时间:2019-02-07 作者:英语课 分类:英语笔译


英语课

 委婉语是各种语言中都有的一种语言现象,只不过委婉程度不同,翻译起来难度也就不同,有的时候千万别被委婉语的表面意思骗到哦,就像sanitaryengineer 这个词,你理解它的真正含义吗?


“He is a bicycle doctor. ” 此句不能译作:"他是个骑单车的医生", 因句中的doctor是委婉语(euphemism),是某种职业的美称,故不作"医生"解,而是表示repair man的涵义,因此应翻译为"他是个自行车修理工"。
委婉语起源于远古,维多利来女王时代中期为其鼎盛时期,在现代英语中, 其出现频率依然颇高,因为人们通过委婉语,可以用温顺悦耳的词语去谈论或叙述一些原来令人不快或逆耳之事物。为此,他们用domestic help, day help 或 live-in help 代替 mai l或 servant (佣人); 以custodian 1superintendent 2 替代 doorkeeper, caretaker 或 janitor(看门人或管理人);用She has a tile loose 或She has a cylinder 3 missing 去代替 She is crazy 或She is not right in the head(神经失常)。
委婉语多如恒河沙数,不胜枚举,在此略举数例,以见一斑:
原称委婉语
无线电修理工
radio electrician——radio doctor
理发师
barber——cosmotologist
家庭妇女
housewife——household executive
收垃圾工人 
garbage collector——sanitary engineer
老人
old people——senior citizens
再看两个委婉语的例子:
Nowadays many weight-watchers would like to go to the gym. 
如今有不少胖人喜欢到健身房去锻炼.
They are the culturally deprived. 
他们是没有学识的人.
值得注意的是,委婉语虽然是"古已有之,于今为烈",但决不能用得过多过滥。 使用时要考虑场合和对象,如用得不得体,反而会使你"欲礼而不达",甚至令人不知所云,一头雾水。
You can find doctors and doctors in Hongkong! 
在香港,既有好医生,也有坏医生。
这句话不能译作:“在香港,你能看到很多很多的医生”。
英语和汉语一样,词的重复(repetition)是一种修辞手段。一般说来,它表达强调语势,突出语义,以收到音调和谐、生动有力的修辞效果。例如:
Scrooge went to bed again, and thought and thought and thought it over and over. 
斯克罗奇又上床睡觉,左思右想,想个不休。
但 是,在某些场合下,将某些词重复,并不是要收到突出语义的效果,而是为了表示“不同类型”的涵义。例如:You will find doctors and doctors in Hong Kong.的语义就相当于You can find bad doctors as well as good doctors in Hong Kong. 该句的语义重点放在“也有坏医生”上。
再比如:
You should know that there are books and books.
你们要知道,书有好坏之分,既有好书,也有坏书。

n.保管人,监护人;公共建筑看守
  • Benitez believes his custodian is among the top five in world football.贝尼特斯坚信他的门将是当今足坛最出色的五人之一。
  • When his father died his uncle became his legal custodian.他父亲死后,他叔叔成了他的法定监护人。
n.监督人,主管,总监;(英国)警务长
  • He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
  • He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸
  • What's the volume of this cylinder?这个圆筒的体积有多少?
  • The cylinder is getting too much gas and not enough air.汽缸里汽油太多而空气不足。
标签: 委婉语
学英语单词
a stumpy
abnormal setting
academic standing committee
amplitude-frequency characteristics
anonymosity
artemev
Asset appraisal
Augustea
auxiliary heat
aversio
Bashkirskiy Zapovednik
basoid
beat the devil
bed rail
Bur-Zin
Casearia
clathraceaes
clay-stone
cloth measure
continuous pass
cormorant
cross reference table or listing
direct-axis subtransient reactance
double ratio estimator
e paper
eddy-mixing
electric teletachometer
electron-multiplier phototube
eleven's complement check digit
elven
Escudo de Veraguas
explicit segmentation
favour with
filled tower
glaciated rock
ground thread die
gutturonasal
hybrid repeating coil
imagological
irrevokable
jacquier
Langerhans'layer
large cities
layout of underground railway
liquid method
lockroom
Long Islanders
long term lease
Magnolia globosa
method of limit
migratory system
missomer
Mooney viscosity
naucalpan
nonautomatic self-verification
Novoye Garkolovo
oberlander
overhead-type crane
pabon
phase control refractometer
point approximation
Quakeristic
radial truck
Raffaelesque
real estate development
Recurring Revenue
regular jaw
Remont's test
reong
reversing bucket
rock rot
sabato
sealed transformer
shirley cage
shitepoke
slip off the tongue
slugabed
sodium monochloracetate
spotsylvania
spuming
start-up feed pump
steny
step-time
stitch pumping
sub-science
sukari
suspected person
tamper resistance
threepenny-bit
tilting manometer
try one's hand
Tsala Apopka L.
turn up the heat
twacked
vey
whiteness studies
World's Poultry Science Journal
zafrani
zeigers
zero power factor saturation curve
zinc subgallate