Factors Influencing the Process of Translating

Translation is a complex process, involving linguistic, cultural and personal factors. This article seeks to show how these factors constitute the main source of translation difficulties. The authors suggest that a systematic discussion of these factors would be useful in establishing effective strategies for avoiding pitfalls in translation between English and Chinese. Translating, as I. A. Richards claims, “is probably the most complex type of event in the history of the cosmos” (Nida 1993: 1). Many factors are crucial to the process of translating and no explanation of translating can claim to be comprehensive if these factors are not systematically considered. Owing to the great subtlety and complexity of the factors in question, this short paper will not be able to cover all of them exhaustively, so we will focus our attention on key factors in the three most important areas: language, culture and the translator’s personal conditions. The following discussion will be primarily concerned with translating between English and Chinese. 1. LINGUISTIC FACTORS Linguistic factors exert a direct and crucial influence upon the process of translating. Each of the linguistic factors, phonological, lexical, syntactic and textual, can interfere with translation. It can safely be assumed that interlingual differences constitute a main source of translation difficulties. 1.1. Phonological Factors At the phonological level, there is no correspondence between English and Chinese. Yet literary translators sometimes do try to create a certain kind of equivalence when they encounter poetic or rhetorical phonological features, for example: Henhao, buyong danxin le. Wo haiyou weiyuan de fufen ne. (He gave me very good news. We need not look for trouble. I have the possibility of being a member of the committee!)