Definition, Nature and Classification of Translation
I. Difficulty in Defining Translation
What do we mean by the word translation ,or “fanyi”？The complexity of translation lies in the fuzziness of the word “translation” itself. Both translation in English and “fanyi” in Chinese are polysemic. Both of them have different connotations. Also, its Chinese equivalent “fanyi” of translation is more ambiguous (许建平，2003：7). “你学什么专业？” “我的专业是翻译” (a major) 翻译课在3#204上. (a course, a subject) 这个翻译翻译的不地道。（a person/a translator; translate/translating） 你的翻译不如我的翻译。（translation result）
Therefore, it may refer to “翻译行为”(translate or interpret), “翻译过程”(translating), “翻译结果”(translation), “翻译事业”(translation cause), “翻译者”(translator or interpreter), “翻译学科”(translation discipline)
Roger Bell 罗杰贝尔（英国）(1993:13) suggests that there are, in fact, three distinguishable meanings for the word “translation”. 1) Translating: the process (to translate; the activity rather than the tangible object); 2) a translation: the product of the process of translating (the translated text); 3) translation: the abstract concept which includes both the process of translating and the product of that process.
Presently, translation is widely-used, mainly referring to written 笔译; while interpretation mainly referring to oral 口译。 II. Definitions of Translation
Translation, being a generally acknowledged complex process, is hard to describe completely and thoroughly with a few words. Many famous translators and translation theorists have been studying the definition of translation from the views of linguistics, culture and intercultural communication since ancient times. Here are definitions given by some famous scholars.
Translation is “the replacement of textual material in one language (Source Language) by equivalent textual material in another language.” (J. C. Catford, 1965:20)
用一种语言（译语）的等值的文本材料去替换另一种语言（原语）的文本材料。
(卡特福德，1917～，英国着名的语言学家和翻译理论家）
? Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of
the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. (Nida, 1969:12)
翻译就是在译语中用最贴切而又最自然的对等语再现原语的信息，首先是语义，其次是文体。
（尤金 奈达，1914～，1914年出生于美国俄克勒荷马州in Oklahoma City，当代著名语言学家、翻译家和翻译理论家。尤金是当代翻译理论的主要奠基人，其理论核心是功能对等）
? Translation is the production of a functional target text maintaining a relationship with a
given source text that is specified according to the intended or demanded function of the target text (translation skopos) (C. Nord)
翻译是把源语文本生成功能性目的语文本的过程，其中源语文本是按照目的语文本
的意向或需求功能（翻译目的）确定的。
? 黄忠廉（2000）在《翻译本质论》一书中给出两种翻译的定义，一个是窄式的，一
个是宽式的。
窄式翻译：翻译是译者将原语文化信息转换成译语文化信息并求得风格极似的思维活动和语言活动。
宽式翻译：翻译是译者将原语文化信息转换成译语文化信息以满足读者特定需要的思维活动和语言活动。
? 重新定义：翻译是译者通过其思维或信息科技手段将源语文本中表达原作者意图的
各种信息转换到风格极似的译语中以满足读者特定需要的跨语言、跨文化的交际活动。
Translation is an interlingual and cross-cultural communication, in which, to meet the needs of given target text readers, a translator/an interpreter, on the basis of his thinking and other aids of science and technology, shifts/transfers the source text author’s intentions from the ST into the stylistically similar TT.
Tendency: 1. 侧重语义到重视功能和文化。2。不追求完全对等，closest,允许多种译文存在。 III. Nature of Translation
Although translators and scholars have discussed the nature of translation for thousands of years,
they have not yet reached a common ground. Some scholars regard translation as a kind of skill, craft and instrument; others consider it as an art and still others a branch of science. So what is the nature of translation? Skill/craft/ instrument:
Translation is an instrument for interlingual communication. Just like riding, driving and swimming, “translation as a natural skill is developed by means of performance of translating in sociosemiotic content and not as a function of cognitive maturation of early bilinguals, nor something linked to biological age.” (孙迎春2001:445) An art:
Translation is an art that involves the recreation of a work in another language for readers with a different background. In most cases, before a translation is finished, it should be revised time and again in order to make it a remarkable version. A classical literary work always has many versions and every one of them has its own advantages over the others since it has been modified many times. Such as 《红楼梦》，A Dream of Red Mansions by 杨宪益、戴乃迭， The Story of Stones by David Hawkes. This fact is a good reflection of the artistic nature of translation（冯庆华, 2003:1）. And according to Fu lei (傅雷), “Translation is an art of languages and the artistic beauty that translation possesses is a product that the translator creatively shapes according to aesthetic laws. When he turns an original into a translation, what the translator experiences is a recreative process. Without the process of creation, the artistry of a translation would be out of the question.
A branch of science:
The study of translation can be considered as a science, and it is possible for us to set up translatology as a separate discipline. Translatology is a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary comprehensive part of a new but long less-cared branch of science of humanities (孙迎春, 2001:28). For a long time, translation is under the name of linguistics. After the year of 2000, many universities establish a major for translation, a department, even a college. Therefore, translation as a branch of science develops fast.
Nida once held that translation is not only an art, and a skill, but a science. Later he changed his mind, holding “Translation is not a science; translatology is a branch of science”. Translation is not a science, but an art. (Nida, 1974)( 尤金·奈达（Eugene A.Nida)
IV. Classification of Translation
1） 从译出语SL和译入语TL的角度来分类，翻译可分为本族语译为外语外语译为本族语
(native-foreign)；
2） 从涉及到的语言符号来分类，翻译分为语内翻译（intralingual translation)、语际翻译 (interlingual translation)和符际翻译(intersemiotic translation)；
3) 从翻译的手段来分类，翻译可分为口译（oral interpretation）、笔译(written translation) 和机器翻译(machine translation)；
4) 从翻译的题材来分类，翻译可分为专业文献翻译(translation of English for science and technology)、文学翻译(literary translation)和一般性翻译(practical writing translation)； 5） 从翻译的处理方式来分类，翻译可分为全译（full translation）、摘译（partial translation）和编译（translation plus editing）。
Translation covers a very broad range. In terms of languages, Jakobson（雅各布森1896-1982，原籍俄国，后入美国国籍）, in his On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959)《论翻译的语言学问题》, divided the translation into 3 categories: （1）intralingual translation—a rewording of signs in one language with signs from the same language; (2) interlingual translation—the interpretative of signs in one language with signs from another language; and (3) intersemiotic translation—the transfer of the signs in one language to non-verbal sign systems.
所谓语内翻译，是指在同一语言内用一些语言符号去解释另一些语言符号，即通常的“改变说法”(rewording),如翻译历史文本。所谓语际翻译，是指在两种语言之间即 用一种语言的符号去解释另一种语言的符号，即严格意义上的翻译。所谓符际翻译，是指用非语言符号系统解释语言符号，或用语言符号解释非语言符号，比如把旗语或手势变成言语表达。 In terms of materials, translation of literary works, such as novels, stories, prose, poetry, drama,
Definition and Classification of Translation
