The vacuum of structuralism and translation studies

The vacuum of structuralism and translation studies Xu Xiumei Gong Qinyan (Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, Shandong, China) Structuralist philosophy emerged from Saussure’s structuralist linguistic theory and exerted a tremendous influence on the study of translation theory.

Structuralism is embodied in the pursuit of certainty. Under its influence, the study of translation theory emphasizes the principle of loyalty, which has a profound influence on the study of translation theories. The contemporary translation theory puts forward many different opinions on this, and believes that the meaning is uncertain, and the principle of loyalty has also led to the need for different views.

Structuralist Philosophy; Structuralist Linguistics; Structuralist Translation Theory; Vacuum of Translation Studies Xu Xiumei (1970-), female, Linyi, Shandong, lecturer and master of arts in Shandong University of Foreign Studies, is mainly engaged in translation theory research and teaching.

The study of translation theory is influenced by many factors, among which the influence of philosophy and poetics with the characteristics of the times is particularly significant. In addition, because translation activities involve the processing of texts with language content, the study of translation theories by linguistic theories will inevitably have a great influence. In a variety of philosophical and linguistic theories, structuralist theory has a particularly large impact on translation. Various translation theories are more or less influenced by structuralism, or have an inseparable relationship with structuralism. However, contemporary translation theory finds that translation practice is not limited to text-level operations. It involves at least the participants of the translation activities (including the original author, translators, and readers). It must not be overlooked that translation activities are always at a certain level. In the historical, cultural, social, and political contexts, the role of these external environmental factors in translation cannot be underestimated. The position of research on structuralism in dealing with the aforementioned aspects has allowed us to understand more deeply the nature of traditional and contemporary translation theories.

I. Brief Analysis of Structuralist Philosophy and Linguistic Theories Structuralism originated in Swiss linguist F.de Saussure and was later applied to anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies and literary criticism. The focus of structuralism research is to analyze the deep structure of all things in order to discover the objective nature of these things. Structuralism believes that a structure is self-contained. Understanding a structure does not need to resort to any factor that has nothing to do with its nature. The theory emphasizes an objective analysis of things and tries to avoid the influence of subjective factors in the process of analysis. Therefore, the pursuit of objectivity and certainty is the most prominent feature of structuralism.

Saussure believes that language research must move away from the tendency of historical linguistics in the 19th century to describe merely the history of language development. Instead, it should turn to a systematic and scientific analysis of language, "seeking to be eternal universally effective in all languages. Strength, sort out the general laws that can summarize all special historical phenomena." He made the following three hypotheses: First, the systematicness of the language (the whole is more than the sum of the parts), and the second is the concept of the relationship between the components of the language (the nature of the language is the combination of The third is the arbitrariness of language (the composition of language is not determined by the nature of its constituents, but by the function of its constituents and the purpose of use). The above three assumptions constitute The foundation of structuralism.

Structuralist linguistics considers language as a self-contained system that can be analyzed in several levels: unit, structure, class, and system. After such an analysis, a language model can be obtained, which is objective because it is an analysis of the object of language itself and does not involve the subjective influence of the analyst. Since emphasizing the independence and objectivity of language itself, structuralism disregards the historicity of language. “The purpose of structuralism is to find a definite structure and establish a systematic knowledge that can be grasped.” And structuralism ignores it. The language of the external environment that produces the language, the users of the language, and the language of the language user. The application of structuralism in literary analysis and research shows the following characteristics: Ignore the analysis of the meaning of the work, and pay attention to the analysis of the works that produce meaning and the structure of the text. The analysis of literary works is not an analysis of the content, but an analysis of the structure of the work because the meaning of the work is hidden in the structure of the work. “Structurists believe that there is a universal law underneath various complex superficial phenomena. These laws are structures. By dividing the constituent elements of the merged works, one can ascertain that language information has become a work of art. The mystery "literary work is a structured symbol system. Analyzing the structure of this system is the main task of the analysis of the work. The author's subjective intention is also ignored because the meaning is generated by the language and its structure, not by the author's intention or the author's conscious speech act. Therefore, decentralized. In literary creation, structuralism believes that the content of a work is subject to the structure of the work and is a less important thing than the structure.

