週邊語言作為小說對話中的隱義： 以《純真年代》中聲音特質的中譯為例

Abstract

周邊語言在小說中作為重現人物對話聲音特質的標識，在《純真年代》這部作品中，伊迪絲‧華頓大量運用周邊語言來呈現人物對話時所展現的說話語氣或態度，本研究將週邊語言視為小說對話中的隱義，強調譯者在翻譯時需作不同程度的詮釋。本研究目的有二：（一）探究周邊語言在《純真年代》這本小說中的使用與其所建構出特殊的語境與語用特質，（二）分析作者與譯者塑造人物周邊話語風格及語用差異。研究結果顯示，譯者在語意的詮釋與表達常無法準確形構出人物的聲音表現，因此無法將人物的特質及性情巨細靡遺的呈現在讀者面前。文中建議，若要將周邊語言的豐富樣貌及內涵的展現在譯文之中，譯者對於周邊語言做為敘述聲音的特質及功能需有一定程度的關注及認知，文中也透過重譯方式來探討周邊語言的翻譯手法。

Paralanguage as intonational markers have become for Edith Wharton an effective narrative strategy and engaging medium for characterizing various speech acts that surround the conversations. This vocal orchestration by means of paralinguistic description serves as conversational implicatures and presents translator with rich potential for interpretation. The purpose of this paper has twofold: (1) to classify the particular linguistic features of paralanguage encoded in The Age of Innocence and their pragmaticstylistic functions in constructing the diegetic voices, (2) to investigate how the translators in Taiwan transcribe the paralinguistic vocal features. As the findings show, the paralinguistic vocal features, when transcribed into Chinese, appear to sound unnatural and uncorrelated. The inappropriate renderings are likely to prevent the target readers from making sense of the characters’ vivid phonic articulation and emotional reaction. This paper suggests that the paralinguistic vocal features can be lively and dynamically transcribed if translator pays consistent attention to the interactive and task-performing functions of paralinguistic vocal features employed to evoke a special narrative voice. Retranslation is also provided to illustrate how to evoke the particular qualities of verbal sounds and non-verbal expressions.