第二十四届“韩素音青年翻译奖”竞赛汉译英参考译文

汉译英：

语言与社会身份

一个人的语言与其在社会中的身份其实密不可分。记得我在澳大利亚生活时，一位邻居要竞选议员，他便每天早上起来练习发音，以令自己的讲话让人听起来悦耳、有身份。

的确，语言是一个人社会身份的标志，特别是在多民族、多元文化的社会里。所谓“身份”，也是一种知识结构，表明你来自那个社会群体的文化背景、知识程度甚至地理位置等。

语言会影响对于相应文化的认知。例如，有人调查发现，对于讲双语的中国人，在用中文问到其关于文化观念等问题时，他们的回答显然比用英文问他们此类问题时显示出更多的中国人的做派。有意思的是，当讲广东话的港澳人被用普通话问到关于中国的文化、信仰等问题时，他们的回答往往比听到用广东话问到此类问题时的回答更接近西方人的表达方式。

其实，对于学习外语的华人来讲，大部分的还不是真正意义上的所谓“双语人”，而是“双语使用者”；后者是在语言与表达层次，而前者则是思维与生活习性。但是，这个过程并不是静止的，而是可以转换的。

所以，语言学习者所学习的实际上是一种社会关系，一种他所理解的跨越时空所形成的关系。因而，他所面对的不仅仅是语言学的，而更是多重、变换着的社会身份问题。

研究还表明，一个人的讲话风格并非是固定不变的，而是随着社会环境和讲话对象而变化的。一般来讲，个人讲话有一种趋同的倾向（即随大流），但有时也会有趋异倾向（即显示自己的特征）。譬如，我回到北京时，我的“北京腔”自觉就浓了很多；而我的英国朋友在澳大利亚时，其“英国腔”保持得更为明显，不知是否有意显出其身份。

人们在适应异国文化的过程中，对于自己母语的态度，也会有积极或消极两种选择。有的人，在积极投入其他主流文化的同时，有意消弱自己的母语能力；有的人，反而更加强、突出了这方面，认为是一种优势。

一般来讲，若某一社会群体所讲、所用的语言是为社会所尊敬的那一种（如在英国，以女王为代表的贵族所讲的语言），会有更高的社会优越感，而其成员也会有意显示出与众不同，以保持其正面的群体特性。当然，也难免会有他人向这一群体的讲话方式靠拢。

一个人的语言，还可成为他人对其进行评判的对象。据研究，可以从中判断出其社会地位、教育程度、善良与否、智力、能力甚至财富等。

可见，语言对个人之意义。如果说服装是人的形体修饰，那么语言便是人的综合价值的外在体现。所以，语言就不应当被视为仅仅是一种工具，而应是一种素质。

Language and Social Identity

A person’s language and social identity are in fact an inseparable entity. When I was in Australia, as I can recall, my neighbor practiced his speaking every morning, making it both pleasant and a privilege to hear, for the purpose of getting into parliament.

Language is indeed a marker of social identity, especially in a multiethnic and multicultural society. The so-called identity may also be considered as a knowledge structure, identifying cultural background, knowledge level or even the geographical location of the social group the person belongs to.

Language may also affect our perception of the cultures we are involved with. For instance, an investigation reveals that bilingual Chinese responded well to questionnaires tapping issues of cultural values in a more Chinese manner when the items were presented in Chinese than when they were presented in Chinese than when they were presented in English. Interestingly, when receiving instructions in Mandarin, the Cantonese speaking Hong Kong and Macau natives responded to questions regarding traditional Chinese culture and beliefs in a more Western-like approach, compared to their responses when surveyed in Cantonese.

Most foreign language learners of Chinese would not be considered bilingual in the truest sense; they would be deemed only to be the “diglossic”. In a way, they are merely practicing their skills at basic linguistic and expressive levels. True bilinguals, on the other hand, have already merged themselves into the languages in terms of thinking and a way of life. The two processes, however, have never stalled and are consistent in their continued transformation.

When we learn a language we are actually engaged in nurturing a relationship with the social world and deciding how that relationship is constructed across the limitless context of time and space we understand. The issue of social identity, which is more multiple and subject to change, is therefore one the language learners have to deal with no less than the linguistic identity.

Research has also revealed that a person’s style of spoken language is not merely composed of fixed elements of fixed elements of an individual’s language use; it varies depending on the social setting and the conversational ways of the interlocutor. People’s speech styles generally tend to converge (becoming more like that of their peers or conversation partners), although sometimes they diverge (showing their prominence deliberately). I, myself, as a native of Beijing, find that whenever I return to my home city, my native accent just naturally restores itself. A friend of mine, native British, when he was in Australia, as I observed, had an especially reserved speech manner prompting his Englishness, whether consciously or subconsciously.

An individual’s acculturation may also impact their native language shift with positive and negative consequences depending on the person who may opt for a different approach. While actively participating in the mainstream culture, some may intentionally diminish their native language competence; others may strengthen the ability as one of their advantages.

Generally speaking, a social group will gain a higher prestigious social status if its members communicate through and use a respected language that has wide public appeal (such as the language used by the aristocrats in England, most notably by the Queen). The members of social circles are also willing to display their divergence to maintain positive group distinctiveness. Surely, some others may also intend to associate themselves with the speaking style of this privileged group as well.

A person’s language may also become an evaluative subject with which perceivers can infer his or her social status, educational background, benevolence, intelligence, ability or even wealth and so on as certain research has suggested.

All in all, the implications of one’s language can be seen as the manifestation of an individual’s inner comprehensive values in the same way the clothes adorn the body. Language to a person, therefore, ought never to be seen as merely a tool as it has always been perceived, but more importantly, as a necessary quality.