梁昊/譯
【譯者言】? ?機(jī)器翻譯基于對(duì)翻譯系統(tǒng)所帶語(yǔ)料庫(kù)里語(yǔ)料的計(jì)算,這樣做有兩個(gè)優(yōu)點(diǎn):第一,可以根據(jù)詞頻選擇最常用的對(duì)應(yīng)詞,保證譯文有比較高的準(zhǔn)確率;第二,語(yǔ)料庫(kù)范圍內(nèi)的詞義、用法不會(huì)有遺漏。不過(guò),目前的機(jī)器翻譯軟件也有兩個(gè)缺點(diǎn)。第一個(gè)缺點(diǎn)是,原文里萬(wàn)一出現(xiàn)超出語(yǔ)料庫(kù)詞匯范圍的表達(dá)式,機(jī)器便束手無(wú)策。例如本篇的agon,機(jī)器和譯者都是第一次遇到,機(jī)器一般只能照搬原文或音譯為“阿貢”或“阿攻”,這等于沒(méi)有譯,具有一定智能的翻譯軟件可能會(huì)根據(jù)與agon外形接近的派生詞agony的意思,將之譯成“痛苦”,但并不奏效。人工翻譯的路徑是,先查閱權(quán)威的《牛津英語(yǔ)詞典》(OED),了解agon的詞源及其各派生詞的意思,再參考國(guó)內(nèi)收詞量最大的《英漢大詞典》,當(dāng)發(fā)現(xiàn)該詞典給出的兩個(gè)對(duì)應(yīng)詞無(wú)一符合原文上下文允許的意思時(shí),就根據(jù)agon的詞源義,結(jié)合原文學(xué)科背景,將agon譯成“詰駁”。機(jī)譯軟件的第二個(gè)缺點(diǎn)是,當(dāng)需要根據(jù)上下文選擇一個(gè)多義詞的某一義項(xiàng)時(shí),機(jī)器往往不如人工。例如本篇里的formal,在不同上下文里的意思可以是“形式”“正規(guī)”“注重形式”,但這幾個(gè)義項(xiàng)機(jī)器都沒(méi)有選,卻選了最常見(jiàn)但不符合上下文的“正式”。類似案例還有productive、marked、knew、learning、style、intellectual等多義詞的義項(xiàng)選擇。
Walter Ong:
Agon3 in Western Education
Introduction:
Father Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) was trained by Jesuits to be a priest4 in the days when agon in the form of oral disputation was still part of their educational method. The implicit contrast with the Chinese tradition is startling. In Chinese history, there have been few recorded instances of oral debates before an audience, those mostly involving Buddhist doctrines. Chinese thinkers very often disagree with each other, but they typically express their criticisms cautiously and in writing, sometimes years or even centuries later.
Contest, Language, and Education in the Western Tradition5
Historically, some of the most conspicuous manifestations of agon in the human world around the globe have been in speech itself. In distant ages, speech, together with thought, was a highly combative activity, especially in its more public manifestations—much more combative than we in our present-day technological world are likely to assume or are even willing to believe. ... The ancient Greeks fascination with confrontational language shows in their abundant works on rhetoric and dialectic and in formal logic, which grew out of dispute6. The Greeks polarized yes and no as never before. The Greek fascination with the agonistic structures of speech and thought spread and continued throughout the West, not only in the study of rhetoric, dialectic, and logic, but in many less immediately conspicuous ways. …
