增词译法和减词译法

Adding 增词译法 英汉两种语言，由于表达方式不尽相同，翻译时既可能将词类转换，有时候也可能将词量增减。 增词法就是在翻译时按意义上或修辞上或句法上的需要增加一些词来更忠实、通顺地表达原文思想内容。这当然不是无中生有地随意乱加，而是增加原文中虽无其词却有其义的一些词。

Adding verbs e.g. There were no speeches, no foreign diplomats, no “ordinary Chinese” with paper flags and flowers. — 没有发表讲话，没有各国外交官到场，也没有“中国群众”挥舞纸旗和花束的场面。 e.g. After the banquets, the concerts, and the table tennis exhibitions, he would work on the drafting of the final communiqué. — 参加完宴会，出席过音乐会，观看了乒乓球表演赛之后，他还得起草最后公报。 e.g. I’m really busy this morning: 2 classes, a meeting, and an interview. — 我今天上午的确很忙，要上两节课，开一个会，还要接受一个采访。

Adding adjectives e.g. With what enthusiasm the Beijingers are studying foreign languages! — 北京的人们正以多么高的热情学习外语啊！ e.g. What a day/life! — 多么（ 热/冷/难熬/幸福/悲惨 ）的一天/生活啊！

Adding adverbs e.g. How the little girl looked after her old mother! — 那个小女孩照顾她的年迈的母亲是多么地细心周到啊！ e.g. The crowd melted away. — 人群渐渐地散去了。 e.g. As he began talking, words poured out. — 他一开讲，就滔滔不绝地讲个没完。

e.g. Be sure to wash before meal. — 饭前一定要洗手。 Adding nouns After the intransitive verb e.g. Be sure to wash before meal. — 饭前一定要洗手。 e.g. Doesn’t she wash after getting up? — 起床后她难道不洗漱（洗脸刷牙）吗？ e.g. He sometimes forgets to wash before going to bed. — 他有时忘记洗脚就上床睡觉。 e.g. Day after day she does the same: washing, sweeping, and cooking. — 她日复一日地做着同样的家务：洗衣服，拖地板，做饭。 Before the adjective e.g. The radio is indeed cheap and fine. — 这台收音机真是物美价廉。 e.g. She is a complicated girl – moody, sensitive and skeptical. — 她是个性格复杂的人：喜怒无常，多愁善感，疑神疑鬼。

e.g. After all preparations were made, the sports meet began. After the abstract noun e.g. After all preparations were made, the sports meet began. — 一切准备工作就绪后，运动会开始了。 e.g. In the summer of 1969, the government publicly urged an easing of tensions with China. — 一九六九年夏天，政府公开主张缓和与中国的紧张关系。 After the concrete noun e.g. He felt the patriot rise within his breast. — 他感到胸中涌起了一股爱国热情。 e.g. He allowed the father to be overruled by the judge, and declared his own son guilty. — 法官的职责战胜了父子之情，他最终判决自己的儿子有罪。

Adding words which indicate the plural form 汉语中名词的复数没有词型变化，很多情况下不必表达出来，但要表达 指多数人的名词时，可用“们”，如“老师们，同学们”，或在名词前加“各位／诸位” 或独立使用“大家”；表达事物的复数时可用“若干”等。此外，英语名词复数汉译时还可根据情况，增加重叠词、数词或其他一些词来表达，以提高修辞效果。 增加重叠词表示复数 e.g. Flowers bloom in the fields. — 朵朵鲜花开满原野。 e.g. Every summer, tourists go to the coastal cities. — 一到夏季，旅游者纷纷涌到海滨城市。 e.g. Rows of new houses have been set up. — 一排排的新房建成了。

e.g. The lion is the king of animals. — 狮子是百兽之王。 增加数词或其它词表示复数 汉语中有些数字词汇在文中并不表示具体的数字，只是表示“多，众多”的意思，如百（百花齐放，百家争鸣，百鸟朝凤，百感交集）、千（千篇一律，千人一面，千方百计）、万（万众一心，万紫千红，万水千山，千难万险）等；还有些词，如、 群、众、历、丛等也表示数量的多： e.g. The lion is the king of animals. — 狮子是百兽之王。 e.g. The mountains were covered with snow. — 群山白雪皑皑。 e.g. The crowd made a way for him. — 众人给他闪开了一条道。

e.g. I bought a new bike yesterday. — 我昨天买了一辆新自行车。 Adding quantifiers 英语中的名词，特别是可数名词，一般直接与数词或冠词连用；而汉语几乎总是要用量词。 e.g. I bought a new bike yesterday. — 我昨天买了一辆新自行车。 e.g. A red sun rose slowly from the calm sea. — 一轮红日在平静的海面上冉冉升起。 英语中有些动词或动作名词，译成汉语时常需增加一些表示行为、动作的动量词。 e.g. Shall we have a rest? — 我们休息一下好吗？ e.g. Once they quarreled bitterly. — 有次他们大吵了一架。 e.g. I had a look at the photo and recognized her at once. — 我看了一眼照片，马上就认出了她。