Structuralism in sociology and psychology research mainly focuses on the establishment of social and psychological reality models. The creation of models must rely on deep analysis of the objects. Structuralism believes that the prerequisite for understanding the surface structure is to understand the deep structure and understand how the deep structure affects the surface structure. The reason why it is determined to carry out deep analysis and model creation is because structuralism thinks that human thinking activities have the same identity. Although the performance of various ethnic groups in culture and language is very different, their psychological processes are consistent. The identity of psychological processes arises from the biological nature of the human brain and its mode of activity. This biological property is shared by all ethnic groups, even though the primitive people also have the same biological characteristics as modern humans. Structuralism believes that this analysis is fully capable of finding this model.

Another characteristic of structuralism is its static and non-historical nature. The structure of language is stable and its stability results from the biological identity shared by humans. It does not care about the history of language, and does not consider the influence of history on the current language. It considers what the current structure of language is. Not only does the language itself have a structure, the natural world, the human cultural world, and society all have structures. Through the analysis of the structure, we can discover the essence of each system. For human cultural systems, the structuralist point of view is still the nature of structural decisions. Levi-Strauss, a French structuralist, believes that the surface phenomena of culture reflect the common tendency of human beings. This tendency is reflected in the order and classification of human experience. This is the deep structure of human culture. The surface structure is only a reflection of the deep structure. The deep structure determines the essence of culture. For the cultural system, this deep structure is more important than the surface structure. Despite the many changes in the surface structure, the deep structure is stable because its internal principle of ordering remains unchanged. Piaget believes that the structure is autonomous, and the understanding of the structure does not require any involvement with anything unrelated to this. Noam Chomsky pointed out that although the surface structures of various languages ​​are different, they have the same logical syntax structure, namely deep structure. It is this deep structure that forms the basis of translation. The translation process goes through the conversion process of the surface structure A-deep structure-surface structure B and is completed from this.

In anthropological studies, structuralism finds that people's thinking patterns in all cultures are consistent. Therefore, structuralism uses the universality of human thinking to explain the deep structure behind cultural phenomena and its significance.

The emergence of structuralism has profound historical reasons. From the historical background generated by structuralism, it can be found that the prevalence of natural science was the pursuit of certainty. Everything has a structure, grasping the structure of things, also grasp the essence of things.

The emergence of structuralism also has its profound philosophical foundations. The tradition of Western philosophy is to pursue certainty. The external world is governed by natural laws. Only through human rational analysis can we discover such laws. Humans have exactly this ability to analyze and discover the laws of the external world. Structuralism attaches importance to the structure, and its philosophical basis is precisely this pursuit of certainty.

From the above analysis we can see the essential characteristics of structuralism: First, structuralism believes that everything exists in the system. Therefore, to understand the meaning and essence of things, we must first understand the system in which it is located; Structuralism insists that human beings, no matter what society they are in, have the same deep psychological structure. This is the real reason why people of different ethnic groups can understand each other. This is precisely the basis of structuralist translation theory; It emphasizes objectivity and tries its best to avoid the influence of subjective factors on the structural analysis process, because it firmly believes that through the analysis of the structure of things, it can fully grasp the essence of things, and thus make this analysis process scientific.

Second, the impact of structuralism on translation research Structuralism has a major impact on translation studies, which is completely understandable, because structuralism comes from Saussure's analysis of the language system, and language is the main processing in the translation process. Object. Under the influence of structuralism, various translation theories have been produced. Below we will analyze representative views in order to discover the common nature of these views.

Representative, his translation theory believes that "all languages ​​have the same power of expression"

In other words, what a language expresses can be expressed in another language, which results in translatability between different languages. Nida's translation theory, from his dynamic equivalence to functional equivalence, emphasizes the equivalence between the translated text and the original text. What he pursues is to reproduce the meaning of the original text as completely as possible, and to keep the communicative function of the translation and the original text unchanged, so that the target audience will have the same reaction as the original reader. Although Nida noticed the communicative function of translation, his opinion is still based on the belief that the meaning can be found accurately and can be accurately expressed in another language. The so-called functional equivalence is based on the fact that the meaning remains unchanged.

