Brief Analysis of the Characteristic and Translation techniques of English Slang

Brief Analysis of the Characteristic and Style of

English Slang

by

QinXiaojiao（钦小娇）

Class:英语093

Student Number: 09425516

School of Foreign Languages

Changzhou University

June 2012

Introduction

With an increasing development of China’s reform and economy, the opportunities for China to get in touch with other countries are becoming more and more. In daily life, from books and magazines or on TV, you could hear or see the use of English slangs here and there. Slang is a sort of popular colloquial word, some is vulgar, and some is dialectal. Slang of the same nature exists in both English and Chinese. In general, slang can be divided into euphemism, swearword and vulgar language. This paper is in the sense of general and equivalent aspects to analyze the characteristics and translation techniques of English slang.

1. The characteristics of English slang

The slang itself has some universality and the equivalent characteristics, which perplexes the translation of English slang.

1.1 Universality

English slang is often heard or used in people’s lives. It is a kind of dialect which the most familiar to people. Therefore, to some extent, has a certain universality of English slang.

1.1.1 Limitation

The use of slang to be limited by a certain time, certain occasions, and the language environment will be decided by people and time, coupled with its use was with a certain degree of exclusion, so, in some cases, not all people can use uniform slang. For example, some words expressed insulting calls, mean mockery or rude language are often used among young group, using “airhead”to express “idiot, dumbbell”, describing such person has an empty head. Maybe it only has air.

1.1.2Culture

Slang has a strong culture breath, what slang reflect is bound to the cultural values of heritage of English-speaking countries. During the process of translation, cross-cultural communication is still a big obstacle. We cannot avoid cultural collision, cultural conflict and communication error sometime. And because of the cultural vacuum, some slang cannot be translated into corresponding target language in Chinese. It also makes the English-Chinese translation of slang has to become the meaning of interpretation and explanation. For instance, “a ouch potato” which corresponds to the "lying on a chair potato" in Chinese. But, this kind of translation doesn’t make sense at all, it can only explain as “sluggard”. “a knock out”倾倒( knock down by the beauty) “ a shot in the

dark”盲目射击（guess blindly）, “a turn coat”反穿皮袄的人(traitor), “all ears”全是耳朵(listen with respectable attention), and so on.

1.1.3 Timeliness

Because the emergence and demise of slang may characterizes “high birth”and “high death”, therefore, it’s very difficult to grasp the most effective and popular slang.

Because the time and long process of its publication, some usage of slang becomes outdated in slang dictionary, in addition, it is not authoritative and reliable all the time to download slang from the Internet. However, just because of these characteristics, the translation of English slang is often for the sake of its meaning to abandon its form.

For example, people often use a slang “cool”, at first, the meaning is to say something is very nice. We can say the film is “cool”, or praise others “cool person”. But with the development, “cool” also describe a peace and relaxing feeling. If some one ask you “How are you?” , you can answer “ I’m cool” instead of “I’m fine”.

1.2Equivalence

When people use slang to replace with original vocabulary, what slang convey is not only the exchange of meaning, but also the information exchange in more levels.

There is also hidden emotional communication behind the slang. It is an inevitable requirement that the process of slang translation is not just a simple switch the literal content, but should be integration and reproduction of all the information related to the whole slang. Only in this way can it reappear elegant demeanour of the source language. The equivalence of the slang is mainly reflected in three aspects, semantic equivalence, stylistic equivalence and cultural equivalent.

1.2.1 Semantic Equivalence

Although English slang phrases are completely identical with Chinese. For example, “dead-end street”translated “死路，死巷子”. However, the choice of words in the vast majority is often unequal to the words in Chinese. In such case, it should analyze the occasion and environment of using of the source language. Make more accurate judgments from the whole context. We need combing with Chinese expressions and finding the best meaning. For example, we may hear “How are you?”

“Not very well, I am a little under the weather.”in everyday life. From this conversation, the “weather” in this “under the weather” cannot be translated into “天气”, but it should be translated into “不太好，心情不佳，身体不适” and so on. “I really want to watch tonight’s movie, but I want to go to Dr. Brown’s lecture, too.”

“You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.” If we translate the latter sentence into “你不可能又吃蛋糕又吃拥有蛋糕” . It is not consistent with Chinese expression. Any Chinese will feel will strange and confused when listening this translation. To convey all the meaning, we can find equivalent translation in Chinese, and then we will combine mind and body. A better translation can be “鱼与熊掌不可兼得”。

1.2.2Stylistic Equivalence

Slang is usually used in a more friendly, casual and informal occasions，in the same way, it will choose a word with a similar stylistic to replace something in English-Chinese translation. Thus reproduce humorous, easygoing and colloquial slang. For example, “And now 2000 women want his number. The guy could be a crack head, a transvestite, a flasher, a junkie, a chain-saw murder or someone really sick. Translation1: 现在有2000位女士想要他的电话号码。那个人可能是瘾君子，异装癖者，暴露狂，吸毒者，电锯杀人犯，或者真的是有病。Translation 2 :现在有2000多号女的和他搭讪。可那家伙没准就是个烟鬼，娘娘腔，暴露狂，毒贩子，杀人狂，要不就真的有病。

From above example, in this slang it uses “ a crack head”(烟鬼), “a transvestite”(娘娘腔), “a flasher”(暴露狂), “a junkie”(毒贩子), “a chain-saw murder or someone really sick” (杀人狂，要不就是真有病)。If the translator only looks up a dictionary and have a blunt translation. Otherwise it will lose the original poking fun and casual style, and appear rigid and inflexible. But if a translator has a peer to peer translation, readjust the tone and words in translation, it will receive unexpected effect.

