同位关系紧密时不用逗点隔开;同位语只作补充解释时可用逗点隔开。如:
His brother John was a world-famous doctor.
John是主语his brother的同位语,指同一人。
Mr. Smith,our new teacher, is very kind to us.
our new teacher是主语Mr.Smith的同位语,指同一人。
During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month’s stockholders meeting, Levin asserted that “music is not the cause of society’s ills” and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students.
a teacher in the Bronx, New York是his son的同位语,指同一人。
此外,同位语除表示其同位成分的全部意义外,还可以表示部分意义。如:
He is interested in sports,especially ball games.
ball games是sports的同位语,是sports的一部分。
They gathered all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.
not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers是data的同位语,是data的一部分。
除了名词作同位语外,名词性从句也可以作同位语。如:
The question how we try out the top player will be discussed next week.
how we try out the top player是the question的同位语,为同一事物。
以上是同位语出现的几种形式,下面我们来看一下如何翻译句中的同位语成分,翻译的关键在于要能够挑明先行词与同位语的关系。如果同位语比较短我们可以直接将同位语翻译出来修饰说明先行词。如Mr. Smith,our new teacher,is very kind to us.译为我们的新老师史密斯先生对我们很好。如果同位语比较长,就需要通过加标点符号(包括逗号、冒号、破折号)或是表示解释说明的汉语文字(如这、那、该、即、如下)来表明先行词与其同位语的关系。如:The question how we try out the top player will be discussed next week. 译为如何选拔运动员。
通过本文的论述,我们在考研英语翻译包含同位语的句子时,可以通过加词或是标点符号的方式来表明先行词和同位语的关系,这样我们翻译起来会更加容易,也更符合目的语言的要求。