請求與道歉委婉語的語用翻譯－以母語為中文譯者中譯英商業信函為例

Pragmatic Translation on Request and Apology: Using Translations of Business Letters from Chinese into English as Examples

江秀瑜(Hsiu-Yu Chiang)

指導教授 ： 董大暉

長榮大學/人文社會學院/翻譯學系(所)/碩士(2013年)

https://doi.org/10.6833/CJCU.2013.00093

摘要

在商業信函中，為了達到商業合作目的，遵循禮貌原則是相當重要的，禮貌策略是言語交際中最重要的語用策略之一，是商業交際中實現雙贏的重要手段。在翻譯商業信函時，如何委婉、禮貌地表達請求與道歉，使對方感到舒服是相當重要的。因此，翻譯中所採取的禮貌策略在某種程度上來說，便決定了商業行為的成功與否。以往對商業信函中委婉語及禮貌準則的研究較少注重如何在翻譯商業信函時，透過語用學的禮貌準則，用委婉的方式正確體現請求和道歉的意思。另外，以往研究對在中譯英商業信函時，譯者本身英文能力以及原文對於譯文請求和道歉手法的影響也相當缺乏。本研究採用描述性研究，以國內大學部和研究所不同程度譯者所翻譯的商業信函為研究樣本，採用Leech (1983) 六種英文禮貌準則與顧曰國（Gu, 1990; 1992)五種中文禮貌準則，分析不同能力之譯者，在傳達請求和道歉意義時，禮貌準則表達方式選擇上之差異，以及翻譯時，不同能力譯者所使用的禮貌準則與中文原文禮貌準則的情況是否有差異，差異是否顯著。研究結果顯示，不同英語能力的譯者在中譯英商業信函時，使用禮貌準則展現出不同傾向；而且不同英語能力譯者在使用禮貌準則翻譯請求和道歉委婉時，存在差異性。程度較高的譯者使用禮貌準則的手法也較多樣化。本研究對使用禮貌準則翻譯商業信函中請求及道歉委婉語的研究，對翻譯教學、實務和商業界應用會有所助益。

關鍵字

商業信函 ； 委婉語 ； 翻譯 ； 中譯英 ； 中文禮貌準則 ； 英文禮貌準則 ； 語用策略 ； 請求 ； 道歉

並列摘要

To advance business cooperation, it is important to adopt Politeness Principles in writing business letters. Politeness strategy is one of the most important pragmatic strategies to achieve the win-win outcome in business communication. When we translate business letters, how to express requests and apologies politely is quite important. We should try our best to make people feel comfortable. Thus, to a certain extent adopting politeness strategy in business letters can help achieve desirable results from business negotiations. Previous studies on euphemism and politeness principles in business letters seldom focused on how to translate and express the request and apology politely based on the politeness principles. In addition, there are few studies relating translation of business letters from Chinese to English to the translator’s English proficiency level and the influence of the source text on the choice of politeness strategies when translating requests and apologies. This study analyzed the translations of business letters by undergraduate and graduate students of different English competency levels. By using Leech’s (1983) English politeness maxims and Gu’s (1990, 1992) Chinese politeness maxims as evaluation benchmarks, this study identified the differences in the choice of politeness maxims to express requests and apologies. The study finds that the translators who have different English competency levels have clearly shown different characteristics in their use of politeness maxims when translating business letters from Chinese to English. This study also shows translators with different English competency levels tend to differ significantly in their choices of politeness maxims when they translate requests and apologies: those with higher English competency levels use more politeness maxims than those with lower levels. Based on the results, we make some suggestions to help improve the current practice and teaching in translation of business letters.

並列關鍵字

business letter ； translation from Chinese into English ； politeness principle ； politeness maxims ； request ； apology

參考文獻

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