increase by增加，还是增加到？
increase by增加，还是增加到？
英语中有些词组和用法本来很简单，但被中国诸多译者一演绎，反而陡升许多争议，“increase by”便是其中之一。关于它的汉语译法，目前在译界便存在着两种不同的意见：一说译成“增长了”；二说译成“增长到”，跟increase to同义。有译者做过统计，目前国内出版的一些权威刊物在论述这个问题时，大多数采信第一种意见。记得我们当时学英语时，老师也是这么讲的：increase by 增加了；increase to 增加到；increase by up to 顶多增加。例如：
①The output increased by over 200 percent． 产量增长了两倍多。
②As against last year，our coal output has increased by three times．与去年相比，我们的煤产量增加了3倍。
③Many counties have increased their farm output by 100 percent or more within a short space of time． 许多县在短短的一个时期使粮食产量增长了一倍或一倍多。
④Over the past 17 years，Taching has increased its annual output of crude oil by an average of 28 per cent.大庆原油产量在过去17年间平均每年增长28％。
那么，英美语言国家是如何使用这个词的呢？找了些他们国家出版的刊物中例句进行比较：
①The strength of the attraction，or repulsion，between two electric charges is doubled if the amount of electricity in one 0f the charges is doubled it increases by 2×2=4 times if the distance between the original charges is halved．我们知道，引力(或斥力)和距离的平方成反比，因此距离缩短一半，引力或斥力(increase by 2×2=4 times)增长到四倍，不是增长了四倍。
②When the signal we pick up has increased by 10 times the grain may have been reduced by 8 times，and the loudness will only have gone up 10／8=1.25 times．信号增大到10倍，增益降低到1／8，音量只增大到10／8=1.25倍。
③Suppose a crate weighing 300 pounds is to be raised to the floor of a truck 4 feet above the ground．．．If the length of the incline is 20 feet，the man must push upward along the incline with a force of 60 pounds(60×20=1200 ft.-lbs．) That is，if the force is decreased 5 times (from 300 pounds to 60 pounds), the length must be increased 5 times.原文告诉我们：the length 4 feet is increased 5 times表示4 feet×5=20 feet．
与increase用法相同的词，还有rise，如：
①Today it is almost a privilege to have a job，yet at the same time，today's wages hardly keep a family rising．
②In 1979，food prices，not to mention prices of other essentials，rose 12-3％， while wages rose by only 8.5％.
很明显，这句里的lose和rose by同义。
综观上述几例，我们不难看出，英美语言中关于“增加”的表达方法同我们汉语差异极大，甚至格格不入。我们历来认为绝对正确的第一种说法在英美刊物中根本找不出，反而更多出现的是第二种表达方法。因此，我们也可以完全得出结论：increase 3 times，increase to 3 times和increase by 3 times三者同义，即意思都是“增加到三倍”，而没有差别。传神 翻译论坛 传神社区