泽熙美文英译汉
1.
The Culture Club
In this week’s Nature, a group of zoologists led by Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have provided that evidence1. They have synthesized the results from seven chimpanzee-research centers scattered across Africa, and shown that chimps can, indeed, do more than just pass on the odd2 behaviour pattern here and there. Individual groups of chimps exhibit behavioural “complexes” that are recognisably different from those of other groups, yet seem to have no connection with environmental or genetic differences between the groups.3 If that is not culture, it is difficult to think what is.
The problem that confronted Dr. Whiten and Dr. Boesch was how to disentangle which of chimpanzees’ many behaviour patterns are genetically instinctive, which are learnt by individuals in isolation (and so are not cultural, because not copied from others) and which are culturally transmitted (by animals copying one another). They solved it by standardising the reports4 from the research centres, and paying as much attention to what the animals in each place did not do as to what they did5.
Behaviour patterns found at all sites were deemed as likely to be genetic as cultural (leaf-sponging turned out to be in this category), as were those whose absence was due to some environmental factor6 (fishing algae out of ponds is impossible where there are no algae to fish). Nor were behaviour patterns that did not appear to be sporadic (digging for termites, rather than using a stick to fish for them) classified as cultural. They could just as well have been the result of individual invention, as of copying7.
That still left 39 behaviour patterns that were common at some sites and absent from others. Termite fishing with twigs and the midribs of leaves were two. So were breaking nuts open with a hammer (which could be done in four different ways, each with its own pattern of occurrence among the sites), and picking marrow out of the bones of hunted animals using a tool. Nor does chimpanzee culture revolve solely around food. Some chimps have developed flywhisks in the form of leaves. Others have learnt how to tickle themselves. And there is even a behaviour pattern the researchers refer to as “rain dance8“, though it takes place in response to rain, rather than as a way of conjuring it up.
The idea that these and some 30 other behaviour patterns are cultural rather than genetic was supported by the fact that particular subspecies (which differ from one another genetically) are not associated with particular behaviours9. Indeed, abrupt cultural transitions often occur in the middle of subspecific homelands. Short of developing language (and10 there are a few researchers who believe that chimps can also manage that), it is hard to see what more man’s closest relatives could possibly be required to do to be admitted to the culture club11.
正确答案：
文化俱乐部
在本周出版的《自然》上，由苏格兰圣安德鲁斯大学的安德鲁·怀特和德国莱比锡马克斯·普朗克人类学进化研究所的克里斯托夫·布伊希带领的动物学家小组提供了黑猩猩属于“文化俱乐部”这一证据1。他们综合了分散于非洲的七个黑猩猩研究中心的观察结果，发现黑猩猩除了在各处传递独特的2行为模式，还拥有更多的能力。每个黑猩猩群表现出的行为“综合性”都与其它群体明显不同，但好像与各自差异化的环境或遗传又无关联。3如果这都不是文化的话，那么很难想像到底什么是文化。
怀特博士和布伊希博士所面临的问题是，怎么从黑猩猩诸多行为模式中分辨出哪些是属于基因本能性的，哪些是属于孤立的群体后天学来的(同样也不是文化的，因为不是通过模仿学来的)，哪些是属于文化上传递的(通过动物间的相互模仿)。于是，他们对来自各研究中心的报告进行了标准化处理4，他们不但注意每个地方的黑猩猩所做的事，而且关注他们所不做的事情5(并对每个地方的动物所做的事和没有做的事给予了同等的关注)。