Structuralist translation theory sees language as a system. The system has its own deep structure. These deep structures are embodied in several core sentences. Through an objective analysis of the language system, one language can be successfully converted into another language. In translation, the role of the translator should be minimized or the translator must be prevented from acting because an objective analysis of the language system can produce an ideal translation. Yan Fu’s three principles of “belief, fulfillment, and elegance” emphasize that translators should be faithful to the original text and fully express the meaning and style of the original text in the translation. In his letter to Lu Xun, Qu Qiubai pointed out: "Translation should fully introduce the original meaning of the original text to Chinese readers, so that the Chinese reader's concept is equal to the English, Japanese, Japanese, German and German laws."

He stressed the importance of correctly understanding the original text and expressing the meaning of the original text. Ge Chuan believes that translation does not allow the addition, deletion or change of the original text. This limits the translator's activities to a narrow range, so that all activities of the translator must be centered on the original text, that is: a good translator should completely convert the merits of the original text into the translation, his theory It also emphasizes the translator's faithfulness to the original text. The word "completely" is a concept that belongs to the same category as "correct" and "accuracy". Its essence is nothing more than to emphasize absolute fidelity to the original text. JC Catford believes that translation is the replacement of text in one language with text in another language. It can be seen that what he emphasizes is the processing of texts in the process of translation, and that the translation is limited to the processing of texts. Translation is seen as a process in which texts in different languages ​​are replaced with each other. Zhong Shukong also pointed out that the translator must understand the original text accurately and accurately express the meaning of the original text. He also emphasized the correctness and accuracy of content understanding and expression. To do this, it must be faithful to the original text. Otherwise, what is correct and accurate is that the essence is still text-centeredism.

Newmark proposed a variety of translation methods. These methods are all based on text, with the determination of meaning and accuracy of expression as the highest level of pursuit. The semantic translation proposed by Newmark emphasizes “reproducing the contextual meaning of the original as accurately as possible”

Moreover, even the grammatical and lexical phenomena deviating from the norm in the original text must be preserved in the translation. In short, what he emphasizes is absolute faithfulness to the original text.

The common feature of the translators mentioned above is that through the analysis of the original text, the translator can accurately understand the content of the original text, grasp the form and style of the original text, and accurately express it in the translation. This reflects the structuralism's pursuit of objectivity and certainty. Text is the center of translation activities and the basis for choosing translation methods. None of these theories have created a place for the translators. They are basically squeezing the translations out of translation activities, which has led to the translator's invisibility.

It can be seen that what they emphasize is the processing of the text, and the role of the translator has not received enough attention. Regarding the purpose of translation activities, the environment in which translation activities are conducted, and the various factors influencing translation activities, structuralist translation theory does not attach importance, and even takes an attitude of hostility, treating the influence of translator's subjective factors as the enemy of translation activities. . As for the historical and cultural context of translation activities, structuralist translation theory does not attach importance, because these factors have nothing to do with the meaning of the text. The meaning of the text is determined by the structure of the text itself.

The general characteristic of structuralist translation theory is to confine all activities to the scope of the text because they believe that language is an autonomous system. Then, the text is also an autonomous system.