The ancient Greek word for what we mean by contest in English is agon, which means an assembly, an arena, an action at law, a contest. … The fact that the term for an assembly in ancient Greece is also an action at law or a contest7 calls attention to the litigiousness8 (eagerness for legal disputes9) of the Greek world. An assembly, a getting together to discourse, was essentially a mobilization for contest. The assembly came together to debate, to match pros and cons, to struggle, not fatally, but seriously, man against man. The legislative body was, and still is, an organization for productive10 struggle. …
In the West, the agonistic tradition of formal education was deeply rooted in Greek antiquity, as already suggested. It persisted not merely through Medieval dialectic and disputations and Renaissance scholarly polemic, but with remarkable11 vigor well into the 18th century, as shown, for example, in the formal12 and contest-oriented conceptions of the founders of the United States of America (as expressed in the US Constitution) …
When the agonistic mode of education was functioning at its maximum—as, for example, in Medieval and Renaissance universities—a student was not formally taught13 to be “objective” about knowledge. … What was taught in the formal educational operation14 was to take a stand in favor of a thesis (the leading assertions in a doctoral dissertation) and to attack another thesis that someone else defended. Defense of theses and attacks on theses marked procedures for the teaching15 not only of such subjects as philosophy, law, and theology, but also of physics (then known as natural philosophy), and medicine. Young men at Harvard College in the 17th century defended theses about logic, rhetoric, and grammar. They learned subjects largely by arguing over them. …
The ancient Greeks and Romans knew16 and used alphabetic writing, but they felt it to be at the service of oral speech. So did the Medieval universities, although these new institutions were far more script-oriented than antiquity had been: they depended on texts for their learning17 and even lectured on texts, thus looking ahead to our present-day teaching style rather than back to that of classical antiquity. But for all their literacy, Medieval universities remained basically oral and deeply agonistic in life-style and intellectual style18. They did not use writing at all to test intellectual achievement. Writing was employed to a considerable extent in the learning of Latin at elementary schools, but at the universities there were no assigned papers19, no written examinations. All testing was conducted orally by disputations or debate-like viva voce (Latin: “l(fā)ive-voice”) examinations. …
Much of the thrust of the agonist tradition in Western education sketched here was connected with the 1,500-year history of Learned Latin20, which was only disestablished in the 1960s in such traditional settings as Oxford and Cambridge Universities and globally in the Roman Catholic liturgy. Latin functioned at its peak at the time of the Renaissance in Europe. …
