Word Order Adjustment in English-Chinese Translation (3)

In the process of English-Chinese translation, such problems will arise because of the differences in grammatical structure, writing habits and thinking modes between English and Chinese. Anglo-Americans emphasize objectivity, taking common objects, abstract concepts and impersonal it as subjects, so that things are presented in an objective tone, the narrative appears fair and objective, the structure tends to be compact and the tone is euphemistic and indirect. China people have the viewpoint of "the unity of man and nature", which emphasizes that man and nature are one, and man is often regarded as the subject. The thinking mode of the subject is often to describe objective things from the self, or tends to describe people's behavior or state. In English-Chinese translation, whether the determined subject is appropriate must consider whether the translation conforms to the thinking mode of the Han people. For example:

The man who once made the world laugh is full of pain. The man who once made people all over the world laugh himself suffered a lot. )

It never occurred to her that he was a dishonest man. She never thinks that he is a dishonest person. )

Example 3 English uses the abstract noun bitterness as the subject, while Chinese uses "the person who once made people in the world laugh" as the subject; It seems irrelevant that English uses the formal subject it as the subject and Chinese uses "she" as the subject. In fact, this is because Chinese and western thinking modes are different. Example 4 indicates that she has never had this idea. Of course, the original sentence can be said that she never thought that Issa was a disloyal man. But compared with the two, the former sentence emphasizes that "he is a dishonest person" is an objective fact, and between the lines shows that she is surprised by this matter, while the latter sentence only emphasizes subjective impression. The translation clearly shows her understanding of "he is dishonest".

Word order transformation in English-Chinese translation

There are similarities in word order between English and Chinese, but there are also differences. Therefore, in English-Chinese translation, the order of sentence components and words in the original text must be arranged according to the word order habits of the target language, and sometimes word order conversion is needed. Word order conversion in English-Chinese translation mainly includes the following aspects:

First, the conversion of attributive position.

Attributive in Chinese, whether used alone or in combination with several words, is usually placed in front of the noun it modifies. English is not like this. When words are used as attributes, they are usually placed before the modified nouns, while phrases and clauses are used as attributes after the modified nouns. When translating from Chinese to English, the position of attribute must be considered. The sleeping baby looks cute. The sleeping baby looks cute .. Do you know those boys playing football on the playground? Do you know the boy playing football on the playground? This is the cage where Polly stayed. This is the cage where Polly lives.

It should be noted that in English, indefinite pronouns's attributives often follow, such as: What is important to you? Is there anything important in today's newspaper?

Second, the conversion of adverbial position.

In English-Chinese translation, the change of adverbial position is extremely complicated. Because the position of adverbial is not very fixed in both English and Chinese. For the sake of emphasis, sentence balance and contextual relevance, the position of adverbials will change. In translation, we should first be familiar with the differences in adverbial positions between English and Chinese, and then adjust the arrangement according to the habits of the target language. For example, in Chinese, adverbials are often placed after the subject and before the predicate, and sometimes before the subject for emphasis, but this is not the case when translated into English. He works all day. He works all day. I like living in China very much. I like living in China very much.

In addition, English adverbials of manner are usually placed before adverbials of place and time, while Chinese adverbials are just the opposite. We must go there early. We must go there early .. She reads aloud in the classroom every morning. She reads aloud in the classroom every morning.

In English-Chinese translation, not only attributes and adverbials need to be changed, but also other sentence elements and the positions of some words should be adjusted and changed according to the habits of the target language. For example, English and Chinese each have some parallel fixed structures with different word orders, such as "North and South" in Chinese and "North and South" in English; Chinese says "old and new" and English says "old and new". These are all things that need special attention in translation.

/P & gt；

Word order dislocation in English-Chinese translation

Saturday, September 5, 2007

Word order dislocation in English-Chinese translation (different word order)

Generally speaking, the word order of Chinese and English is basically the same. It is precisely because this word order is basically the same that it is easy to make mistakes in Chinese-English translation. Due to the different expressions and habits of the two languages and cultures, some fixed expressions have different formats. Translation, for example, is only rote learning. This kind of rote learning is very important and is one of the important basic skills of translation. In the past, there were many skills in translation books, but we should also pay attention to reciting fixed expressions.

