Quine’s Indeterminacy Of Translation And Its Enlightenment On English-Chinese And Chinese-English Translation

Upon the analysis of Quine’s indeterminacy of translation, this dissertationcombines the thesis with the theory and practice of English Chinese translation in bothways, and puts forward a new idea of translation containing both the characteristics ofobjectivity and indeterminacy on translation meaning (tr-meaning).To begin with, Quine’s thesis is critically investigated through documentaryinduction and conceptual analysis. Holding the meaning concept of behaviorism,Quine assumes a thought experiment named radical translation in which observationsentence is regarded as the basis and stimulus-response as the criterion of judgment.Quine argues that translation handbooks based on the same language facts areincompatible with each other. This is because of the meaning indeterminacy hidden inthe three steps of radical translation: linguists’ guess in the process of rabbit running,aborigines’ assent or dissent and analytical hypothesis after semantic ascent,especially the last step. And thus the conclusion of indeterminacy of translation isreached, which poses challenges to the meaning-fact oriented traditional translationconcept. In the argumentation process of the thesis, Quine demonstrates his concept ofholism, pragmatism and new empiricism.Quine’s three arguments are then analyzed: the inscrutability of reference, theunder-determination of theory by evidence and ontological relativity. Theinscrutability of reference, in a weak sense like indeterminacy of translation,presupposes the topic of reification which means that our sense of the reality subjectsto gradual distortion over time. The following three aspects embody the inscrutabilityof reference: four stages of language study, vagaries of reference (i. e. vagueness,ambiguity and opacity) and regimentation. The under-determination of theory byevidence, in a robust sense like indeterminacy of translation, presupposes the topic ofempirical content endowed by perceptional evidence, which implies that our physicaltheory about the world transcends our observation. Ontological relativity is assumedon specific background knowledge, analytical hypothesis and the differentunderstanding ways for the existential quantifier. However, according to Quine’smeaning concept of behaviorism, no evidence verifies the correct one in several competitive translation handbooks, which suggests that there is no meaning at all.This conclusion leads to skepticism, and challenges translatability between languages.It is obvious that Quine’s thesis needs to be modified. Then Davidson’s truthconditional theory of meaning is introduced to demonstrate the argumentation processfrom interpretability to translatability through the analysis of radical interpretation,indeterminacy of interpretation and the triangulation mode.Based on the above discussion, the relation between the thesis of indeterminacyof translation and the theory and practice of translation is analyzed. Possible methodsare proposed to solve the problem of so called “untranslatability”. Through thediscussion of the relation between the indeterminacy of translation and translatabilityand untranslatability, the translatability is further discussed. Practicable methods areproposed to account for the differences and mismatches in translation practice. Inview of the idea that translation is possible and indeterminate, tr-meaning proposed byDorit Bar-On is modified, which is a set of features integrated by concepts betweensource text and translation text, including context reliability, timing, negotiation,generation and dynamic balance. Tr-meaning is introduced in translation assessmentsystem to judge the quality of translation.Finally, in the light of Quine’s thesis, some heuristic opinions are proposed forthe theory and practice of English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation throughan in-depth examination of typical translations. Among the different versions of thetranslation based on the same source text, the candidate version which preserves moretr-meaning will be better, and vice versa. There are in total four levels for tr-meaningassessment, i. e. exact translation, best translation, equally good translation and bettertranslation. Besides, tr-meaning is also used to coordinate the new idea of translationcontaining both the characteristics of objectivity and indeterminacy. Context andtr-meaning are regarded as coordinators in the analysis frame of “truthfulness,expressiveness, and elegance” of translation criteria.