Adding words which indicate the tense 英语动词的时态是靠动词词型变化和加助动词来表达的。汉语动词没有时态变化，表达时态时除用具体表示时间的词或词组，如昨天、此时此刻、下周、２０年前等，还要借助于时态助词“曾、已经、过、了／正在、着、／将、就、要、会、便”被用来表示过去／现在／将来发生的动作或存在的状态。 对时间概念作强调时，往往加词翻译。 e.g. I had heard about him before I met him. — 我在见到他之前就听说过他了。 e.g. Once I was his boss ,but now he is mine. — 我一度曾是他的上司；不过现在是他领导我。 强调时间的对比时，要加词翻译。 e.g. They say his father was a fisherman. He used to be as poor as we are. — 听人说，从前他爸爸是个打鱼的。他过去也跟我们现在一样穷。

Adding auxiliary words which indicate the tone 汉语中有许多语气助词，如：的、吧、呢、啊、呀、吗、嘛、啦、了、罢了、而已等。在英译汉时，要细心体味原文，使用汉语语气助词，更好地表达原文的修辞色彩。 e.g. Don’t take it so seriously. I just make fun of you. — 不要当真嘛！我不过是跟你开玩笑罢了。 e.g. As for me, I have nothing to say. — 我呢，也没有什么可说的了。

Adding words which are syntactically omitted in the source text 问答句 e.g. — Is this your book? — Yes, it is. — 这是你的书吗？ — 是我的。 e.g. — what? Don’t you love him? — Yes, of course I do. — 什么？难道你不爱他？ — 我当然爱他！ 排比句 e.g. “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man…” — “读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。”（培根:《论读书》王佐良译）

e.g. Better be wise by the defeat of others than by your own. 比较句 e.g. Better be wise by the defeat of others than by your own. — 从别人的失败中吸取教训比从自己的失败中吸取教训更好。 e.g. The villagers are as ready to look after her as they were their own daughter. — 村民们愿意照顾她，正如他们愿意照顾他们自己的女儿一样。 隐含条件句 e.g. At the time of Kennedy’s assassination, people thought that a second term would have led either to greatness or to disaster. — 肯尼迪遇刺时，人们认为，假如他再任一届总统的话，大概不是功高盖世，就是祸国殃民。 e.g. But without Adolf Hitler, there almost certainly would never have been a Third Reich. — 然而如果没有希特勒，那就几乎可以肯定没有第三帝国。

Adding words which indicate the textual / social context e.g. In April, there was the “ping” heard around the world. In July, the ping “ponged”. 如只照原文译出“四月份，全世界听到乒的一声；七月里，这乒声乓了一下。”读者肯定不知所云。根据中美建交的背景知识，把这段外交史话译为： — 四月里，全世界听到中国乒的一声把球打了出去；到了七月，美国乓的一声把球打了回来。 e.g. Mao and Zhou learned that Nixon had the desire for a visit. — 毛泽东和周恩来获悉尼克松有访华的念头。

Adding summarizing words 英汉语中都有概括词。对应译成“总之”“等等”即可。但有时英语句子中并无概括词，而翻译时往往要加上一些词，而省掉英语中的连接词： e.g. The foreign ministers of China, Russia, Japan and the U.S. met in Tokyo. — 中、俄、日、美四国外长在东京会晤。 e.g. China is willing to exchange views with any countries, politically, culturally and economically. —中国愿意同任何国家在政治、文化、经济等各个方面进行交流。

Adding linking words e.g. Yes, he likes football. Lots of people do these days. Sort of the fashion, maybe. —不错，他喜欢足球。现今很多人喜欢足球。这似乎是种时髦。 e.g. You have made a mistake, and a serious one. —你犯了一个错误，而且还是个严重错误。

Cutting words From the Grammatical Aspect Cutting pronouns Cutting the pronoun as subject 根据汉语习惯，后句主语若与前句相同，不必重复出现。 e.g. But it’s the way I am, and try as I might, I haven’t been able to change it. — 不过我就是这个脾气，虽然竭力想改，终究还是改不了。 2.泛指人称代词作主语时，即便是第一个主语，也往往省略掉。 e.g. You can never tell. — 很难说。 e.g. We eat to live, but not live to eat. — 吃饭是为了活着，可活着不是为了吃饭。 e.g. Anyone who does not recognize this fact is not a materialist. — 不承认这个事实，就不是唯物主义者。

e.g. This formula makes it easy to determine the wavelength of sounds. Cutting the pronoun as object e.g. This formula makes it easy to determine the wavelength of sounds. — 这一公式使得测定声音的波长十分简单。 e.g. Before handing in your translation, you have to read it over and over again and see if there is anything in it to be corrected or improved. — 交出翻译之前必须多读几遍，看看里面有没有要修改的地方。 Cutting the possessive pronoun e.g. For two weeks, he had been studying the house, looking at its rooms, its electric wiring, its path and its garden. — 连着两星期他都在观察房子的情况，检查各个房间，查看线路、通道和花园的布局。 e.g. The train came. He pinched his little sister lovingly, and put his great arms about his mother’s neck and then was away. — 火车来了。他疼爱地捏了捏小妹妹，粗壮的胳膊搂了一下母亲的脖子，然后就走了。

