The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx
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The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx
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TheDifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseDiscourseandTheirEffectonTranslation
英汉语篇差异对汉英翻译的影响—基于英语专业四年级学生翻译语料的分析
TheDifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseDiscourseandTheirEffectonTranslation
--BasedontheDataofTranslationoftheSeniorsofEnglishMajors
摘要
本文比较了英汉语篇的差异并基于英语专业四年级学生的翻译语料,从人称照应,指示照应,比较照应,名词替代,动词替代和从句替代等层面说明语篇理论的确能指导翻译实践并能提高翻译的质量。
关键词:
语篇理论;汉英语篇差异;照应;替代
Abstract
ThisthesiscomparesthedifferencebetweenEnglishandChinesediscourse.BasedonthetranslationdataoftheseniorsofEnglishmajors,thethesisexplainstheeffectofthediscoursedifferenceontranslatingreferenceandsubstitutionfromMandarinChineseintoEnglish.Referenceincludespersonalreference,demonstrativereference,comparisonreference.Substitutionincludesnominalsubstitution,verbalsubstitutionandclausalsubstitution.Itindicatesthatdiscoursetheorycanindeedguidethelearner’stranslationandimprovethequalityoftranslation.
Keywords:
Discoursetheory;EnglishandChinesereference;substitution
Contents
Page
摘要I
AbstractII
AcknowledgementsIII
ContentsIV
1.Introduction1
1.1ResearchQuestions1
1.2Organization1
2.LiteratureReview2
3.TheDifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseDiscourse3
4.TheEffectofDiscourseDifferencesonTranslation5
4.1Reference5
4.1.1PersonalReference6
4.1.2DemonstrativeReference7
4.1.3ComparisonReference9
4.2Substitution10
4.2.1NominalSubstitution11
4.2.2VerbalSubstitution12
4.2.3Clausalsubstitution13
5.Conclusion15
References16
1.Introduction
1.1ResearchQuestions
ThispaperaimstodiscusstheeffectofthedifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinesediscourseuponEnglishintoChineseandChineseintoEnglishtranslation,basedonthetranslationhomeworkofseniorsofEnglishMajors.Withthepublicationof“CohesioninEnglish”(Halliday&Hasan,1976),“DiscourseAnalysis”(Brown&Yule,1983),“Discourse&Literature”(Cook,1994)and“IntroductionandAnalysis:
TheoryandMethod”(Gee,1990),discoursetheoryhasbecomeverypopularandhasbeenappliedinmanyfieldssuchaslanguageteachingandtranslation.Inmythesis,twoquestionswouldbeaddressed:
1)AretheirdiscoursedifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseintermsofreferenceandsubstitution?
2)Howthedifferencesaffecttranslation?
Thepurposeofthisthesisisanattempttofindoutwhetherdiscoursetheorycanguidelearners’translationandwhetheritcanimprovethequalityofthetranslatedwork.
1.2Organization
Theorganizationofthepaperisasfollowing:
Section2willgiveabriefliteraturereview.Section3willpresentthedifferencesbetweenEnglishdiscourseandChinesediscourseintermsofreferenceandsubstitution.Section4analyzeshowthedifferencesaffectlearners’translation.Section5comestoaconclusion.
2.LiteratureReview
Eversincetheestablishmentofdiscoursetheory,manyprofessorsoftranslationhavebeendiscoveringtherelationshipbetweendiscoursetheoryandtranslation.DiscourseandtheTranslator(Hatim&Mason,2001)isamongthemostimportanttheoriesbooksofthiskind.Intheirbook,Hatim&Masonexplainthetranslation“asanactoftranslation”throughsociolinguistics,discoursestudies,pragmaticsandsemiotics,andfromthefieldofartificialintelligenceandconversationanalysis.ThecentralconcernofDiscourseandtheTranslatoris“translatingasacommunicativeprocesswhichtakesplacewithinasocialcontext.Texturefunctionincludescohesionandcoherence,theme-rhemeandinformationstructureandthisbookexpressesthemseparately.Onthebeliefthatbothcohesionandcoherencemaybesaidtobethestandardsoftextuality(Beaugrande&Dressler,1981),theythinkbothcohesionandcoherenceneedtobestandardsoftextuality.Asfortheme-rhemestructure,sentenceelementsareseentofunctionwithinacertainperspectiveofcommunicativeimportance,whichmeansthatthematicelementsare“context-dependent”andconsequentlyoflessercommunicativeimportancethan“context-independent”rhematicelements.Inadditiontoviewingtheme-transition-rhemewithinaperspectiveofcommunicativeimportance,thereisalsoinformationstructure.Theinformationstructureofatextinvolves:
(a)predictabilityandrecoverabilityofinformation,(b)saliencyofinformation,and(c)sharedassumptions.Theprocessofreadingistogetnewinformationfromthegiven-information.TherearefewmonologuesaboutdiscoursetheoryandtranslationinChinaandmostoftheChineseexpertswriteabouthowtousediscoursetheorytoguidetranslation.“ChineseintoEnglishTranslationonDiscourseLevel”(Ju,2000)and“EnglishintoChineseTranslationonDiscourseLevel”(Li,2001)talkabouthowtousediscoursetheoryintranslationpracticeandgivealotofexampletodemonstrateit.Therearealsomanyprofessorswhohavepublishedpaperstostudytherelationshipbetweendiscoursetheoryandtranslation.However,therearefewstudiesaboutthediscoursedifferencesontranslationintermsofreferenceandsubstitutionbasedonthedataofthelearners.Mystudyisanattemptinthisarea.
