科學漢語與科學英語論述特質的比較－－以「觀念物理」文本為例

A Comparison of the Discourses of Science Texts in English and Mandarin on Newton's First Law of Motion

本文旨在探討漢語與英語在描述科學內容的論述特質及其差異，研究選取漢語版與英語版觀念物理之牛頓第一運動定律作為標的文本，並建立文本的電腦資料庫，從小句事件、詞彙密度以及語意位階的遷移情形等向度來分析兩文本的論述差異及其蘊含意義。研究發現相較於科學英語，科學漢語的論述蘊含較多事件的描述，呈現較多科學事件之訊息，科學英語的單一語句經常僅表達單一科學事件，但科學漢語的單一語句則常包含多個科學事件。科學漢語會使用較多內容詞彙來論述，而科學英語則使用較多結構詞呈現科學事件中的條件脈絡。此外，由於科學漢語文本為英語版的譯文，相對於原版本，漢譯版常出現將多個科學事件合併為單一事件的包裝過程、以及將單一科學事件拆解為多事件的過程；包裝過程可使論述簡化，但容易造成科學語意的曲解，而拆解過程則突顯了科學事件所處的環境條件及物件的動作狀態。本文藉由對不同語言之科學內容論述的分析，瞭解科學漢語論述的特質，以作為科學文本閱讀、教學及編輯等方面的參考，並期望後續研究對科學漢語如何論述以促進科學理解的議題有更多的重視與討論。

This study aimed to investigate the differences between the "discourses" of science texts in English and Mandarin. The target texts concerned the physics of Newton's first law of motion and its Mandarin translation. A database of these texts was constructed, so that it could be studied in terms of systemic functional linguistics. The number of events, lexical density, and rank shifts of both texts were analyzed in order to clarify the differences between the English and Mandarin versions. It was found that the Mandarin science text used more events (e.g. one event might be the attempt to get a large truck to start moving by pushing on it with your hands) to describe the same scientific fact or concept than did its English-language counterpart. Each sentence of the English text was often composed of a single event; sentences always consisted of plural events in case of Mandarin. Furthermore, while the English text used more function words (such as prepositions, conjunctions, and so on) to present the context of the science events, the latter content words (Mainly include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Both "packing" and "unpacking" processes were utilized in translating English discourses into Mandarin ones: the former "packs" two or more events in English into a single event, while the latter "unpacks" a single event into two or more events in Mandarin. These processes condense or unfold original discourses; both risk distorting the meaning. The implications for of Mandarin science textbook reading, teaching, and editing were discussed.