, docu, sitcom(situation comedy),phone-in(audience listening or coming to a show),chat-show(talk show),angel(sponsor of a show),bomb( faile in something),dry run(rehearse) etc.
4.3 Slang from Sports
Sports activities also produce slang. Sportsmen and sport journalists create slang and spread them out, and these slang usually also quite popular outside the sport circle. For example , call foul ,heavy weight( important people or a person who can drink a lot),hit a homer( success , comes from baseball),kick off something ect.
4.4 Slang from Modern Technique
With the development of modern science and technique, slang also develops within the field. For instance, bird (Telstar), chip head (a person who crazy about computer), the hard-wired (originally it refer to object, but now its reference is human) and the most hard-wired (the top people in technique) etc.
4.5 Slang from Campus
Campus definitely is one of the most productive places of slang. Students are very creative and language is the most welcomed access to present their unique personality. For example, ace a test( get high score in exam), book(leave a place), bummer (disappoint about something or someone), cake( pretty easy), crash( sleep), jam(hurry up), pull an all-nighter( stay up all night) .
4.6 Slang Created by the Black People.
American slang is getting to a globally influencing height in recently. Since talk about American slang, we can not mentioning the black slang. One can say that most American slang are come from or base on the Black slang. Here are some examples which come from Black slang; air out (take a walk), big eye (greedy man). chimney(head or hat), cool out(calm down), eighty-eight(piano), fat city(satisfied), four-and-one(Friday—a day on which get paid) etc .
4.7 Slang From Tourism
Slang also appears in Tourism industry. For the English slang in Tourism, there are two kinds of people who take the it in a two totally different. One group of people thinks that most of the slang is coarse language and informal and as a tour guide should not learn; some of them even believe that slang should be forbidden in Tourism industry as it is ruined the standard language. The other group think that English slang is kind of language which is fresh, feasible, vivid and visualize and it works like an necessary flavor of the English language. English slang applies in informal occasions.#p#分页标题#e#
Let see some English slang in Tourism, "a bit hit" means very popular; "bring down the house" means win a great game and son on.
4.8 Slang From Internet
Internet slang (Internet language, Internet Short-hand, netspeak or chatspeak) is a type of slang that Internet users[ have popularized and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols and shortened words are often used as methods of abbreviation in Internet slang.
In other cases, new dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup memes rather than time savers. In leet speak, letters may be replaced by characters of similar appearance. For this reason, leet is often written as l33t or 1337.
4.9 Slang in Business English
English Slang is more and more popular in business activities. Business English,as a special branch of English language,has its own unique social language background and connotations and plus the difficulties in the translating of English slang, which made the communications in the business field much more hard. Especially, when someone works as a business man, and not so capable in understanding the slang, he will be put into a very negative position when it comes to business negotiation.
Like how to understand this sentence, " I wanted her to know that many managers nowadays play the army game not only with their business counterparts, but also with their girl employees."
4.10 Slang in Sexuality
Sexual slang is a set of linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite or improper. Some of these add sexual meanings or referents to words that have non-sexual meanings in ordinary language, such as "pussy" or "gash" for vagina (actually vulva), "prick", "package", or "cock" for penis, "nuts", "sack", or "balls" for testicles, etc. Occasionally people's names are used as well for these purposes, e.g. "dick" or "johnson" for penis.
Related to sexual slang is slang related to defecation and flatulence (toilet humor, scatolinguistics). References to the anal tract are often given a sexual connotation in the context of anal sex (in particular, in a context of male homosexuality).
