本人理解的是,这种情况常见于中译英,在这种情况下比较容易用中式思维表达英文语句,从而使英文的表达跟着中式思维走,这样的弊端是表达不地道,目的语读者看不懂,所以,要想确定准确而地道的表达,查阅词典尤为重要。下面以本人遇到过的中译英为例:
原文为:
商业银行内部审计部门、内控管理职能部门和业务部门均承担内部控制监督检查的职责,应根据分工协调配合,构建覆盖各级机构、各个产品、各个业务流程的监督检查体系。
原译文为:
The internal audit department, internal control management functional department and business department of a commercial bank shall all undertake the responsibilities of internal control supervision and inspection, and shall coordinate and cooperate according to the division of labor to build a supervision and inspection system covering institutions at all levels, each product, and each business process.
初看译文认为没什么问题,似乎都是按照原文的意思进行表达,但是经过多次阅读发现后半段的表达虽然与中文比较贴合,但是对于“coordinate and cooperate to do sth.”这个表达还是存疑,随后查阅了词典进行核实,下面是分别对“coordinate”和“cooperate”的用法总结:
针对“coordinate”,Longman Business Dictionary给出了两种用法:第一种,coordinate表示“to organize an activity so that the people involved work well together and achieve a good result”时为可数名词,对应的例句为“His principal job is to coordinate all the science missions on board the ship.”;第二种是“coordinate with somebody”,表示“to work with someone or with a group of people in order to do something together”,对应的例句为“I will be coordinating with people who have experience getting suppliers into Afghanistan.”。
针对“cooperate”,Longman Dictionary显示,cooperate为不及物动词,表示“work with someone else to achieve that you both want”时的用法如下:
(1) cooperate in/on:
The two universities are to cooperate in the development of a new industrial process.
They agreed to cooperate with Brazil on a programme to protect the rain forests.
(2) cooperate with:
Loins cooperate with each other when hunting game.
(3) cooperate to do something:
Both sides agreed to cooperate to prevent illegal fishing in the area.
由此可以看出,“cooperate to do sth.”是正确的表达,但是却没有“coordinate to do sth.”这类说法,因此,原译文使用“coordinate and cooperate to do sth.”不太妥当,后经本人修改为“coordinate with each other to do sth.”。
修改后的译文为:
The internal audit department, the functional department of internal control management and the business departments of a commercial bank shall undertake the responsibilities of internal control supervision and inspection, and shall, according to the division of labor, coordinate with each other to build a supervision and inspection system covering institutions at all levels, and all products, and business processes.
此外,协议中经常出现“确保/保证某人做某事”,尤其是在陈述及保证部分,使用频率比较高的动词是“warrant”和“guarantee”,如果其后可以接上完整的句子,倒是不用费什么脑筋,但是如果实在无法组成完整的句子,首先想到的或许是“to do sth.”,真的希望“to do sth.”是万能的,可以与一切动词连用,但是当然是不可能的,所以还是需要查阅词典确定使用“to do sth.”是否妥当。下面是就“warrant”和“guarantee”的用法总结:
查阅Longman Dictionary可知,“warrant”表示“to promise that something is true”时常用的句式为“warrant that”,给出的例句为“The Author hereby warrants that the Publisher is the owner of the copyright.”,可见其后常跟完整的句子。
其次,“guarantee”表示“to promise to do something or to promise that something will happen”时,常用的句式有三种。第一种为“guarantee (that)”,对应的例句为“I guarantee you’ll love this film.”;第二种为“guarantee somebody something”,对应的例句为“If you send the application form in straight away, I can guarantee you an interview”;第三种为“guarantee to do something”,对应的例句为“I cannot guarantee to work for more than a year.”。
从上文可看出,如果后接完整的句子,“warrant”和“guarantee”均可,但是要是后接“to do sth.”恐怕只有“guarantee”比较合适,因此,在选择用词时还是需要了解该词的准确用法。