他们认为，在所有地方观察到的动物行为模式既有可能是遗传的，也有可能是文化上的(用树叶收集雨水和露水的行为就属于这一类)，那些因环境因素不同而缺失的行为模式也属于这种情况6(池塘里没有藻类，便不可能出现钓食藻类的行为)。一些看起来并不是偶发的行为模式(例如，不用棍子引诱白蚁上钩，而是挖坑寻找白蚁)也未被纳入文化模式。这种行为既有可能是模仿的结果，也可能是个体独创的结果7。
除此之外，还有39种行为模式在某些地方是很常见的，但在其它地方却没有出现。用小树枝和树叶中脉寻找白蚁便是两个例子。以下情况也然：用锤子砸开坚果(可以用四种不同方式敲开，每种方式都具有只在某些地区发生的独特模式)，以及用工具将猎物骨髓取出等。黑猩猩文化也不是完全以食物为中心。有些黑猩猩发明了树叶蝇掸，有些则学会了给自己呵痒，甚至还有一种被研究人员称之为“祈雨舞”8的行为模式，不过这只是黑猩猩对下雨作出的反应，而不是真的祈雨。
将这些例子和其它30来种行为模式归为文化模式而非基因模式，是有事实依据的：特殊亚种(相互间基因上有区别)与特殊行为没有对应关系9。事实上，突发性文化转变经常发生在亚种生活区域之内。除了仍待开发的语言能力(但是10也有少数研究人员认为黑猩猩有这个能力/有语言能力)，很难说出入类最近的这个亲戚还需要做些什么才能被接纳到文化俱乐部中来11。
[解析] 1.英语中喜欢使用比较抽象的指代关系，而汉语往往使用实词将关系写得一清二楚。如将provided that evidence直接译成“提供这种证据”，中国读者可能会感到有些茫然。其实，that evidence与题目The Culture Club相关，如译成“提供了黑猩猩属于‘文化俱乐部’这一证据”，读者就容易理解了。
2.在词典中，odd意为“奇特的”，略有贬义。但在此上下文中并无贬义，故译成中性词“独特的”。
3. …behavioural “complexes” that are recognisably different from those of other groups, yet seem to have no connection with environmental or genetic differences between the groups. 从语法上看，that引导了很长的定语从句来修饰complexes。翻译初学者可能会将这个长定语转化成汉语的长定语，但由于汉语的定语不能后置，只能前置，所以这个很长的前置定语读上去颇为拗口：“每个黑猩猩群表现出与其它群体明显不同，但好像与各自差异化的环境或遗传又无关联的行为“综合性”。在此我们提供两种解决办法：(1)断句法：“每个黑猩猩群表现出一定的行为“综合性”，这种行为“综合性”与其它群体明显不同，但好像与各自差异化的环境或遗传又无关联。(2)将宾语转化为主语，将complexes转化成全句的主语：“每个黑猩猩群表现出的行为‘综合性’都与其它群体明显不同，但好像与各自差异化的环境或遗传又无关联。”
读者可能感到奇怪：为什么英语后置结构可容纳很多内容，而汉语的前置定语只能容纳较短的结构?我们可从大脑认知的角度来进行分析：假设在中心名词前有10个单词，听者在听到中心名词前需要将这10个单词储存在大脑的短时记忆(short-term memory)中，这很困难。因为大脑的短时记忆只能储存大约7个单元，而且如果要记住7个单元，大脑会处于比较疲劳的状态。大脑的工作记忆(working memory)通常只能储存约4个单元，所以英语前置定语很少超过4个，汉语前置定语也很短。而后置定语则不同，因为中心名词先出现，主要语义已经清楚，大脑已经可以放松，所以后面可补充较多信息。(顺便说明一下，在认知语言学中，4是个神奇数字，人类各种语言的主要语法结构往往都不超过4个板块：主语、谓语、宾语，另外还有1-2个附属的结构。为什么?如果多数句子包括7个结构，听者的大脑在处理时会很疲劳；另一方面，如果句子只有1-2个结构，传递信息的效率又太低。此外，汉语大量使用四字词组，也可能与大脑的工作记忆力有关。)
4.英译汉时，往往要照顾汉语表达语义丰满的特点和要求，例如，翻译study evaporation，assess his work时，往往需要添加一些词组，才能使译文符合汉语特点：“研究蒸现象”、“评估他的工作情况”。同样道理，如将standardising the reports译成“将报告标准化”虽然也勉强可以，但不如译成“对报告进行了标准化处理”，在汉语中显得更顺畅一些。
5.如将paying as much attention to what the animals in each place did not do as to what they did译成“对每个地方的动物所做的事和没有做的事给予了同等的关注”，其语义基本正确，但没有体现出原文的侧重点。原文的重点是what the animals in each place did not do，所以我们不妨将译文改成：“不但注意每个地方黑猩猩所做的事，而且关注他们所不做的事情”。另一个值得注意的英汉差异是：汉语喜欢重复用词，而英语倾向于替换用词。前面用过chimpanzee，这里改用animals，其实还是指chimpanzee。在本语篇翻译中时，应译为“黑猩猩”。还需说明，as to what they did是as paying attention to what they did的省略形式。
6.as were those whose absence was due to some environmental factor中有两个难点：一个是倒装结构，另一个是代词those的指代关系，这里指前面的behaviour patterns，译为汉语时，最好将those还原为其所指代的名词短语“行为模式”。
7.在They could just as well have been the result of individual invention, as of copying. 中，as of copying是省略结构，等于as the result of copying，而其中的as又与前面的just as well相关联。可译为：这种行为既有可能是模仿的结果，也可能是个体独创的结果。
8.rain dance的字面含义自然是“雨舞”，但读者看了可能感到莫名其妙。根据下文，我们不妨译成“祈雨舞”，这样前后语义就衔接自如了。逻辑推理如下：conjuring it up相当于“祈雨”；在rather than as a way of中，rather than将“祈雨”否定；though又再次转折否定，两次否定构成“负负得正”，所以回到“祈雨”。
9.在…the fact that particular subspecies (which differ from one another genetically) are not associated with particular behaviours中，that引导的后置定语较长，而且其中插入了括号结构，所以很难转化成汉语的前置结构，可用断句法译成：……是有事实依据的；特殊亚种(相互间基因上有区别)与特殊行为没有对应关系。
假设英文原文没有插入的括号里面的定语从句，只有the fact that particular subspecies are not associated with particular behaviours，我们可采用汉语的前置结构：“特殊亚种与特殊行为没有对应关系这一事实”。根据我们粗略的翻译实践经验，英语后置定语超过10个单词，一般很难