All meanings are contained in the structure, and the meaning of the text is determined. As long as the structure of the text is analyzed, the meaning of the text can be found. Since the scope of the activity of structuralist translation theory is limited to the scope of the text, it refuses to consider any factors other than text, including social, political, cultural, power, and ideological factors. This general feature is reflected in all aspects related to translation. In the essence of translation, structuralist translation theory holds that translation is the process of accurately conveying the original text information, emphasizing accuracy and correctness, that is: correctly understanding the original text and accurately expressing it in the target language text. On the standard of translation, structuralist translation and reassignment includes increasing the content that does not exist in the original text, or reducing the content that already exists in the original text. The perfect translation is a translation that does not increase. Yan Fu’s words “belief and attainment” mean this. Translation is copying. It should not only completely reproduce the content of the original, but also completely reproduce the original form and style. From the viewpoints of Dao’an and Xuan Zang’s translation of Buddhist scriptures, we can also see that when encountering so-called untranslatable phenomena, translators often resort to the method of preserving the language used in the original text and dare not to create it. Play. Nida said that when the target readers read the translation, they have the same reaction as when the original reader reads the original text. Although they pay attention to the target readers and the translated text, they also demonstrate the worship of the original text in structuralist translation theory. . Therefore, we can see that in the structuralist translation theory, the status of the original text is the first and has a decisive significance. All translation activities must be limited by the original text and must absolutely obey the original text. The translator must also absolutely obey the author of the original text. The so-called translator is the “servant” of the author of the original text. Since it is a servant, there is no power to disobey the master's will, let alone change the owner's will.

Structuralist translation theory has had a tremendous impact on the study of translation theory and its practical activities. Its advantages and disadvantages are very obvious. Its advantage is that translation theory has finally got rid of the long-term tendency of empiricism and mysticism, which has given the theory of translation a certain theoretical basis. However, its drawbacks can not be ignored. For a long time, the translator's status was low. He was only a voice, a servant, and a matchmaker. He only had the obligation to obey, but he did not have the power to speak. The translator's life is like "dancing with the cricket" or like a "tightrope walker". The translator pursues the exact meaning of the original text in pain and pursues perfect expression in all kinds of torture. For the original author, the translator is willing to endure the pain; for the target reader, the translator is willing to suffer.

The structural feature of structuralist translation theory is prescriptive. It prescribes what the translation should look like, ignoring the reality of the translation activity. The fact that the requirements put forward by regularism are difficult to achieve in translation practice is that the reading activities often misunderstand or misread (including intentional misreading and unintentional misreading), and misunderstanding occurs in the process of understanding. (Including unintentional misunderstandings and intentional misunderstandings). True accuracy cannot be achieved in real translation activities.

However, the disadvantages of structuralist translation theory are not only expressed in the position of the translator. The key drawback is that it ignores translation as a social activity, ignoring the role of the translator, and also ignoring the translator as a person who exists in society. Its essential attribute is his sociality. Therefore, structuralist translation theory puts translation theory research and translation practice into a vacuum.

3. The vacuum of structuralism and translation We say that structuralist translation theory puts translation research and practice into a vacuum. It does not mean that its theory is empty, but that its theory puts translation practice activities in a position free from external influence. In the environment. According to the contemporary translation theory, the factors that have a significant impact on translation should at least include the translator's individuality and sociality, economy, politics, power, trustee and other factors. What is overlooked by structuralist translation theory is precisely these important factors. Structuralist translation theory confines translation activities within the space of text. It precisely ignores the social characteristics that translation has as a social practice. Therefore, translation activities fall into a realm that appears to be objective, scientific, and pure. . Even in the seemingly pure world of the text, the acceptance theory found that there are a lot of “blank *(g/%*) and “undefined” texts in the text. “The reader actually participated in the process of reading the text. With the creation of textual meaning, different readers will have a different understanding even if they read the same text.

Chang Jian, Li Guoshan. A general history of European and American philosophy. Tianjin: Nankai University publishes Saussure. General linguistics tutorial. Translation of Gao Mingkai. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1980.29. Zhang Fa. The 20th Century History of Western Aesthetics Chengdu: Sichuan People's Publishing House, Lu Jun. The reconstruction of the Babitta across cultural barriers. Nanjing: Southeast University Press, 2001.50. Tan Zaixi. The new translation of Nida theory. Beijing: China's foreign translation and publishing Sun Yingchun. Translation dictionary. Beijing: China Esperanto Publishing House, 1999. Shen Yuping ed. Western translation theory selection. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research. Contemporary British translation theory. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, Zhang Zhong Zai, et al. Selected Readings of Western Literary Theory in the 20th Century. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002.277-285. Yuan Li. The Concept of Hermeneutics Research in the Subject of Literary Translation . Journal of the PLA Foreign Languages ​​University, 2003, (6): 76. (Editor Li Fengchao)

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