1, English and Chinese word order dislocation

For example:

Fire and water

Rich and poor

the transition from the old to the new

having different length

spindly

baby boy

baby girl

Hot and cool

Very good, very cool.

Physical chemistry chemistry and physics

Agriculture and industry

Month and year

Track and field (event)

Sooner or later, sooner or later, first and last.

soil erosion

Bride and groom, bride and groom

be quick of eye and deft of hand

Anger, sadness, happiness and happiness.

Mix like milk and water.

2. In some cases, the order of Chinese and English sentences is similar.

For example:

Up and down

everywhere

Old people and young people, old people and young people

Parents, father and mother

Husband and wife, man and wife

Context from beginning to end

Come and go, back and forth

3. There are often tautologies in Chinese idioms. Such as vagrancy, circle, warmth, thought and road. This structure is also found in English.

For example:

Time and tidal year

wear

Affinity is intimacy.

Master, master

Want and like

Ordinary people

Word order adjustment in English-Chinese translation

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Word order refers to the arrangement order of language units at all levels in combination, which is one of the important means of language combination. It not only reflects certain logic, but also reflects the language habits formed in the long-term use of language and the way of thinking of language users. English speakers are different from Han people.

Their ways of thinking are necessarily different, and the description of the same objective fact has different language expression order. This paper discusses the adjustment of word order in English-Chinese translation from the aspects of the establishment of subject, the prominent method of information focus, the characteristics of Chinese temporal sentence order and the empirical analysis of word order adjustment.

(1) Determine the subject and adjust the word order.

English is a language with a prominent subject. Except for ellipsis, every sentence has a subject. Syntactic hypotaxis requires that the components of the sentence be particularly clear, so as to avoid structural confusion and affect the meaning of the sentence.

Chinese, on the other hand, is a language with prominent themes, some with prominent themes, and some without prominent subjects. Syntactically, parataxis is emphasized, and the formal reference relationship is not obvious. In a text, the subject of some sentences can often be omitted, and sometimes it must be omitted; Some subjects are difficult to see at a glance and need to be carefully identified by readers. Therefore, in the process of English-Chinese translation, it is often a problem that needs brains to determine the subject and adjust the sentence order. For example:

When night fell, he found that there were still many miles from the agreed destination.

This sentence is translated according to the original word order, and it will be awkward and unnatural to translate it with dusk as the subject. According to the language habit of China people, we should choose "he" as the subject, so the correct translation is: when night falls, he is many miles away from the scheduled sermon site. Another example is:

As we all know, China successfully launched its first manned spacecraft in 2003.

As we all know, China successfully launched its first manned spacecraft in 2003. The subject of the original text is "2003", but the translation is not "2003" but "China". Taking time as the subject is a common phenomenon in English. This usage not only emphasizes the concept of time, but also makes the sentence concise and vivid. According to the thinking mode of westerners and English expression habits, English can also use nouns such as places as subjects. Nanjing witnessed many great historical events. There have been many important historical events in Nanjing. )

In the process of English-Chinese translation, such problems will arise because of the differences in grammatical structure, writing habits and thinking modes between English and Chinese. Anglo-Americans emphasize objectivity, taking common objects, abstract concepts and impersonal it as subjects, so that things are presented in an objective tone, the narrative appears fair and objective, the structure tends to be compact and the tone is euphemistic and indirect. China people have the viewpoint of "the unity of man and nature", which emphasizes that man and nature are one, and man is often regarded as the main body. The thinking mode of the subject is often to describe objective things from the self, or tends to describe people's behavior or state. In English-Chinese translation, whether the determined subject is appropriate must consider whether the translation conforms to the thinking mode of the Han people. For example:

The man who once made the world laugh is full of pain. The man who once made people all over the world laugh himself suffered a lot. )

It never occurred to her that he was a dishonest man. She never thinks that he is a dishonest person. )

Example 3 English uses the abstract noun bitterness as the subject, while Chinese uses "the person who once made people in the world laugh" as the subject; It seems irrelevant that English uses the formal subject it as the subject and Chinese uses "she" as the subject. In fact, this is because Chinese and western thinking modes are different. Example 4 indicates that she has never had this idea. Of course, the original sentence can be said that she never thought that Issa was a disloyal man. But compared with the two, the former sentence emphasizes that "he is a dishonest person" is an objective fact, and between the lines shows that she is surprised by this matter, while the latter sentence only emphasizes subjective impression. The translation clearly shows her understanding of "he is dishonest".