By the Renaissance—and indeed for some centuries before21—Learned Latin was eminently qualified as an instrument for a puberty rite (coming-of-age ritual for young males). After the 7th century Learned Latin was no longer a mother tongue in the most real sense of this term: it was not used by mothers to raise22 their children. Thus, learning Latin moved boys out of their families into the tribe once Latin became a sex-linked23 language, used only by males (with negligible exceptions). The spoken use of Latin became dependent on writing rather than vice versa (Latin: “the other way around”).
沃爾特·翁:
西方教育中的詰駁
導(dǎo)讀
沃爾特·翁(Walter J. Ong,1912-2003)神父是經(jīng)過(guò)耶穌會(huì)會(huì)士的訓(xùn)練成為一名祭司的,那時(shí)口頭辯論形式的詰駁依然是他們的一種教育方式。這種方式隱含的與中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)教育方式的反差令人吃驚。中國(guó)歷史上有關(guān)當(dāng)眾辯論的記載寥寥無(wú)幾,而這些僅有的記載也多涉及佛教教義。中國(guó)思想家們常常彼此見(jiàn)解不同,但他們批評(píng)他人一般很謹(jǐn)慎,而且往往訴諸筆頭。有時(shí)得等多年,甚至幾百年后,才能見(jiàn)到這些批評(píng)意見(jiàn)。
西方傳統(tǒng)中的競(jìng)賽、語(yǔ)言和教育
回顧歷史,全球人類社會(huì)最顯而易見(jiàn)的一些競(jìng)賽(agon)形式一直存在于言語(yǔ)本身。在遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代,言語(yǔ)連同思想,尤其是其比較公開(kāi)的表現(xiàn)形式,都極具對(duì)抗性。這種對(duì)抗異常激烈,身處當(dāng)今技術(shù)世界的我們難以想象,甚至都不愿意相信。……古希臘人對(duì)對(duì)抗性語(yǔ)言的迷戀反映在他們留下來(lái)的大量論述修辭和辯證法以及形式邏輯學(xué)領(lǐng)域的著作,該學(xué)科即爭(zhēng)辯的產(chǎn)物。希臘人認(rèn)為凡事非對(duì)即錯(cuò),這種兩極分化觀達(dá)到前所未有的程度。他們迷戀詰駁式的言語(yǔ)和思想,這種迷戀傳遍西方,并延續(xù)至今,不僅在修辭學(xué)、辯證法和邏輯學(xué)研究方面是這樣,在許多不太顯而易見(jiàn)的方面也是如此。……
古希臘文里agon這個(gè)詞的意思與英文contest的意思相當(dāng),指集會(huì)、競(jìng)技、訴訟、競(jìng)賽?!畔ED文表示集會(huì)的詞也表示訴訟或競(jìng)賽,這一語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象讓人注意到希臘社會(huì)的訴訟精神(即對(duì)法庭爭(zhēng)辯的熱衷)。集會(huì)即聚在一起說(shuō)話,本質(zhì)上是動(dòng)員人們參加競(jìng)賽。人們集會(huì)進(jìn)行辯論,正反兩方對(duì)壘,你爭(zhēng)我斗,雖不至于到你死我活的地步,卻是男子漢之間的嚴(yán)肅斗爭(zhēng)。作為集會(huì)的一種形式,立法機(jī)構(gòu)當(dāng)時(shí)是,現(xiàn)在仍是,一個(gè)可進(jìn)行有成效辯論的組織?!?/p>
我們已看到,在西方,正規(guī)教育的詰駁傳統(tǒng)深深植根于希臘遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)期。它不僅貫穿中世紀(jì)的辯證法、爭(zhēng)辯和文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的學(xué)術(shù)論戰(zhàn),而且直至18世紀(jì)仍相當(dāng)有活力。例如,美利堅(jiān)合眾國(guó)的創(chuàng)建者們都具有這種注重形式的、以競(jìng)賽為導(dǎo)向的觀念(美國(guó)憲法就體現(xiàn)了這一點(diǎn))?!?/p>
當(dāng)詰駁模式的教育發(fā)揮最大作用時(shí),例如像中世紀(jì)和文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的大學(xué)教育那樣,學(xué)生接受的正規(guī)教育不是教他看待知識(shí)要“客觀”。……而是要他選擇一個(gè)立場(chǎng),支持一個(gè)論點(diǎn)(thesis,即一篇博士論文的主要斷言),攻擊另一個(gè)人辯護(hù)的論點(diǎn)。對(duì)一個(gè)論點(diǎn)的辯護(hù)和對(duì)反方論點(diǎn)的詰駁是當(dāng)時(shí)教學(xué)法的特點(diǎn),不僅哲學(xué)、法學(xué)、神學(xué)之類學(xué)科是這樣,物理學(xué)(舊時(shí)稱自然哲學(xué))、醫(yī)學(xué)也如此。17世紀(jì)哈佛學(xué)院的青年才俊曾為邏輯學(xué)、修辭學(xué)和文法領(lǐng)域的一些論點(diǎn)進(jìn)行辯護(hù),他們學(xué)習(xí)各種科目的方式主要是就這些科目進(jìn)行爭(zhēng)辯?!?/p>
