有些词语和表达方式在笔语中可以用得非常漂亮,但用在口语中就不怎么合适,在许多情况下,口语和笔语的用词大相径庭。如:
口语 笔语
to see to behold
to ask to interrogate
in this herein
of this hereof
after that thereafter
about with reference to
并不是说口语中的用词不能用在笔语中,而是笔语中常用的某些词用于口语中会显得古怪。因为口语的目的是为了交际,为了 让人一听就明白,如用一些不常用的词,使得所说的话难以明白,那么口语就失去了其意义。例如,有这样一句中文句子:
我干了一天活,累得连炕都上不去,浑身疼得要命,睡也睡不着。
这句句子本身非常口语化,如是笔译,写成文字,可译为:
I was so fatigued after a day's drudgery that I found it very hard to mount the kang . My whole frame aching acutely, I could not go to sleep, however hard I tried.
如果口译人员也像这么译的话,那么听上去就像译员在背书,句中的fatigued , drudgery ,mount ,frame,acutely 以及 however hard都是书面语,不适合用于口译中,口译人员可以把它译成:
I was so tired after a day's work that I could hardly get on to the kang. As my whole body ached like anything , I simplycouldn't get to sleep even if I tried to.
句法上的区别
在口译中,译员应尽量用简单句, 而不是复杂的长句。这有两个好处,第一,简单句符合说话的习惯,第二,用简单句可以避 免口译中出现句法上的差错,而复杂的长句常常使译员出差错或口误,如:
Now the superpowers have been exposed to the charge that they reserve their nuclear weapons for the revolutionary people of the world.