(2) Highlight the key points of information and adjust the word order.

The focus of information is the focus of information unit, which is one or more units as the peak of information reflected in the main stress or tone core of information unit. The common method to analyze language phenomena is sentence component analysis, which is far from enough. It also needs communicative analysis or substantive analysis.

That is, thematic analysis. Theme is the object of statement (or topic), the starting point of conversation, and the content that readers understand from knowledge outside the context or language, expressing known information; Rheme is the statement of the object of the statement, that is, what is said to the known things, the center of communication, the purpose of narration, the content unknown or assumed unknown by the reader, and the expression of new information. Usually, new information is the focus of the sentence content or the focus of the sentence. Because new information often needs to be stated in more detail than known information, it is necessary to use longer and heavier sentence endings. This structure is organized according to the organizing principle of the center of gravity at the end of the sentence. However, some sentence elements in English are inverted, not because they represent new information, but because they are too long and complicated. If they don't turn it upside down, the sentence structure will be top-heavy Therefore, English-Chinese translation should find out what the information focus of the original sentence is according to different situations, what methods the original text uses to highlight this focus, and what methods the translation uses to highlight this focus in order to achieve equivalence.

In English sentences, the focus of information is always composed of new information. In general, this focus usually appears at the end of a sentence. For example:

I am painting my room blue.

In general, blue should be the focus of information, so this sentence can be translated as: I am painting my house blue. If the above example is to answer, did you paint John's room blue? This question, then the focus of the information in the sentence falls on me, because this is new information. Therefore, the translation needs to be adjusted accordingly to reflect the change of information focus. I am painting my own room blue.

There are three main ways to highlight the focus of information in English: word order adjustment, emphasizing sentence patterns and quasi-clauses. In a sentence, the importance of an information unit is related to its position in the sentence. One way to improve the information value of a word in a sentence is to adjust the word order and move it forward or backward. Although Chinese word order is not as important as English in information processing, word order adjustment is still an indispensable means to highlight the key points of information. For example:

This jar is hard to beat cream. )

It is difficult to pour cream out of this jar. )

(8) Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food, Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food.

My sister Flora sat at her desk, absorbed. She looks as if she had slept all night. Sitting at the table with rapt attention is my sister Flora, who seems to have stayed up all night. )

Example 6 Put the cream at the end of the sentence, emphasizing that the cream is very thick. Example 7 put this kettle at the end of the sentence, emphasizing that the spout is small and the cream is difficult to pour out. Through word order adjustment, it is emphasized that Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food, Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food once, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food, but they are afraid that it will not be spicy now because they are used to spicy food. Of these three clauses, of course, the speaker is emphasizing that Hunan people are most afraid of eating Chili. Example 9 Adjust the focus of information with inverted sentences.

Setting suspense makes the article more vivid, and Chinese translation also adopts inverted sentences, with the same effect.

Emphasizing sentence patterns it is and quasi-split sentences are important grammatical means to highlight the focus of information in English, which can emphasize different components in sentences. In English-Chinese translation, in order to highlight the key points, sentence patterns can be appropriately adjusted to change the information focus of the original text into sentence elements with high information value such as "yes" in Chinese. For example:

It was Jane who played Mozart at the party last night.

It was Jenny who played Mozart at the party last night. )

Jane played Mozart at the party last night.

Jenny played Mozart at the party last night. )

What I am doing is to teach him a lesson. What I am doing now is to teach him a lesson. )

(3) Adjust the word order according to the characteristics of Chinese temporal sentence order.

Sentence order is based on sentences, including the order of sentences in paragraphs and the order of clauses in complex sentences. Mr. Lv Shuxiang, a predecessor of Chinese, once pointed out that there are many serial sentences in Chinese. Translators in China also pointed out that time sequence is the basic law of Chinese verb arrangement. On the other hand, the functionalist linguistic school has studied Chinese from the perspective of the relationship between language and the outside world, and found that Chinese has a high degree of iconicity, and language conforms to the strong trend of natural time sequence. For example:

(13) Hua Laoshuan suddenly sat up, struck a match and lit a greasy lamp.