Except those categories have been mentioned above, there are still plenty of places where slang are produced, like stock market, politic and entertainment field etc. And slang also appears in the process of communications that happen between different peoples and areas. Although a part of slang are coarse language, which relates to criminal underworld, drudgers and prostitutes, made it difficult for ordinary people to accept, we should not have prejudice against slang by regarding it as inferiority language. The value of slang lays in it has meanings that standard language hasn’t, and slang always has a special effect in express ideas. If being used appropriately, slang can make language much more vivid. Study how to apply slang into practice and obtain the right ways is a necessary part of study task of our present students who now and then keep getting engaged in international intercourse, especially for those English enthusiasts who live by translating or read a lot.#p#分页标题#e#
V. Translation of English Slang
Translation has been known to exist since about 3000B.C., but as to the translation theories or principles, they are said to come into being in about 46 B.C. Peter Newmark has ever remarked on its origin:" Not a book, not an essay, not a treatise, not a paragraph, just a sentence or two from Cicero on the art of the rhetoric, telling a friend you should translate not the world but the sense, echoed by Danica Seleskovitch over 2000 years later. So translation theory was launched". (ibid,1997)
Yan Fu, a famous translator in China, proposed the "three principles of translation"— faithfulness, smoothness and elegance. These three principles were widely accepted as the essential criteria used to discuss translation ever since their first appearance and establish the foundation for Chinese scholar's investigation into the criteria of English- Chinese translation. Some of the scholars have brought new principles based on the former ones. Nowadays, a lot of people study the translation of English slang, which is a special branch in English language.
5.1 Equivalency in Slang Translation
According the definitions of slang, one can know slang’s features are “informality”, “strong sense of the times” and “richness of cultural connotations”etc. And these features determine the translation of slang should be different. Equivalency in slang translation refers to translate the text into the target language and do not lose its original meaning,culture connotation and style.
Once a famous professor divide the equivalence of translation into three apects; language equivalence, stylistic equivalence and socio-cultural equivalence. Among the three, language equivalence is the most important and should be considered in first place while translating. The professor’s equivalence classification is very brief and obviously would apply very well in translating slang. From the point of view of style, slang belongs to very “informal” style. From the language angle, the key of slang translation is to grasp the true meaning from the uniqueness of slang. And from the side of culture, a piece of slang contains special background and various cultural connotations. How to achieve the equivalence of language, style and culture while translating slang is what people are pursuing.
The professor further divides the language equivalency into pragmatic equivalence, semantic equivalence and grammar equivalence. Among the three, pragmatic equivalence comes first, semantic equivalence second and grammar equivalence last. But there is no fundamental difference between pragmatic equivalence and semantic equivalence since they are all about how to translate slang in a given context. For example, the meaning of words and sentences is learned and maintained by the use of which language is put in communicative situation. This point of view indicates that meaning is produced in the process of language use and closely relate to language application. Therefore, It is believed that what matters most about language equivalence is semantic equivalence in pragmatics (translated script has equivalent meaning with original version).#p#分页标题#e#
5.1.1 Equivalency of Meaning
Equivalency of meaning mainly refers that the translating version should contain all the information in the original version and have to be faithful to the original one.
As the previous paragraphs mentioned, most slang is created by add new meanings to the words that already exists. And the most common slang usually has lots of colorful meanings. Take “ace” for example, its original meaning is a “k”in poker. But in slang, it can be a noun which means someone very talented in some field (He is the ace of headwaiters) or a Dollar or baked sandwich. Also it can be a adjective, which can be used as “an ace professor”. In “He did it ace every time” “ace” is a adverb and a verb in “She aced him six times". When interpreting one should translate according to context. Lots of slang phrases are being used broadly, such as “get out here”in the conversation.
Marie: I agree. “Restaurants are to people in the 80’s what theater was to people in the 60’s. I read that in a magazine.
Jess: I wrote that.
Marie: GET OUT HERE
Jess: No ,I wrote that.
“Get out of here” is a slang phrase used daily. When used in different contexts, it can have lots of different pragmatic meanings, such "as surprise", "don’t trust", "impatient", ect. Throughout the conversation, Marie is surprised over the coincidence, so here it should be translated into “Are you kidding” which shows more faithfulness to the context. While “Get outta here” in the example below should be interpreted into “in no way that can happen”.
Is that your girlfriend? --- Get outta here!
Semantic equivalence comes first in translating slang, while grammar equivalence is based on the achievement of semantic equivalence. The author believes that grammar equivalence involves form not content, while focus too much on form only lead to interpret in a inflexible way. What must be pointed out is that concision in translation of slang has no difference with other material. “Concise and precise in language is one of the common standard of all Masterpieces, and this also can be adapted in translation.” (马红军，1999：22） The concision of slang requires the interpreted version should have the same quality of terseness.