古希臘和古羅馬人認(rèn)識(shí)并使用拼音文字,但他們認(rèn)為文字是為口語(yǔ)服務(wù)的。中世紀(jì)的大學(xué)也這樣認(rèn)為,不過(guò)這些新高校對(duì)文字的重視遠(yuǎn)超古代:師生的學(xué)問(wèn)依賴文本,教師甚至講授文本,因此是向我們當(dāng)代的教學(xué)方式靠攏,而不是回歸古典時(shí)代的教學(xué)方式。中世紀(jì)的大學(xué)盡管很重視讀寫(xiě),在生活方式和思想方式上依舊基本是口頭的,詰駁式的。學(xué)校根本不藉助書(shū)寫(xiě)來(lái)測(cè)試學(xué)生們?cè)谒枷肷嫌惺裁撮L(zhǎng)進(jìn)。在小學(xué)的拉丁文教學(xué)中,書(shū)寫(xiě)的分量相當(dāng)重;然而大學(xué)卻不布置論文寫(xiě)作,也沒(méi)有筆試。所有測(cè)驗(yàn)都口頭進(jìn)行,或通過(guò)爭(zhēng)辯,或舉行類似辯論的口頭(viva voce,拉丁文,意思是現(xiàn)場(chǎng)口頭)考試,即答辯?!?/p>
這里勾勒出的西方教育中的詰駁傳統(tǒng),其推力大部分與有1500年歷史的學(xué)業(yè)拉丁文(Learned Latin)有關(guān);直到1960年代,這種拉丁文才在牛津、劍橋之類傳統(tǒng)學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)和全球的羅馬天主教禮儀中被廢棄。拉丁文發(fā)揮作用的巔峰是歐洲文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期。……
到文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期,其實(shí)不如說(shuō)在那之前幾百年里,學(xué)業(yè)拉丁文都有十足的資格作為青春禮(青年男子成年禮)的一個(gè)工具。7世紀(jì)后,拉丁語(yǔ)就不再是真正意義上的母語(yǔ)了,因?yàn)槟赣H不再用拉丁語(yǔ)教養(yǎng)孩子。如此一來(lái),一旦拉丁成為一種與性別掛鉤的語(yǔ)文,僅為男性所用(例外很少,可忽略不計(jì)),男孩子們?yōu)榱藢W(xué)習(xí)拉丁文,便走出家庭,進(jìn)入部族。拉丁口語(yǔ)變得依賴于書(shū)寫(xiě)而不是書(shū)寫(xiě)依賴于口語(yǔ)。
1北京外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)英語(yǔ)學(xué)院講師;1999 年獲北京外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)碩士學(xué)位,2007 年獲北京外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)博士學(xué)位。研究領(lǐng)域是英中對(duì)比語(yǔ)言學(xué)、英語(yǔ)史和語(yǔ)法化。? 2北京外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)長(zhǎng)青學(xué)者、外國(guó)語(yǔ)言研究所教授,廣西師范大學(xué)漓江學(xué)者、外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院教授;1985 年北京外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)碩士畢業(yè),1996年獲英國(guó)劍橋大學(xué)英語(yǔ)歷史語(yǔ)言學(xué)博士學(xué)位。研究領(lǐng)域是語(yǔ)言學(xué)、英中對(duì)比與翻譯、雙語(yǔ)詞典學(xué)。? 3 agon這個(gè)詞一般英文案頭詞典不收。陸谷孫主編的《英漢大詞典》里可以查到,給出的釋義和譯名是“(古希臘體育或文藝方面的)有獎(jiǎng)競(jìng)賽”和“(古希臘戲劇中)主要人物間的沖突”(agon條下)。然而,無(wú)論用“競(jìng)賽”或“沖突”來(lái)翻譯第一段中agon in the form of oral disputation里的agon都不合適。查《牛津英語(yǔ)詞典》,agon源自古希臘文?γ?ν,詞源義是聚會(huì)或集會(huì),尤指公共游藝聚會(huì),特指有獎(jiǎng)競(jìng)技比賽,泛指各種競(jìng)賽或較量;其引申用法指希臘戲劇里兩個(gè)人物之間的舌戰(zhàn)或爭(zhēng)辯(verbal contest or dispute,OED agon 條下,釋義譯文由筆者提供)。這個(gè)詞派生出了多個(gè)詞,其中常用詞在語(yǔ)義上可分為兩大分支:a. 與痛苦相關(guān),例如agony‘痛苦,苦惱、agonize‘感到痛苦,撕裂或苦惱、agonizing‘令人痛苦,撕裂或苦惱,由agony又生發(fā)出了agony aunt‘知心大媽/知心姐姐和agony column‘知心欄目等常見(jiàn)詞組;b. 與對(duì)抗相關(guān),這是agon的本義,保留在antagonism‘對(duì)抗或?qū)α⑶榫w、antagonist‘對(duì)抗或?qū)α⒎?、antagonistic‘情緒對(duì)抗或?qū)α?