(14) Sweep away a piece of snow, expose the ground, set up a big bamboo curtain with a short stick, sprinkle some chaff under it, and tie a long rope on the stick. People held it at a distance and watched the birds come down to peck. When they reach the bottom of the bamboo curtain, they pull the rope and cover the bamboo curtain.

I gently closed the door. Just now, the little girl came out to open the door. She looked up, paused for a moment, and then smiled and beckoned me in.

The empirical study of Chinese sentence time sequence shows that there are abstract time sequence and psychological time sequence besides the realistic time sequence principle.

Abstract time series refers to the time series that does not enter the real time stream, and the time relationship between events only exists in people's logical reasoning. For example:

(16) Go out first and let us get up.

The verbs "out" and "get up" in the first and second sentences of the above example have not entered the real-time stream when the speaker says this sentence, and they have not actually happened, but the time of the two clauses is clear at a glance. Psychological time sequence refers to the time sequence on the subjective psychological axis when people speak. One is to explain known and secondary information first, and then explain unknown and important information. The information structure of "known+unknown" is the reflection of time sequence in Chinese on people's subjective psychological axis. The other is to say what you know first and then say what you know later. For example:

(17) Roses are lovely, but thorns prick the hand.

(18) This sentence not only tells a climate law, but also is a philosophy in human life.

In the example 17, the speaker takes the preceding clause as known information, which means the following clause. In the example 18, the meaning of the latter clause is higher than that of the previous clause, which is the focus of information and the object of emphasis.

(19) xiren blushed and thought she had said something wrong.

This sentence is caused by antecedents and sentences, and the sentence order seems to be contrary to the first two orders, but carefully understand the psychology of people saying this sentence: people first say a certain result according to the above, and then think of necessity, so add a reason or reason. The content of the supplementary explanation is remembered afterwards, because it was thought or realized by the speaker later, so it is placed after the result sentence.

From the above, the sentence order in Chinese is relatively fixed, and time order is a principle that often plays a role in arranging the order of clauses in complex sentences. In English-Chinese translation, due to the need of Chinese expression, it is often necessary to change the word order of the original text, and even short sentences have the problem of word order adjustment. For example:

I am glad to see you. )

In English, people usually say personal feelings first, then talk about the situation and explain why they feel this way. People in China tend to be the opposite, saying the specific situation first, and then talking about personal feelings.

Because English sentences are tree-structured, sentence components are layered to form a three-dimensional spatial framework. This structural technique in English makes it impossible to display the format of time series. Chinese, on the other hand, has no backbone structure, but is connected by pairs of independent simple sentences, and the whole complex sentence presents a plane linear extension. Although sentence exile is informal and scattered, the whole complex sentence is not chaotic, but related. There is a certain order in the composition: events and layers of meaning are arranged in chronological order, and the whole sentence is scattered but concentrated. Therefore, in English-Chinese translation, it is sometimes possible to translate directly from the source language to the target language.

As shown in the figure below:

X ———→ y However, due to the structural differences between the above two languages, translators often have to take a tortuous path, as shown in the following figure:

X y └——————↑ That is to say, in order to translate smoothly, English sentences should be unpacked and transformed, the unpacked parts should be converted into the form of core sentences, and then the core sentences should be translated into Chinese clauses, and finally the clauses should be made in chronological order. As shown in the figure below:

English original Chinese translation segmentation, reverse order conversion sentence order adjustment English core sentence-Chinese clause pairing operation steps, the following examples illustrate:

I put on my clothes by the light that just fell for half a month, and its light came in through the narrow window beside my bed.

First, disassemble the original English sentence, which can be divided into three core sentences:

I put on my clothes by the light of half a month.

(SVOA)

One and a half months have just fallen. (service)

The moonlight shone through the narrow window beside my bed. (SVA)

After analysis, the chronological order of the three core sentences is ②-③-①. After this adjustment, it can be successfully transformed into:

The semicircle of the abortion gradually sank in the west, and the moonlight came through the narrow window next to the crib. I got dressed in the moonlight.

When he stopped and turned around, his eyes fell on an old woman. She was tall and charming, although she was haggard with years.

