What Sense Makes Sense?-Beginning Translators' Difficulties with English Polysemous Words

本研究探討台灣初學翻譯的學生在“英譯中”時如何處理英語的歧義詞，並採用錯誤分析法來突顯初學者所遭遇的困難及因應策略。受試者為44位五專應用外語科三年級的學生，他們參與兩項翻譯測驗，測驗題目均為單句的英譯中，其中一項測驗包含16個名詞字意，另一項測驗則有16個動詞字意，兩項測驗中的字意均來自相同的8個歧義詞。測驗結束後，研究者根據學生翻譯出的個別字意和整體譯句的正確性，每一題評以0至2分的分數。接著，研究者以相依樣本t考驗來比較受試者在兩項測驗中的正確比率，以得知哪一類詞性的歧義詞字意較為困難。最後，研究者分析並歸納受試者在兩項測驗中的錯誤類型。研究結果顯示：受試者在名詞字意測驗中的正確率明顯低於動詞字意的正確率。其翻譯的錯誤可歸納為四種類型：選錯字意、自創特異風格的翻譯、省略不譯、套用其他詞性的字意。其中，許多受試者誤用核心字意來詮釋測試的字意，顯見這些初學者欠缺對歧義詞語義範疇的了解。由於他們對於歧義詞各種詞性的字意熟悉程度不同，導致比較多的受試者錯用熟悉的動詞字意來詮釋不熟悉的名詞字意；相對而官，這種詞性混淆的現象，在動詞字意測驗中則較為少見。本研究的結果可提供翻譯教學一些建議，包括：在翻譯的初學課程中，即應提升學生對歧義詞的敏感度；同時，教師應指導學生活用有效的翻譯策略，以幫助學生正確譯出原文中的歧義詞。

關鍵字

翻譯錯誤；歧義詞；錯誤分析

並列摘要

This study investigated how Chinese beginning translators dealt with English polysemous words in their English-to-Chinese translation practices. Their error patterns were analyzed to highlight the possible difficulties they encountered. The participants, 44 novice translators from a five-year junior college in Taiwan, took two translation tests with single-sentence items. One test contained 16 polysemous verb senses, while the other 16 polysemous noun senses. All the target senses were drawn from 8 words that have multiple senses in both their verb and noun forms. At the end of the tests, the participants' translation responses were scored and analyzed. A score range of 0-2 was assigned to each response according to the accuracy of a rendered sense and the suitability of sentential meaning. Then, paired-samples t-tests were conducted to compare the accuracy rates for verb senses and noun senses. The participants' incorrect renderings of each target sense were analyzed to generate common error patterns. The results showed that the participants scored significantly lower for the noun senses than for the verb senses. Their translation errors were classified into four major categories: (1) incorrect choices of senses, (2) idiosyncratic renderings, (3) omission of the target sense, and (4) mix-ups of senses from different grammatical categories. Participants' high frequency in replacing the target sense with the core sense suggested their insufficient knowledge of the meaning range of a polysemous word. A greater number of participants mistreated a noun sense as a verb sense, as opposed to participants who misjudged a verb sense as a noun sense. This tendency implied that they had greater difficulties in differentiating senses from a less familiar grammatical category of a polysemous word. Pedagogically, the study highlighted the importance of raising the awareness of polysemy and teaching useful strategies for translating polysemous words in the source text.