、antagonize‘使對(duì)抗或生氣,還有protagonist‘(文藝作品中)主要人物(以上各詞見(jiàn)Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary,對(duì)應(yīng)詞由筆者提供)等詞中。痛苦類詞于14世紀(jì)通過(guò)拉丁文agōnia借入英文(見(jiàn)OED agony n.條),先于對(duì)抗類詞。使用頻率略低于上述各詞的一個(gè)派生詞是agonistic,在本文中出現(xiàn)四次,且對(duì)理解此處agon的意思至關(guān)重要。作為修辭學(xué)術(shù)語(yǔ),agonistic的意思是“好論戰(zhàn),好斗,力圖在辯論中壓倒對(duì)方”(見(jiàn)《新牛津英漢雙解大詞典》agonistic, a. 條下2. Rhet.,釋義譯文由筆者提供)。包括藏傳佛教在內(nèi)的一些宗教在傳習(xí)教義的過(guò)程中一直將學(xué)員之間的兩兩詰駁作為一種教學(xué)方法,因此我們?cè)噷gon譯為“詰駁”。? 4 priest祭司(也譯為司鐸),通常是一個(gè)教堂的負(fù)責(zé)人。機(jī)器譯文都是“神父”,不準(zhǔn)確;father才是神父。? 5改編自 Walter J. Ong. 1981. Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
6 which指形式邏輯學(xué),grew out of dispute因爭(zhēng)辯而產(chǎn)生的,所以譯為“爭(zhēng)辯的產(chǎn)物”。GT的“毫無(wú)爭(zhēng)議”是誤譯;DL的“這些作品是從爭(zhēng)端中發(fā)展起來(lái)的”,“爭(zhēng)端”不確,“發(fā)展起來(lái)”無(wú)法與“作品”搭配。? 7這里is also的意思是,同一個(gè)詞既表示assembly也表示訴訟或競(jìng)賽。GT的“也是一種法律訴訟或競(jìng)賽”和DL的“也是法律行動(dòng)或競(jìng)賽”里的“是”都屬于誤譯。? 8 litigiousness譯成“訴訟精神”比較合適。機(jī)器譯文“訴訟性”既生硬,又顯得隔靴搔癢。? 9這里eagerness的意思是“熱衷”,不是機(jī)器譯文的“渴望”;legal dispute的意思是“訴訟”,不是機(jī)器譯文的“糾紛”。
10 productive這里的意思是“有成效”。機(jī)器譯文“生產(chǎn)”是誤譯。? 11 remarkable表示一種有節(jié)制的肯定或贊賞,多數(shù)情況下可以譯成“相當(dāng)”。機(jī)器譯文“非凡的”屬于夸大。? 12這里formal的意思是“注重(競(jìng)賽的)形式”,不能像機(jī)器譯文那樣譯為“正式的”。? 13機(jī)器譯文“沒(méi)有被正式教導(dǎo)……”顯得生硬,“正式”與“教導(dǎo)”搭配不當(dāng)。? 14機(jī)器譯文“正式的教育操作”中“正式的”與“教育操作”搭配不當(dāng),“教育”與“操作”也搭配不當(dāng)。
15 marked procedures for the teaching里的mark與characterize同義,字面意義是‘標(biāo)出特征,可靈活譯成“是……的特點(diǎn)”。機(jī)器譯文“標(biāo)志著”沒(méi)有把“特點(diǎn)”或“特征”的意思傳達(dá)出來(lái);所謂procedures for teaching其實(shí)就是教學(xué)法。? 16 knew后接賓語(yǔ)alphabetic writing,意思是辨識(shí)、識(shí)讀(見(jiàn)OALD know verb 條下8),機(jī)器譯文“知道”是誤譯。? 17 learning此處顯然是“學(xué)問(wèn)”,不是機(jī)器譯文的“學(xué)習(xí)”。? 18 life-style and intellectual style,前面的life-style既然是“生活方式”,后面的intellectual style自然只能譯成“思想方式”而不是機(jī)器譯文里的“風(fēng)格”。另外,intellectual常被譯成“知識(shí)分子”。其實(shí)這個(gè)詞的意思是“思想;智力”,與“知識(shí)(knowledge)”沒(méi)有什么關(guān)系。例如intellectual history得譯成“思想史”而不是“知識(shí)史”,intellectual也應(yīng)該譯成“思想分子”而不是“知識(shí)分子”。
19 assigned papers 即老師布置給學(xué)生的論文作業(yè)。機(jī)器譯文“指定的”(GT)或“分配的”(DL)都是硬譯。? 20古典時(shí)代之后,各民族書(shū)面語(yǔ)言逐漸興起,拉丁不再是一種母語(yǔ),而是兒童上學(xué)后在學(xué)校學(xué)會(huì)的國(guó)際通用書(shū)面語(yǔ),所以稱為L(zhǎng)earned Latin。既然此時(shí)拉丁是學(xué)業(yè)的一部分,我們遂將之譯成“學(xué)業(yè)拉丁文”。? 21 indeed起肯定并進(jìn)一步補(bǔ)充修正的作用,相當(dāng)于“其實(shí)”(見(jiàn)OED indeed adv. 條下phr. 3)。before后省略的是Renaissance,GT的“乃至數(shù)百年以前”,DL的“在幾個(gè)世紀(jì)之前”都未能清晰說(shuō)明在什么之前。? 22此處討論的是拉丁文的教養(yǎng)或教化作用,因此raise不宜像機(jī)器譯文那樣譯成“撫養(yǎng)”。
23由于上學(xué)的一般是男孩,女孩少得可以忽略不計(jì),所以只能在學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)的拉丁文就與性別掛鉤了(sex-linked)。機(jī)器譯文“有關(guān)”不對(duì)。