First of all, the original sentence "split" can be divided into seven core sentences:

That's an old woman.

She is very tall.

She is still in good shape.

She was consumed by time.

His eyes rested on her.

He stopped.

7. He turned around.

Through analysis, the time sequence of the seven core sentences is ⑥-⑥-⑥-⑥-②-④-③. So we translate it into:

He stopped and turned to look intently. It turned out to be an elderly woman. She has a slender figure, although she is slightly haggard with years, but her charm still exists.

(4) Empirical analysis of word order adjustment in English-Chinese translation. In English-Chinese translation,

Word order adjustment is a complex problem, and ignoring the study of this problem is the main reason for the foreign accent and obscurity of translated works. From the above point of view, the translated version of Jane Eyre does find some problems in this respect.

It's cruel to lock me up alone without candles. (How cruel! How cruel it is to lock me in without lighting a candle. )

In this case, the focus of the original sentence should be cruelty, and the infinitive phrase placed at the end of the sentence is not the focus of information, but the principle of focusing on the end and avoiding the top-heavy phenomenon. According to the principle of concrete evaluation before Chinese, it is cruel to lock me in without lighting a candle!

(24) Then, I sat on my knees with my doll until the fire dimmed and looked around to make sure there was nothing more terrible than the mysterious shadow room. Then, I put the doll on my knee and sat around until the fire gradually dimmed. I looked around from time to time and found that nothing was more terrible than me to patronize this dark room. )

The translation is inconsistent with the original. After analysis, the original text can be divided into at least three core sentences:

I sat and put the doll on my knee. (SVA)

The fire has abated. (SVC)

I looked around. . . (SVA)

The chronological order of the three core sentences should be ①-③-②. In the original text, clause 3 is the accompanying behavior of clause 1, which is placed at the end of the sentence in order to conform to the principle of terminal gravity. After that, I put the doll on my knee and looked around from time to time to see if there was anything worse than me patronizing this dark room, so I sat in the dim fire.

(25) For Miss Scatchard, all this is promising. She is naturally neat, punishing and attention to detail. All this makes Miss Scatchard very angry. She is naturally neat, punctual and meticulous. )

It is a general law of Chinese writing to explain the peripheral components and known information first, then point to the theme and put forward unknown information. The first clause of the original sentence is fruit and unknown information, which is better at the end of the sentence. Therefore, the sentence order of the original translation should be adjusted as follows: Miss Scatchard is naturally neat, punctual and meticulous; All these piles made her very angry.

29. Didn't I describe a pleasant place to live? I describe it as riding from the stream, hidden in mountains and Woods. Didn't I describe a lovely residence? I described it as snuggling in the hills and Woods and standing by the river. )

According to the Chinese time sentence order of "known+unknown", there should be arguments (known information) before the conclusion (unknown information). Because the sentence order in the original translation is contrary to this, it needs to be adjusted. I said it was hidden in the mountains and sat by the stream. Didn't I describe it as a lovely residence?

Of course, the sentence order of the original text, that is, the sentence order of saying the conclusion first and then giving the argument, also exists in Chinese, but there are stylistic differences between the original translation and the revised translation.

It is an immature expression of the speaker's thoughts to draw a conclusion first and then find the sentence order of the argument.

Because this argument was an afterthought of the speaker. This expression sequence often appears in spoken language with strong color. The original text of Jane Eyre is rigorous in structure and not loose at all, which is a typical writing style. From this perspective, there are stylistic differences between the original translation and the original.

Through the determination of subject, the prominent method of information focus, the characteristics of Chinese tense sentence order and the empirical analysis of English-Chinese translation, we can understand that English and Chinese have their own characteristics. To be faithful and fluent in translation,

Word order adjustment is necessary.

[References]

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[5] Dai. A Cognitive Study of Chinese Functional Grammar [J]. Foreign Linguistics, 1990, (4).

[6] Lv Shuxiang. Analysis of Chinese grammar [M]. The Commercial Press, 1979.

[7] Lv Shuxiang. China's Miscellaneous Notes [M]. Shanghai Education Press, 1984.

[8] Ma. On the differences between English and Chinese subjects [J]. Foreign languages, 1995, (5).

[9] Xie Xinyi. Time and image in Chinese [J]. Foreign linguistics, 199 1,

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