An Analysis of Translation Strategies of Ambiguity in English News

By Yu Yanxin

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

May, 2017

Acknowledgments

In finishing my thesis, I’d like to deliver my sincere gratitude to all the professors who give me great help for my paper.

In the first place, I would show my strongly thanks to my supervisor Pan Min, who offers me a lot of worthy advice in the study. I completed my paper with success because of her suggestion and inspiration. In pre-works of my paper, my supervisor spent much time on inspecting each revised paper and offered me some feasible suggestions. Her effective advice, shrewd comments and wise counsel kept this thesis in the right direction. In addition, I am always touched by her erudition, patience and kindness.

I would also like to show my thanks to some person who helped me in the process of completing my paper, in particular, some friends who looked information and accompanied me.

Last but not least, thanks for my family’s supporting, they always have my back and give me love during my path of education.

Contents

Abstract 1

摘 要 2

1.Introduction 2

2.Analyzing the English News Ambiguity 3

2.1 Phonetic Ambiguity 3

2.1.1 Homonyms of Ambiguity 3

2.1.2 Homonyms Words or Phrases 4

2.1.3 Different Speech Pauses and Various Intonation 4

2.2 Lexical Ambiguity 4

2.2.1 The Change of Word Meaning 5

2.2.2 The Differences Between British English and American English 5

2.3 Sentence Ambiguity 5

2.4 Structural Ambiguity 6

2.5 Readers Itself 6

3. Translation Principles and Strategies of Ambiguity in English News 6

3.1 Relative Studies on News Translation 7

3.2 Principles of Ambiguity Translation in English News 8

3.2.1 Fidelity 8

3.2.2 Readability 9

3.2.3 Adaptability 9

3.2.4 Rapidity 9

3.3 Translation Strategies of Ambiguity in English News 10

3.3.1 Simple Language 10

3.3.2 Making use of the verbs in the news 10

3.3.3 Improving English reading level 10

4.Conclusion 11

References 12

An Analysis of Translation Strategies of Ambiguity in English News

Yu Yanxin

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: Ambiguity is a possible cases in human language. Different languages have their specific structures. Different countries have their own language habits and modes of thought, thus, the ambiguity has obvious differences in various languages, but the existence of ambiguity is an indisputable fact. The correct understanding of ambiguity in English news takes the significant effect when readers want to understand the purport and content of the news. Thus avoiding the ambiguity phenomenon, and then discuss the principles and strategies to eliminate ambiguity in English news, which is a very important topic for English news reporting. This paper would analyze the ambiguity phenomenon by five aspects: phonetics, lexics, syntax, structural ambiguity and readers itself. In addition, for various reasons leading to ambiguity, this paper will separately analyze the principles and strategies from the perspective of fidelity, readability, adaptability and rapidity to eliminate ambiguity.

Key words: ambiguity; language; English news; strategy

摘要: 歧义是人类语言中可能会发生的一种情况。不同种类的语言有各自独特的结构，不同国家也有不一样的用语习惯和思考模式，所以不同语言种类中存在的歧义现象也就呈现不同的表现形式，但是歧义现象的存在却是不争的事实。正确理解英语新闻中歧义现象，对理解整个新闻报道的主题和内容，具有十分重要的作用。因此避免英语新闻中歧义现象的发生，进而探讨消除歧义现象的应对策略，在英语新闻报道中同样是十分重要的一个课题。本文将从语音学、词汇学、句法学、结构歧义以及读者自身导致歧义五大层面分析歧义现象。并且对于不同原因导致的歧义现象，本文将分别从忠实性、可读性、合用性与及时性分析消除歧义的原理和策略。

关键词: 歧义；语言; 英语新闻；策略

1.Introduction

For a long time, it has been a lot of research about the ambiguity. Most linguists believe that ambiguity is a misuse of language, an obstacle to the free exchange of people and should be avoided. Some linguists believe that if use ambiguity in a proper way, then it will produce positive results. For English news, this paper is more agreeable to the former view. Generally speaking, the English news should avoid ambiguity. Because English news is characterized by timeliness, authenticity, objectivity, so after all, English news is not literature. When we tried to propose a word or phrase with double meaning, we must ensure that our English news has no ambiguity.

The origin of studying in English News has been a very long time, most studies focus on stylistic features and language characteristics of English News. English news titles are very important in English news. The title does not appear together with the English news. The first modern newspaper called the "Daily News" that has no title at that issue. English headlines after centuries of development gradually evolved into present form. Because the title is the newspaper's “eyes”, so English news headlines requires accurate, concise, innovative content to attract the reader's attention, and make newspapers can survive in an increasingly tough competitive society. So English news headlines cannot be ambiguous firstly.

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