Translation And Chinese-English Dictionary

IntroductionCompared with that of monolingual dictionaries, the history of bilingual dictionaries is relatively short. It was not until the 19th century that we had the first Chinese-English dictionary. Criticism on lexicography began only very recently in 1918 in China's mainland. Although bilingual lexicography has drawn more and more attention from researchers in recent years, it's a pity to note that there're no systematic researches on either the compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries or the relationship between translation and Chinese-English dictionary.Despite the fact that bilingual dictionaries have long been considered reference books that help with language learning and translation, the advance of the society endows it with the new task of being a tool for culture exchange, and it is more so with Chinese-English dictionaries. Therefore, systematic studies on Chinese-English dictionary translation would no doubt be significant to both the improvement of the quality of Chinese-English dictionaries and the enrichment of translation as a discipline. In view of this, the author of present thesis attempts a general survey of translation and Chinese-English dictionary.Chapter OneThere's no spring without a source, and tracing the history of Chinese-English dictionaries compilation would no doubt provide us with lessons, which we can draw from and hence be meaningful to research on lexicography.As a starting point, this chapter is meant to be a general survey of the history of Chinese-English dictionaries with a detailed introduction and comparison of four representing dictionaries compiled respectively by Robert Henry Mathews, Liang Shih-chiu, Lin Yutang and Wu Jingrong.Chapter TwoAlthough long been neglected by researchers of translation, dictionary translation is in itself a unique art. It differs from literary translation by its seemingly fragmentary unit of translation, its reliance on context, its objectivity and its readership.The success of a bilingual dictionary, to a great extent, depends on the quality of translation. And to ensure this quality, there must be some principles by which translators can abide. Taking into account the uniqueness of dictionary translation, besides the two traditional principles we stick to inliterary translation -- fidelity and readability, we hereby put forward twomore principles--objectivity and practicability.Chapter ThreeAs there is no dictionary that could be rid of mistakes, a survey of problems of Chinese-English dictionary translation would no doubt be of meaningful to both the research of translation as a discipline and the improvement of Chinese-English lexicography as a whole. Therefore, in this chapter, we probe into various problems of translation in Chinese-English dictionaries, and attempt to find solutions to some of the problems.Chapter FourAny dictionary is the product of a certain concept of dictionary compilation. In this chapter, we delve into A Chinese-English Dictionary published in 1978 by the Commercial Press, A Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition) published in 1995 by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and New Age Chinese-English Dictionary published in 2000 by the Commercial Press, and discuss the effect of changing concept of dictionary compilation on the quality of Chinese-English dictionary translation and the success of a dictionary.Chapter FiveIn this chapter, the author firstly proposes that corpus be built to facilitatethe compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries, then, on the basis of the Chinese-English dictionaries on the market, draws a blueprint in her mind an ideal Chinese-English dictionary for average English learners, an ideal Chinese-English dictionary for translators, and an ideal Chinese-English dictionary for foreign learners of Chinese, and in the end, dwells on the perfection of Chinese-English dictionaries.ConclusionAfter the previous discussions, the author hopes that present thesis could prompt more detailed and more systematical studies on Chinese-English dic...