基于平行语料库的《文城》英译本译者风格与翻译策略研究

A Corpus-Based Study of Translator Style and Translation Strategies in the English Translation of City of Fiction

摘要: 本文自建余华《文城》汉英平行语料库，从宏观语言特征与微观翻译策略两个层面分析Todd Foley英译本的译者风格。宏观层面通过标准化类符形符比、词汇密度、高频词分布、句长、可读性等指标，与另一位余华译者白亚仁的三部余华译作数据进行对比，微观层面则分析了其对成语的翻译策略，以及语态转换与流水句拆分。研究发现，Foley译文用词集中、句长适中、可读性低于白亚仁译作，衔接以增补类连接词为主。词汇层面，成语翻译依意象的跨文化可理解程度和叙事功能灵活采取直译或意译，句法层面，基于叙事焦点进行语态转换，根据原文隐含逻辑进行长句拆分。总体而言，Foley译文呈现用词朴素、结构忠实、策略灵活的风格取向，为余华译介及译者风格研究提供了新个案。

Abstract: This study constructs a Chinese-English parallel corpus of Yu Hua’s City of Fiction to analyze the translator style of Todd Foley’s English translation from both macro and micro perspectives. At the macro level, it compares the Standardized Type-Token Ratio (STTR), lexical density, the distribution of high frequency content words, sentence length, readability, and other quantitative measures with the corresponding data from three English translations of Yu Hua’s works by Allan H. Barr. At the micro level, it examines Foley’s translation strategies for Chinese idioms, together with his use of voice shifts and the segmentation of Chinese flowing sentences. The findings show that Foley’s translation is characterized by concentrated lexical choices, moderate sentence length, and lower readability than Barr’s translations. Cohesion is achieved primarily through the use of additive connectives. At the lexical level, Foley adopts either literal translation or free translation for Chinese idioms according to the degree of cross cultural comprehensibility of their imagery and their narrative functions. At the syntactic level, he employs voice shifts to maintain narrative focus and segments long sentences according to the implicit logical relations in the source text. Overall, Foley’s translation is characterized by plain diction, close adherence to the source text, and flexible translation strategies, providing a new case for the study of the English translations of Yu Hua’s novels and translator style.