汉译英中翻译实践中语序调整的策略—宁波大学马炜栋

汉译英中翻译实践中语序调整的策略研究Translation Strategy of Word Order in C-E translation
Practice
Outline
1.Contrastive Analysis of Word Order Between English and Chinese英汉两种语言语序的比较分析
1.1Definition of Word Order语序的定义
1.2Differences of Word Order Between English and Chinese英汉语序的差异
1.3Causes of Disparity Between Two Languages英汉语序的差异产生的原因
2.Translation Strategies for Word Order in C-E Translation汉译英语序调整的翻译策略
2.1Strategy of Syntactic Linearity顺翻法
2.2Strategy of Reverse Translation逆翻法
2.3Strategy of Reforming and Combination顺逆结合法
3.Conclusion
1. Contrastive Analysis of Word Order Between English and Chines
1.1 Definition of Word Order
The so-called word order, namely the arrangement of components in a sentence, reflects the relationship between each words and phrases. Discrepant word order comes into being as a result ofdiverseexpression when sometime differentindividuals have different understandings and analysis inthe same language environment. The function played by word order is not only to support the whole sentence, but also convey the meaning. Alteration in word order, in a certain degree, may changes the meaning of the sentence. Hence, it’s imperative to be acquainted withdisparity of word order between Chinese and English.
In terms of factors effecting the arrangement of word, there are something related with semanteme, pragmatics, grammar and rhetoric that may influence word order. In addition, Ethnic factors, such as language habitat and language psychology, also play a role in effecting word order. Word orderactually is the reflection of one’s thought, owing to the fact that the way people see and evaluate the world is by means ofadoptinglanguage.
1.2 Differences of Word Order Between English and Chinese
Generally speaking, English is a morphological language while Chinese is a semantic type, bringing about the distinction in word order. Semantic collocation and fixed arrangement of given word is commonly seen in Chinese sentence. In contrast, there is a big vocabulary and complex grammar, resulting more flexible word order.
Chinese is a left branching language, which means a subordinate word or modifier is usually placed before the core word in a sentence, with a tendency that more modificatory words can be added from left side. On the contrary, English is mostly a right branching language with a tendency that moremodificatory words can be added from right side, though sometimes left side added word is also permitted.
It is no doubt that one may find modifiers are commonly placed ahead and long modifiers behind are hardly seen in Chinese sentence while he will easily notice the modifier in English sentence can be foundanywhere.
There are also differences of word order in terms of sentence that is related with time and logic. Chinese tend to arrange the word order in a sentence according to sequence on how an event
happened from begin to the end. However, English Sentence is beyond the limitation of time. One can either place the last event ahead or behind. Chinese is apt to organize the sentence adhering to the mode of “reason-result”, “hypothesis-inference”, “condition-result”, etc. Such kind of word order in a Chinese sentence can be found even if there is no word denoting the logic relevance. Meanwhile, logic word order in English sentence is more flexible.
1.3 Causes of Disparity Between Two Languages
As is known to all, language and thinking are closely linked; language is the exterior form of thinking. The difference of word order between English and Chinese is due to the distinction of thinking in two nations, which is a result of disparity in cultural tradition and value orientation.People in two countries have different ways of thinking and different ways of expression. And the emergence of different word order is easy to understand
2. Translation Strategies for Word Order in C-E Translation
2.1．Strategy of Syntactic Linearity
Syntactic linearityis an important strategy often used in simultaneous interpreting which facilitate the interpreting process. The paper herein adopts the strategy in translation when it comes to word order.Referring to the word order in the source language, the author firstly divides the whole sentence into a number of informative units and translates them into English parts one by one. Cohesive devices like supplementing and abridging will then be applied to link the separated parts and engender the complete meaning. It eases the mind of a translator to adopt such strategy so he can deal with much information in a short time. Therefore, Syntactic linearity is a foremost and ideal way to cope with word order disparity between two languages.
There is an example:
Example 1：
Original sentence:很高兴又见到你了。

Translated version:I am happy to see you again．
Analysis：This is a Chinese sentence of simple structure without many attributive components or adverbial elements. After being analyzed in a few seconds, the corresponding structure of translated English version can be inferred as “subject + linked verb + object + infinitive”. And on account of the fact that word order of the source language, coupled with its logical relationship, is same as that of target language, syntactic linearity is suitable for such language situation.
2.2 Strategy of Reverse Translation
Structures of sentence in English often differ from that in Chinese, especially when they are in the case of sentence using adverbial and attributive. Thestrategy of reverse translation is to change the order of the source sentence to meet the principle of what must be observed in target sentence. Whether it is a slight modification or a great change to render the sentence depend on what kind of sentence it is.
Example 2:
Original sentence: 长沙是驰誉中外的历史古城
Translated version:Changsha is an ancient historic city
well-knownbothathomeandabroad.
Example 3:
Original sentence:对于适度宽松的货币政策和积极的财政政策应否退出,市场争论很大.
Translated
version:Therearehotdebatesonwhetherweshouldgiveupmoderatelyloose-monetaryandproacti vefiscalpoliciesor not
.
Analysis: Chinese tend to organize the sentence with the sequence of "cause ahead and effect behind", which is a kind of Chinese logic. On the contrary, British attach importance to the result. They prefer knowing firstly the direct effect other than the tediously long cause or reason. So it is suggested to place forward the behind words of effect to meet the cultural demand of target readers.
2.3 Strategy of Reforming and Combination
Sometimes it is not enough to use only one kind of translation strategy. Combination of several strategies is required when there are complex structures in the source language and it enhances the fluency of translated sentences to re-arrange word order. In some cases, long sentences in English are not suitable of using neither syntactic linearity nor strategy of reversing. Therefore rearrangement is a must after a thoughtful analysis of what kind of word order is used in the sentence - logical sequence or time sequence? Then the strategy of combination of both syntactic linearity and reverse method will function to help shaping an indigenous English sentence.
Example 4:
Original sentence:十月的北京，阳光明媚，秋高气爽，来自32个国家和地区的1200多名比赛选手参加了在京举行的本世纪最后一届世界大学生运动会。

Translated version: In October，the weather in Beijing is sunny and refreshing．More than 1200 players from 32 countries and regions attended the World Undergraduate Students Sports Meeting in Beijing，which is the last games of this kind in this century．
Analysis: The structure of first three segments are simple, which can be rendered by using strategy of syntactic linearity. However, the fourth part is a bit long and complex. Consequently, in order to fluently translate the Chinese sentence, prepositional phrase can be adopted as antecedent，followed by an attributive clause.
3.Conclusion
There are great differences existing between Chinese and English thinking modes which are reflected not only on the characters of language itself, but also on the word order. Word order, as a kind of important grammatical means, has long been studied by linguists and translators. This thesis has studied the adjustment of word order in C- E translation by contrastive analysisof the
word order differences between English and Chinese. The main part of the thesis is divided into two charters: the first chapter is going to discuss the differences of word order between two languages. And based on the contrastive analyses in the previous part, the second chapter have summarized three translation strategies to deal with word order while C-E translating. The result shows that the problem caused by differences of word order in C- E translation can be effectively solved with applying these strategies.
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