摘 要：本文从对表音文字的翻译和翻译规则的角度，对比与分析了中文与日语在翻译英语外来语过程中的不同之处，并且发现了中文与日语存在差异，中文在翻译外来语的过程中比起外来语的发音，更加重视其汉字的使用，即中文对外来语的翻译更加注重意译。本文主要说明在翻译外来语时，中文应该更加强调避免词汇的混淆和保持翻译规则的一致性。
Abstract：This article compares and analyses the differences between Chinese and Japanese in translating loanwords from English in terms of strategies for translating phonograms and rules of translation . And it finds that unlike Japanese ，Chinese tends to attach much importance to the literal meanings of the loanwords rather than their pronunciations.And Chinese applies more paraphrases than transliterations to the translation of loanwords.The article concludes that Chinese should pay much attention to the ambiguity and consistency of rules when translating loanwords.
关键词：外来语；表音文字；表意文字；元语言；对象语言
Key words：loanword；phonogram；ideogram； metalanguage；object-language
[中图分类号]：H035 [文献标识码]：A
[文章编号]：1002-2139（2012）-24--03
Introduction
Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on 11 Oct. 2012 for works which combine "hallucinatory realism"[1] with folk tales， history and contemporary life in China.In Chinese "hallucinatory realism"is translated into"魔幻现实主义"，but in English there is another expression "magic realism"[2]，which is also translated into"魔幻现实主义"in Chinese.By comparing the strategies for translating loanwords in Chinese and Japanese ，the article deals with some translation problems in Chinese.
1.Strategies for Translating Phonograms
Many words in Chinese originate from foreign countries； instances are democracy， legality， right， physics， nature， and philosophy， which spread to China via Japan. They were Chinese words created by Japanese people during their translation of western literature after Meiji Restoration. These words have played an important role in facilitating Chinese people’s understanding of western cultures. Different from Japanese which consists of Chinese characters， Hiragana， Katakana， and letters， the Chinese language has characters as its sole components. And it is the only language using ideographic system. Even for the same Chinese character， there are differences between Chinese and Japanese languages.
It may be observed from Table 1 that the 3 groups of words are different no matter in oral or written forms in Japanese. But in Chinese， ambiguities tend to arise when these words are spoken. The Chinese people attach more importance to the characters than to pronunciations， which is deemed character-centrism. However， English is phonogramic. English words are basically easy to be pronounced once the person sees the spelling， for instances： read， like， motion， bike， etc. In the present paper， English is regarded as the meta-language， the object-languages being Chinese and Japanese. In addition to the above-mentioned problems， there are the following problems concerning the translation of phonograms into Chinese. As every Chinese character bears its literal meaning， it is inevitable that some translated words are disturbed by the object-language. A typical example is the usage of "文化" and "文明 "in China， which first comes from western words culture and civilization separately. In Chinese， both two words share one character in common， that is “文”. Thus the two words become synonyms. However in English， the two are opposite in meaning， the former being rural， while the latter civil. In Chinese， the word “文化”in the sentence “你有文化” indicates knowledge. Since Japanese still has transliterated words， it is convenient to differentiate the two.
According to the Japanese KOJIEN，in ancient Chinese "民主"means the master of the people ，namely "monarch"；in modern Chinese ，"民主"means Democracy.Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows people to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal， development， and creation of laws. It encompasses social， economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.
In Chinese， the word “民主”can also be used to refer to the master of the people， namely， “monarch”， which is poles apart from democracy. In Japanese， there is the transliterated word デモクラシー（demokurasi）to avoid ambiguity.
2.Transliteration and Paraphrase
After the defeat in the World War II， Japan has preferred the transliteration in the introduction of foreign words. There are two reasons for this： the first is that it brings too much trouble using Chinese characters in translations； the second is that this is susceptible to ambiguities.
In Chinese there are examples that give consideration to both transliteration and paraphrase， but the number is few.
What the Chinese language encounters in translating loanwords is a dilemma that it is very difficult to use ideograms to reproduce phonograms.
Japan introduced Chinese characters in the 8th century， and on this basis created Hiragana and Katakana. This successful case has enabled Japanese to be more experienced in introducing English words. China， on the other hand， has always been the advanced country in the Chinese cultural circle in East Asia. Its people have an attitude of exclusion towards alien things. For example， the word“逻辑”is the transliteration of the foreign word “logic”. Before this version， there have been translations such as “名学、辩学、论理学、理则”. Over four hundred years has passed before “逻辑” was determined as the present translation.
The emergence of more transliterated words in Japanese results from the Japanese scholars’ respect for the meta-language. In the Chinese language there are pure transliterated words， such as诺贝尔Nobel、咖啡coffee、拷贝copy、克隆clone、吉普jeep、沙发sofa. It is generally believed that the translation of the names of people and places should be consistent with the principle of transliteration. However， so many exceptions are found in Chinese， namely the free combination of transliteration and paraphrase. Furthermore， Chinese translators tend to use Chinese family names when reproducing foreign names. In contrast， the principle of transliteration is strictly observed in Japanese. The principle of transliteration is applied to some words， which， after translated， would not sound like a word at all. A case in point is “clone”.
Clone—In biology and agriculture， any organism whose genetic information is identical to that of a parent organism from which it was created； natural reproductive processes producing clones include parthenogenesis and apomixis.
After translated into Chinese， the word changes into a sentence.
SARS is the abbreviation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes
There exist many words in Chinese that are directly expressed in the form of English letters. Such as： NBA，iPad，CCTV，DNA，CIP，ISBN.The Translated Words is isolated from the Meta-Language.
Conclusion
From the above -mentioned comparisons，we can see there are some problems in the Chinese translations.First，ambiguity tends to arise in the translated words，such as "文化"，“文明”，“民主”.Second，the rules of translation are not consistent ，such as"新德里"，"新西兰".Third，when translating western words we should not pay attention only to the literal meaning while neglecting their differences in pronunciation，such as Table 1 . Fourth，we should not just simply translated two different words in metalanguage into one word in object-language.for example ，both "Magic realism"and"Hallucinatory realism"are translated into “魔幻现实主义”。
When translating western words，the rule of translation in the Japanese language is transliteration.It can not only translate the western words accurately，but can also tell the difference between metalanguage and object-language.Therefore，when translating western words in Chinese ，much attention should be paid to the accuracy and the consistency of rules of translation .
Annotation
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