1.2.3 Cultural Equivalent

It is very difficult to balance two kinds of culture in the slang English-Chinese translation. In Eastern and Western culture, there are different habits, religious rituals and values. The translation of slang especially emphasizes on culture and strives for cultural equality. For example, in this phrase “come through with flying colors”, many translators may be confused “what do colors refer to?” Actually, it need dating back to Western semaphores culture. In ancient times, when each vessel sets off, a lot of colored flags will be hanged on the pole. If after naval battles, wind and rain, the colors flags are also on the pole, it will prove that the ship is safe. Therefore, this slang can be translated into “大获全胜” or “平安返航”。Although we may encounter many practical difficulties when maintaining the original style to achieve cultural equivalence during slang translation, any translator that translates cross-cultural exchange information try to keep cultural color or parables symbol of the original text. For example, “keep a straight face”, we can translate it into“板着脸”or “拉长着脸”。

2.1Translation Techniques

Slang can be divided into three languages, euphemism, curse words, vulgar language. Euphemism should take a more gentle language; curse language should use a proper Chinese vocabulary on the basis of different cultural backgrounds, style and language customs; vulgar language translation should pay attention to civilization, adopt phrase meaning.

2.1.1 Euphemism translation

Euphemism is the most elegant language in slang, because it intentionally avoids the most ashamed and hurtful words, instead, it uses milder language and circuitously express what the slang means. There are many euphemisms about the death in slang, and English and Chinese slangs have some similarities about the death. For example, to go to sleep(长眠)；to be no more (没了，不在了); to lay down one’s life(献身); to pass away(去世，与世长辞)。

Pregnant and “怀孕”is often related to sex. Therefore, people usually use euphemism to convey this concept. But English slang and Chinese slang about this concept is completely inconsistent with each others. For example, (1) she is five months gone. (她已有五个月的喜了，不能译成她已经走了五个月。) (2) to wear the apron high (如译成围兜系的高高的，肯定没几个中国读者联想到“怀孕”。) (3) to be a delicate condition（妇女怀孕，的确是处与“碰不起的状态”可汉语不这么说。）In English and Chinese, “toilet”and “go to toilet”are also replaced with euphemism. Ladies'(Room), Men’s (Room) are euphemisms of “女厕所”and

“男厕所”. Bathroom and toilet equal to “盥洗室”。When we talk with others,

we may ask “May I go to the bathroom please? May I wash hands? In friends, home or office, we can ask “M ay I use the facilities? Or “Where is the restroom? Among family members or intimate friends, we can humorously say “I’m going

to do my business, or I have to pay a call. We may choose Chinese euphemism to translate English slang according to some specific conditions.

2.1.2Translation of Curse Words

In English and Chinese, we use curse, swear and pray to convey hatred, discontent, etc. Curses often use the words of heaven and hell, God, ghosts, and curse the way of people’s death, such as go to the hell. But these curse words often does not convey that literal meaning, according to the different culture and language habits to carry out free translation. For example, (1)damn(愿为“上帝

降罚) a. I’ll be damned if I do.我要干这事，就不是人！b. God damn you! 该死

的！c. Damn it! 糟了！他妈的！(2) hell (原意为”地狱”，“阴间”) a. Oh, hell!

I’ve missed the last train. 真该死!我没赶上末班车。b. No need to worry, to hell

with all this.不必操心，让这一切见鬼去吧。C, Get the hell out of here! 快滚

开！(3) bloody(原意为“血淋淋的”) a. You bloody fool! 你这个该死的蠢货！

b. He is a bloody character. 他是个讨厌的家伙。

c. It’s a bloody shame! 真是太

丢脸！

2.1.3 Translation of Vulgar Language

Vulgar language refers to the insulting vulgar words. These words are often related to sex and sexual organs. The actual meaning is not its literal meaning. They just use vulgar words to express annoyance, surprise, insult, contempt, refuse, etc. Therefore, we should be very careful when translating vulgar language. There is some common vulgar language, such as fuck, screw(性交), bugger(鸡奸)，crap(粪便), bastard(私生子) etc. The above words used in profanity, no one convey the original meaning, so we must use free translation.

(1) Oh, fuck! I’ve lost the address. 哦，见鬼！我把地址给丢了。(2) Don’t talk crap! 不要胡说八道！

3. Conclusion

Slang usually derives from common people’s oral presentations in everyday life. It is the most direct carrier to reflect some specific culture. Slang is deeply influenced by different factors. In cross-cultural communication, or English-Chinese Translation, people should have a profound understanding about slang. It is helpful to have a comprehensive learning about English-speaking countries, and especially to those who learn slang translation. More effectively help people achieve cross-cultural communication successfully.

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