5.1.2 Equivalence of Style
Equivalence of style refers to style of the translating version of a text should be the same or almost the same with the original one.
When language equivalence is presented, one should try to reach stylistic equivalence. “Informality” is one of the major features of slang, so when translating one should choose informal style to ensure the interpreted version is natural and vivid as the original one. For instance;
Annie: That’s what she called him at the show because he can’t sleep.
Buckeye: And now 2000 women want his number. The guy could be a crack head, a transvestite, a flasher, a junkie, a chain-saw murder or someone really sick. Someone, like my Rick.#p#分页标题#e#
In this conversation there are three slangs --“crackhead”, “flasher”, “junkie”. If one translate the slang by using the formal meanings in dictionaries, the colorful and beautiful spirits of the original version would be totally changed. And translator should take full advantage of the mother language, avoiding any unnatural appears in interpret version.
5.1.3 Equivalence of Culture
Equivalence of culture mainly refers to the well expression of the culture connotations from the original text to the translated version. In another word, the translator should try all means to transmit the culture connotations to the translated version.
There is no need in mentioning the relationship between slang and culture. According to a research, slang takes up ten percent of a normal-qualified American’s total vocabulary and most of which are daily use. And using a huge amount of slang reflects that Americans are big fan of being different and eager about changing. At the same time, the change and development of slang reflect the development of the American society. What is more, a considerable number of slang is direct-representation of American culture, let us say, “Mickey Mouse”—very popular for a time, “John Wayne”—a superstar in movie industry are all become daily use slang. And they can change part of speech, like “Mickey Mouse around”—wasting time and “John Wayne it”—present a posture like John Wayne.
It is pretty hard to achieve cultural equivalence in the process of translating slang because of the huge differences between Chinese culture and western world culture in lots of aspects, such as thinking modes, concepts of value and living customs ect. Take a script in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” for example, “What did I use to say? Here is looking at you? Here is mud in your eye.” Translator should not really think the “Here is mud in your eye” is the literal meaning because it definitely not what the actor intended to say. Here “mud in your eye” obviously is slang and its real meaning is “I hope that I can defeat you.” Even translator the meaning of slang and the stories behind it, it is still pretty hard to achieve cultural equivalence while translating, and sometimes it is impossible accomplish. If it is translated literally, the Chinese audience would hardly understand because no Chinese say “You have mud in your eye” while drinking alcohol. So when translate it, translators have to give up the cultural equivalence, rub through with “Cheers for you” or “wish you the best luck”.
Although it is hard to achieve cultural equivalence, interpreter also should keep “translation is a process of cultural communication in mind and while translating slang translator should try his or her best to maintain the cultural connotations of the original version. Especially when dealing with vivid figure of speech, interpreter should keep the image if it would not cause any difficulty for the reader to understand. For instance, translate “cool as a cucumber” into “酷得像黄瓜” and “cauliflower ears” into “烂菜花耳朵” are also make sense. Translator should believe that the reader have that kind of imagination to understand something they are not quite familiar with but well modified by figure of speech. How to handle the cultural connotations is a complex task, interpreter can not ignore them or take all without counterchanging but judge by context and facts. Like the example below;#p#分页标题#e#
Harry:…Got .Malamars, the greatest cookie of all time, and you are about to give the Nicks their first championship since 1973.
Here “the greatest cookie” definitely can not be translated as “最伟大的甜饼干”because no one on earth can understand it. In this case, translator has to go with “家伙，汉子”.
Harry: I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you are looking at me like I am nuts.
“Nut” originally means a kind snack, in slang means people or the head of human. When it appears in plural form --“Nuts” which means something or somebody is crazy , and obviously has nothing to do with snack. Since there is no such phenomenon in Chinese culture which also make interpretation a much more job to do.
