第1个回答 2009-02-13
在前面的帖子中，我提到一句中国谚语“三个臭皮匠，赛过诸葛亮”。这个帖子发表后，网友vmax给我留言，问我这个谚语是否可以翻译成下面的句子。我回答他说，当然可以，但我不鼓励您这样做，主要原因是：您的译文，我们中国人看得懂，但外国人看不懂，他们根本不知道诸葛亮是什么人，如果您想让外国人也能看得懂，您就必须在译文的后面，额外增加一段注释，介绍一下《三国演义》，再介绍一下诸葛亮，只有这样，外国人才能真正理解这个谚语，您说麻烦不麻烦？！
Three cobblers are more clever than Mr. Zhuge Liang.(三个皮匠会比诸葛亮先生更聪明。)
其实，我们中国的许多谚语，都有对应的英语谚语，两者意思相同或者相似，完全可以互相代替，一般情况下，不需要我们自己翻译。比如“三个臭皮匠，赛过诸葛亮”这个谚语，就有一个对应的英语谚语，请看下面第一行。另外一个与《三国演义》人物有关的谚语“说曹操，曹操到”，也有对应的英语谚语，请看下面第二行。
①Two heads are better than one.(两个脑袋比一个脑袋更好。)
②When we talk about the devil, he will appear.(当我们谈论魔鬼的时候，他将会出现。)
看到这里，有些朋友可能会问：在哪里可以找到这些对应的英语谚语呢？我曾在北京王府井的外文书店中，看到过这方面的书，书名好象叫做《汉英谚语词典》(时间长了，记不清楚了)，我们可以从这种词典中，查出大多数中国谚语的对应英语谚语。现在国内是“英语热”，英语图书(包括英语词典)多如牛毛，我想这种词典应当不难找到。
一个中国谚语，只有在词典中找不到对应的英语谚语时，我们才考虑自己翻译，不过这种情况好象并不多见。比如“周瑜打黄盖，一个愿打，一个愿挨”这个谚语，我就一直没有找到对应的英语谚语，因此我把它翻译为：
One is willing to sell, and the other is willing to buy.(一个人愿意卖，另外一个人愿意买。)
第2个回答 2009-02-14
ABSTRACT The development of people's ability to
translate figurative speech was studied, using sentences con
taining metaphors, dual function words, and proverbs, as
presented in classroom workbooks. One hundred twenty
children from first, third, fifth, and seventh grades were
asked to describe the meaning of each figurative word or
phrase placed in context. Responses were scored on a four
point scale indicating the extent to which the child used a
literal or figurative translation. Significant effects between
grade levels and figurative conditions were found, indicating
that the ability to translate figurative speech proceeds along
a developmental hierarchy of language comprehension. The
majority of third grade children were able to translate meta
phors and dual function words into figurative language suc
cessfully. The ability to translate proverbs required a level
of comprehension that does not appear in most children
until seventh grade, as suggested by Piaget.
A recent review of the psychological literature on
metaphor suggests a strong relationship between
metaphor comprehension and Piaget's cognitive stages
of thought development (3). Piagetian theory suggests
that children from seven to twelve years of age develop
a broad range of transformational skills that allows them
to operate on reality, building a repertoire of symbols
and signs (8). This display of cognitive growth represents
an enormous expansion of power and abstraction in that
it frees children from the literal aspects of their percep
tions.
Inhelder and Piaget suggest that the capacity for poetic
usage and the ability to operate on linguistic elements
may be the last facet of language to develop (3). The
authors' experiences in third grade classrooms, while
observing children's understanding of figurative speech
as presented in reading workbooks, revealed a wide range
of abilities in the children's interpretation of metaphors
and proverbs at the concrete operations period of develop
ment. Some children had an immediate grasp of the mul
tiple meanings of terms, while others, regardless of the
amount of explanation given, could not override their
cognitive ties to the literal interpretation.
Research suggests that the capacity to understand
metaphoric speech occurs at an age beyond the preschool
level (5). An early study investigated the development of
children's ability to understand dual function words,
terms that have a joint reference in language to both
physical and psychological data (1). For example, such
words as "cold" and "warm" denote thermal properties
and can serve a dual function in describing psychological
aspects of people. The authors suggested that these terms
are an elementary instance of metaphorical thinking and
investigated the order in which children's understanding
of dual terms emerged. Results indicated that children
from three to seven are sensitive only to the literal trans
lation, while seven- to eight-year olds demonstrate the
beginning of the ability to use the psychological sense of
the terms. The ability to state the dual function of the
terms was clearly developed in the twelve-year-old group
(for example, "hard things and hard people are both
unmanageable").
Further work examined the ability of preschool child
ren to make metaphoric links, to perceive relationships
among disparate phenomena (6). Children, ages three to
nineteen, were asked to indicate their knowledge of
literal meanings of word pairs and then project them onto
sensory domains using metaphoric skills. In contrast to
earlier findings, these results indicated that the capacity
for metaphoric association between sensory modalities
and adjectives was evident in young children.
A recent investigation found a developmental trend
toward the comprehension of metaphors, though it con
cluded that not until the age of ten were children able
to demonstrate metaphoric understanding of dual func
tion words (12).
The ability to understand proverbs has been explained
by Piaget as part of the development of cognitive think
ing (10). He proposed that children from nine to eleven
years of age use a simple projection of the proverb into
sentences by process of immediate fusion. At this level,
there is no analysis of detail in comprehending proverbs,
but a general fusion of two propositions without analysis
of their meanings. Piaget believed that this phenomenon
precedes the development of logical thinking, that the
ability to translate proverbs does not occur until the
formal operations period.
The present study examined the relationship among
metaphors, dual function words, and proverbs, specifically
looking at children's ability to translate classroom material
presented in context. Context has been cited as an impor