Cutting “it” as impersonal pronoun Cutting the pronoun in comparative sentence e.g. The climate in Switzerland is absolutely different from that in Somalia. — 瑞士的气候与索马里截然不同。 Cutting “it” Cutting “it” as impersonal pronoun e.g. Outside it was raining cats and dogs as she shut the door. — 她关门时外面正下着滂沱大雨。 Cutting “it” as emphatic pronoun e.g. It was only then that I began to have doubts whether my story would ever be told. — 直到那时我才开始怀疑，我的经历究竟能不能公诸于众。

— 他认为国家安全委员会机构过于庞大臃肿，人多嘴杂，容易泄密。 Cutting conjunctions Cutting the coordinating conjunction e.g. He considered the National Security Council too large and bulky and thus too leaky, too many people who talked too much. — 他认为国家安全委员会机构过于庞大臃肿，人多嘴杂，容易泄密。 e.g. Your parents or your wife or your son or your best friends might be expecting you back home safe and sound. — 也许你的父母，妻儿，或者你最好的朋友都在盼望你平安回家呢。

e.g. We knew that summer was coming, as we could see a swallow. Cutting the subordinate conjunction 省略表示原因的连接词 e.g. We knew that summer was coming, as we could see a swallow. — 我们看见一只燕子，知道夏天就要来临了。 e.g. Because the departure was not easy, we’d better make it brief. — 离别不是件容易的事（离别真叫人难受），我们还是简短些吧。 省略表示条件的连接词 e.g. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? — 冬天来了，春天还会远吗？（雪莱《西风颂》） e.g. I would not have said it if I had known it. — 早知如此我就不说了。

省略表示时间的连接词 e.g. When at last he stood upon the bluff, he turned to his little sister and looked upon her sorrowfully. — 最后他站到了悬崖上，转过身来，悲哀地看着他的小妹妹。 e.g. At long last, on June 6, 1944, after the European war was basically decided and Hitler licked, the allies launched their long-delayed western front. — 1944年6月6日，欧洲战局基本已见分晓，希特勒败局已定，盟军终于在这一天开辟了延迟了很久的西线战场。

Cutting articles e.g. Any substance is made of atoms whether it is a solid, a liquid, or a gas. — 任何物质，不论是固体、液体或气体，都由原子构成。（类别） e.g. The moon was slowly rising above the sea. — 月亮从海上冉冉升起。（独一无二的事物） e.g. When I got to the cinema, the film had already begun. — 我到电影院时，电影已经开始了。（特指）

但在下列情况中冠词不能省略： 不定冠词 “a(n)” 强调数目“一”或“每一”、“同一”时： e.g. twice a week; birds of a feather 同一种类的鸟 e.g. He left without saying a word. — 他一句话不说就走了。 定冠词 “the” 强调“这”、“那”时： e.g. This is the boy who broke our window five minutes ago, sir!

Cutting prepositions e.g. The difference between the two machines consists in power. — 这两台机器的差别在于功率不同。 e.g. Hydrogen is the lightest element with an atomic weight of 1.0008. — 氢是最轻的元素，原子量为1.0008。 **一般说来，表示时间和地点的介词短语放在译文句首时大都可省。 e.g. The battle began at 11:00 p.m. — 夜晚11点，战役打响了。（比较：战役在夜晚11点打响。） e.g. An ancient castle stood on the edge of the cliff. — 悬崖边矗立着一座古堡。（比较：一座古堡矗立在悬崖边。）

Cutting verbs e.g. When the pressure gets low, the boiling point becomes low. — 气压低，沸点就低。 e.g. Solids expand and contract as liquids and gases do. — 如同液体和气体一样，固体也会膨胀和收缩。

From the Rhetorical Aspect Cutting the repeated phrase e.g. Instead of one old woman knocking me about and starving me, everybody of all ages knocked me about and starved me. — 那时打我、让我挨饿的不只是一个老太婆，而是老老少少各式各样的人。

Cutting words which are not necessary e.g. His younger sister is an actress. — 他妹妹是个（女）演员。 e.g. As scheduled, Chinese and American diplomats met on January 20, at the Chinese Embassy in Poland. It was their first get-together in more than two years. 中美两国外交官按照预定计划于一月二十日在波兰的中国大使馆会晤。这是两年多来的第一次。 e.g. University applicants who had worked at a job would receive preference over those who had not. — 报考大学的人，有工作经验的将优先录取。