A Critical Study Of Zero Translation

Zero translation,a relatively new concept in the field of Chinese translation studies,was brought up in 2001 by Professor Qiu Maoru.In Qiu's opinion,zero translation means translating words in the source language by not using the existing words in the target language vocabulary,and it can be categorized into transliteration,omission and transference.He thinks that zero translation can maintain translatability by overcoming differences between languages.Many scholars have done research on the definition,rationale,classification and application of zero translation;however,due to different understandings of zero translation,some of their standpoints are lack of reasons and persuasion.For example in the field of application,some papers seem novel because they are put under the name of zero translation,but not many helpful opinions are raised and the contents are not satisfactory.The concept “zero translation” has brought many questions among scholars,such as what the essence of zero translation is and whether zero translation is translation.In order to answer these questions,this thesis does a reflection on zero translation from the following four aspects.First of all,most of the scholars who have ever studied zero translation agree on the classification of Qiu,and there is a small part of scholars who think that sound-meaning combination translation,complementary translation,image translation,literal translation with notes and adaptation should also be covered.Through critical analysis,this thesis holds the view that transliteration is a change of linguistic form,and it is apparently translation not “zero” translation;omission is the syntactic and semantic adjustments in translation to deal with linguistic and cultural differences between different languages,and it is also translation not “zero” translation;transference has two meanings which are a little contradictory to each other,one is translation and the other is moving the source words into the target texts without any change,and if it is involved in zero translation,there may be misunderstanding or confusion,so it is not appropriate to use this term here;the other classifications are also frequently-used translation strategies and they are translation not “zero” translation.Thus it can be known that the name of zero translation is not consistent with its nature.According to terminology,it is better to reduce the conceptual meaning of zero translation to “direct borrowing” which is just what the second meaning of transference describes,and “direct borrowing” had better be used to refer to this kind of so-called zero translation without any change in form so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and confusions.Secondly,there are several reasons for the formation of direct borrowing,including the needs of special industries,the actual difficulties in translation,the pursuit of simplicity in language use and higher acceptability of foreign words among the ordinary people who are familiar with those foreign forms.Direct borrowing can help strengthen the integration of world culture while an abuse of it may threaten the uniqueness of Chinese and go against meeting all the reading-expectations of people from different areas and different ages in the target world.Further research on direct borrowing can help us find out that the essence of it is code-mixing from the angle of cognitive psychology and pragmatics.Thirdly,to make clear whether direct borrowing is translation or not needs to ascertain the connotations of direct borrowing and translation.There are many different definitions of translation,but the common point is that translation involves two languages.The basic elements of language are pronunciation,form and meaning.The pronunciation and form can be seen as the superficial level of language while meaning is the deep level,and the pronunciation and form are the carriers of meaning.During the translation process,the reproduction of meaning through the carriers is inevitable,so the basic condition to judge whether a work is translation is the change of the superficial level of language,i.e.the carriers,and one of the important conditions to evaluate a translation is the reproduction of meaning and style.Because there is no change of pronunciation and form in direct borrowing,it is therefore not translation.On the microscopic level direct borrowing can coexist with translation in a whole translation work,and on the macroscopic level direct borrowing is a transition stage of translation development at the very beginning of intercultural communication.Every source word may eventually be translated into a proper word/phrase in the target language as time goes on and the understanding of the source language/culture develops,but different words may take different length of time before they are finally translated.Last but not least,because of short time and tough tasks translators incline to abuse direct borrowing.To improve the quality of translation,translators need to adjust their attitudes toward translation,try their best to fully understand the meaning of the source text,and make their utmost efforts to find the appropriate translation.Direct borrowing can only be a helpless move when no proper translation can be found.At the same time,what is worthy to note is that,although the translation industry is growing rapidly,the payment for translation work is usually too poor and the respect for translators is too undesirable.It is important that when we focus on improving the quality and professional level of translation,the whole society should be clear about the importance of translation and translators and work with translators to improve the translation quality.For example,the relevant departments can formulate professional regulations and rules and provide necessary support;the media can strengthen the supervision of publications and take the responsibility of guiding the public to reduce direct borrowing.In that case,unnecessary “zero translation” will be reduced,the quality of translation can be improved and the development of translation industry can be expected.