5.2 Translation of the Slang In News
The frequently adoption of slang in English news is another significant feature of nowadays English. It is very common for slang to appears in news report, and slang as a informal language contributes a lot in making the news vivid, humour, close to the reader and finally meet the taste need of the public. When a journalist replaces common words with slang, this is not only a switch of meaning but also contains the emotion communication. And this requires that on one hand, one have to achieve the equivalence of semantic meaning; on the other hand, one need to pursue the stylistic and cultural equivalence when we translate English slang.
Anyway, there are huge culture difference between English and Chinese language which makes the diversity in communicative function of language. And it is hard to find the exactly corespondent in Chinese for slang in translation.
If the airlines can fill every seat they can find at full fare", says one Washington aviation expert, " they'd be nuts to sell seat for 30 or 40 percent off."
'"Nut" in this sentence means a person who isn't smart in brain. And with the help of the stressing, it has fully express the unhappy emotion.
On the contrary, people should find the right words in translating the Chinese slang to English in order to give the translate version the spirit of slang. At the same time,we need to take the culture difference into consideration, and to meet the need of the foreigner in their thinking mode and psychological custom.
When one say" act as a light bulb", the foreigner would hardly understand, and actually we want to express here is a third person who stays in the company of the two people, especially lovers, who would prefer to be alone. The right version is play gooseberry. And this version not only fit the thinking mode of the foreigner, no cultural obstruction created, but also finely expresses this special meaning and slang spirit.
5.3 Translation of Slang in Business English
As it is known to all, slang has widely-spread in Business English. English slang also has a magic power in bringing people together in business world. How to translate English slang in business is a very important thing to do and we know that it is not easy. For instance, Buddy, how long have you been in the biz? Are you fit means are you ready. Pick up the check means pay the bill. Front money means deposit. Be on the ball means someone who is smart,like in the sentence; She must be on the ball, or a lady can not usually head a department.#p#分页标题#e#
In the business negotiation, people tend to use the English slang below: "As i was about to say, i move that we table the discussion until our nest meeting when everyone is present." People tend to use batter, hammer out a deal, wheel and deal instead of negotiate. When talking about price, people use knock down the price, come down and dicker.
As a result of the blooming of English slang in Western countries, more and more slang will widely show up in movies, books, newspapers etc. Consequently, translators will undoubtedly encounter more and more slang in their translation not only of written data such as novels and magazines, but of spoken data like movies and plays. But to take a close view of present study of English in China, we are easy to find that scholars are not fully aware of the impor, tance of English slang study. It is true that some articles on certain aspects of English slang can be found in journals from linguistic view, yet few were aimed at the translation, some English slang into Chinese. As to the practice of slang translation, some English slang contained in novels or articles could be found to have been translated into Chinese, but the result is by no means satisfying as there are so many problems expounded in the previous discussion.
VI. Conclusion
Slang, from linguistic point of view, will definitely be widely touched upon as a more welcome way of communication than it is now. On one hand, no word is naturally or intrinsically meaner than another, so the existence and usage of slang are normal and justifiable; On the other hand, the distinctive characteristics of slang, such as novelty, innovation, brevity and humour, cater to the taste of modern people who seek a faster way of life. This essay mainly focusd on the introduction, formation, classifications of English slang and its translation techniques.
Having got a general idea of the significance of slang translation, the prosperous future of English slang and the unsatisfying and cold-shouldered status of slang translation, translators, who are supposed to build a bridge for the Eastern and Western culture, should become aware of the increasing significance of translating English slang into Chinese. Due attention and efforts should be given to the study of English slang translation and more work needs to be done into this special field. This paper is just an attempt into this field and hope to shed some light on the aspect of the slang translation.
In conclusion, author's idea is that informal as slang is, it comes from daily live and becomes a vivid language. Learning English slang can benefit a lot in understanding the western socio-culture, let's say their living habits, thinking mode and customs etc. Slang can help decorate language if used properly. In the process of slang translation, translators should try his or her best to achieve the equivalence of language, style and culture. Always remembering equivalence of pragmatic semantic is the most important factor in language equivalence. And this is the fundamental rule in slang translation. But semantic equivalence is far enough, translators should try everything possible to achieve stylistic equivalence. And about cultural connotations, translators should always keep in mind that "interpretation is cultural intercourse".#p#分页标题#e#
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