【導讀】Strawsonaffirms(Zabeeh,1974:161),thoughinpassing,theimportanceof. thewhale‘insentences

　　

【正文】 39。林老師 39。 is 16 an unmarried lady 39。Miss39。 is a suitable address. For a male whose surname is known, the safe and respectful address is no other than 39。Mr39。. (2)處長 ，我簽寫了一個意見?? 看到了。 徐鵬飛冷冷地說。 —— 《紅巖》 —— I also attached a suggestion, Sir…… So I see, replied Hsu Pengfei coldly. —— Foreign Languages Press 39。Sir39。 is a mon and respectful addressing term for anyone in a higher position or rank whose name either is unknown or need not be mentioned. (3) (To 李國文 )： 老李 ，下午有空嗎？ —— (Li)Guowen, are you free this afternoon? In Chinese 39。老李 (張、王 ……)39。 are fit for addressing acquaintances or friends of the addresser39。s generation or of about the addresser39。s age. But in Englishspeaking countries acquaintances or friends generally address each other by names— full name or first name or hypocoristic form of name depending on the relationship between each other, Therefore, Li Guowen or Guowen is a good choice for 39。老李 39。. Which one is better is subject to the relationship between the addresser and the addressee. Translators here needs to take into account both cultural differences and situational contexts. (4) (To a policeman):叔叔 ， 請問到火車站怎么走？ —— Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me the way to the railway station? Both ?叔叔 ‘ and ?uncle‘ are usually used as kin terms in addressing one‘s father‘s or mother‘s brother or one‘s aunt‘s husband. In this case ?叔叔 ‘ and ?uncle‘ can be regarded as equivalents. But, on the other hand, they can both be used as fictive kin terms. In the Chinese language, fictive kin terms are a very mon linguistic phenomenon whereas in English they are less monly used. As a matter of fact, when ?叔叔 ‘ and ?uncle‘ appear as fictive 17 kin terms they are not absolute equivalents. In China, it is appropriate for one to use ?叔叔 ‘ to address any male about his or her father‘s age almost in any circumstances. In English, however, ?uncle‘, which is used in a narrower sense, is a term of address sometimes used by children for a male friend of their parents (CED:1671) or a term of address used in . for an elderly man (OED, Vol. XI:86). As far as example(4) is concerned, ?sir‘ is the most reliable choice for ?叔叔 ‘, though the possibility of rendering it literally into ?uncle‘ can not be absolutely excluded. The English address system is not so plicated as that of Chinese. As a result, many addressing terms in English cover a wider semantic range, like 39。sir39。, 39。lady39。, etc. So in translating such kind of addresses into Chinese, context seems to play a more important role, which will be discussed later. One group of terms that deserve special attention are kin terms. The Chinese kin term system is far more intricate than that of English. Firstly, Chinese kin terms are more specifically differentiated. For a single English term 39。uncle39。 there are at least five Chinese terms, . 伯父、叔父、舅父、姑父、姨父 . It is, therefore, advisable to adopt the approach of particularization in the translation of kin terms from English to Chinese while generalization approach is suggested in ChineseEnglish translation, For example: (5)奶奶 ！ 外婆 ！我非常想你們 I miss you very much, grandmothers. (6)My dear aunt, this is being serious indeed. —— Pride and Prejudice 親愛的 舅媽 ，你還真夠一本正經(jīng)的。 —— Xun ZhiLi In example (6), context plays its role in adopting the approach of particularization, because it has been mentioned in the novel that Mrs Gardiner, Elizabeth39。s aunt, is Mrs. Ben39。s sisterinlaw. 18 Secondly, the Chinese stress not only the order in relation to age, as seen in such addresses as 大 舅、 二 叔， but also the point whether persons of the same generation have the same parents, as seen in addresses like 姐姐 and嫂子 . The English address system, however, does not care about such detailed differentiation. For a person of the same generation, English only has 39。brother39。 and 39。sister39。 as addresses。 for a person of father39。s generation there are only 39。uncle39。 and 39。aunt39。 as addresses in English. So in ChineseEnglish translation such practice in the English language is to be respected as much as possible. For example: (7)一日，他姐丈金有余來看他，勸道：“ 老舅 ，莫怪我說你??” —— 《儒林外史》 One day his brotheinlaw, Jin Youyu, came to see him and said, Don39。t take offence at what I say, brother…… —— Tr. by Yang Xianyi The source language text above involves one of the practices in Chinese, . a person sometimes addresses another indirectly, by taking a third person as point of reference. Obviously the addresser and the addressee are brothersinlaw. But the translator does not render 39。老舅 39。 as 39。brotherinlaw39。 because 39。brotherinlaw39。 is not an acceptable address in the target language. As has been mentioned, in translating addressing terms, target language practice should be given priority to. But when conveying information and obeying target language practice are in conflict with each other, and the information to be conveyed is essential to the reader39。s understanding, it is advisable for translators to violate target language rules to a certain degree. Take ?cousin‘ for example. It is not only semantically more inclusive than any of the Chinese terms like 表兄（弟），表姐（妹）， but also differs from them in the degree of acceptability as a term of address. To be sure, ?cousin‘ began to be used as a term of address as early as the 15th century, and had been used 19 this way up to the 18th century(OED, Vol II:1097), but it has gradually lost its momentum and bee less acceptable in the system of address. Despite its less acceptability, in view of its past vitality and the necessity of conveying to the maximum the information contained in the source language text, ?cousin‘ might as well be reem