Chapter 4 Chapter4 英汉对比与翻译(二)

Chapter 4 A Comparative Study of English and Chinese (Part II) Teaching aims: to learn about the linguistic differences of Chinese and English so as to translate them accurately.

Main Language points:

Comparative studies of syntactic structure in Chinese and English

Difficult teaching points: hypotactic & paratactic; subject-prominent & topic prominent; static & dynamic.

Teaching references:

1. 方梦之. 翻译新论与实践[M]. 青岛出版社，2002

2. 孙致礼. 新编英汉翻译教程[M]. 上外教出版社；彭长江. 英汉－汉英翻译教程[M]. 湖南师大出版社；

3. 陈宏薇，新编汉英翻译教程[M].上海外语教育出版社，2004

Teaching methods: Analysis and Practice

1. Hypotactic vs. Paratactic (形合与意合)

As E. A. Nida points out in his “Translating Meaning”, …so fa r as English and Chinese are concerned, the most important difference linguistically is the contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis.

Hypotaxis: The dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses arranged with connectives;

Parataxis: The arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them;

Examples:

1. That is our policy and that is our declaration.

—— W. Churchill

这就是我们的国策。这就是我们的宣言。

2. First, we make clear what is doing the travelling —— a car, a bus, a plane or whatever it may be.

首先，我们要搞清旅行工具，例如小汽车、公共汽车、飞机或别的可用工具。

3.发展体育运动，增强人民体质。

Promote physical culture and build up people’s health.

4.东海缺少白玉床，龙王请来金陵王。

If the Dra gon King wants a white jade bed, he applies to the Wangs of Jinling, it’s said.

2. Complex vs. Simplex (简约与繁复)

The English complex sentences are often like chains with clauses linking clauses. On the other hand, the Chinese sentences or clauses tend to be short and simple in structure. They are flowing and simplex, with one clause following the other rather in a line.

Illustrative examples:

1. The moon is so far from the earth that even if huge trees were growing on the mountains and elephants were walking about, we could not see them through the most powerful telescopes which have yet been invented.

月球离地球非常遥远，即使那边山上长着大树，有大象在移动，我们用当今发明的最高倍率的望远镜，也不能看见它们。

2. As we lived near the road, we often had the traveler or stranger visit us to taste our gooseberry wine, for which we had great reputation, and I confess, with the veracity of an historian, that I never knew one of them to find fault with it.

我们就住在路边，过路人或外乡人常到我们这里，尝尝我们家酿的醋栗酒。这种酒很有名气。我敢说，尝过的人，从没有挑剔过。我这话像历史学家的话一样靠得住。

3. 文章做到极处，无有他奇，只有恰好；人品做到极处，无有他异，只有本然。

——洪应明：菜根谭

When a piece of writing reaches the acme of perfection it is not because it contains some miraculous ingredient, but because it is written in exactly the right way. When a man refines his moral character to the point of perfection he does so not with the aid of any magic formula but by letting his pure inborn mature shine forth.

3. End-weight vs. Top-heavy (正三角与倒三角)

In an English sentence, the shorter elements usually go before longer ones in arrangement order, thus the weight of the sentence is put at the end, and the whole sentence looks like a pyramid. The arrangement of a Chinese sentence seems quite the opposite, where the important elements are often said at the beginning of a sentence. So it looks like an inverted pyramid or triangle. Illustrative examples:

1. Gone are the days when we Chinese people depended on foreign steel.

中国人民靠洋钢的日子已一去不复返了。

2. Before them lay miles of miles of beautiful plain with lots of wild animals among the grass.

美丽的草原，茵茵的绿草，野生动物成群结队，绵延数英里，展现在眼前。

3. 普通人在办公处和家庭中使用电子计算机的时代已经到来。

The time has come when ordinary people can use electronic computers both in the office and at home.

4. 学科技、学英语，对社会主义现代化建设很重要。

It is important to study English as well as science and technology for our socialist

modernization drive.

4. Subject-prominent vs. Topic-prominent

（主语突出与主题突出）

In an English sentence, prominence is usually given to the subject. There are five basic sentence patterns in English: SV, SVC, SVO, SVO1O2, SVOC, all with SV as its essentials. On the other hand, a Chinese sentence often lays emphasis on the thought or notion, so it is based on the thought pivot.

Illustrative examples:

1. A dialect is known by every linguist in this room.

有一种方言这间屋子里的每个语言学家都懂得。

比较：在这房间里的每位语言学家都懂一种方言。

2. You don’t grow the grain you eat and you don’t make the clothes you wear.

你吃的粮食不是你自己种的，你穿的衣服也不是你自己做的。

比较：你不种……