3.TheDifferencesBetweenEnglishandChineseDiscourse
Nadahassaidthateverylanguagehasitsownfeatureanditisnecessarytofollowtheirfeaturestohaveeffectivecommunication.AsEnglishandChinesehavedifferentorigins,theycertainlyhaveobviousdifferences.Englishisofsubject-prominenttypologywhileChineseisoftopic-commenttypology(Chen&Yu,2001).SoChineseisalanguageofparataxis-prominence,whichemphasizestheimagethatthecharactersdescribe.Englishisofhypostasis-prominence,whichhastiecohesionandreasonablelogic.Forexample:
(1)阿Q没有家,(他)住在本社的土谷祠里;(他)也有固定的职业,只给人家作短工,(人家叫他)割麦(他)便割麦,(人家叫他)舂米(他)便舂米,(人家叫他)撑船(他)便撑船。
(2)HehadflowninjustthedaybeforefromGeorgiawherehehadspenthisvocationbaskinginCauccsiansunafterthecompletionoftheconstructionjobwhichhehadbeenengagedoninthesouth.
Fromexample
(1),wecanseethatthissentencehasalotofellipsisandrepetition,andfullofheadlesssentences.ThisshowsthattheMandarinChineseifofloosesentencestructures.Example
(2)isaprettylongsentencewith37wordsbutitsrelationshipisveryclear.Itsbasicstructureis“HehadflowninjustthedaybeforefromGeorgia”with“wherehehadspenthisvocationbaskinginCauccsiansunafterthecompletionoftheconstructionjobwhichhehadbeenengagedoninthesouth”asanattributiveclausetomodify“Georgia”.Intheattributiveclause,“afterthecompletionoftheconstructionjobwhichhehadbeenengagedoninthesouth”servesasanadverbialclauseoftime,inwhich“whichhehadbeenengagedoninthesouth”isanattributiveclausetomodify“theconstructionjob”.Althoughthesentenceisprettylong,withthehelpofconjunctivewords,itisclearlystructured.
NiuBaoyi(1999)studied638Englishsentencesand696Chinesesentencesandfoundoutthatthereare4252timesofcohesioninEnglish,ofwhichtherewere2352timesofreference,takingup55%ofthetotal,97timesofellipsis,2%ofthetotaland28timesofsubstitution,takingup0.6%ofthetotal;andtherewere2154timesofcohesioninChinese,ofwhichtherewere737timesofreference,takingup34%ofthetotal,357timesofellipsis,takingup16%ofthetotaland14timesofsubstitution,takingup0.6%ofthetotal.Accordingtothisstatistics,ChinesetexthaslesscohesivewordsthanEnglishtext.ConsideringthedifferencesbetweenEnglishtextandChinesetext,itisnecessarytochooseappropriatewaystotranslation.
4.TheEffectofDiscourseDifferencesonTranslation
Discourse,alsocalledtext,isacoherentandcohesiveunit,realizedbyoneormorethanonesequenceofmutuallyrelevantelements,andservingsomeoverallrhetoricalpurpose.Texturefunctionincludescohesionandcoherenceastheprocedureswhichensureconceptualconnectivity,including
(1)logicalrelations,
(2)organizationofevents,objectsandsituations,and(3)continuityinhumanexperience.Itseemssafetoassumethatthesequenceofcoherencerelationswould,undernormalcircumstances,remainconstantintranslationfromsourcelanguagetotargetlangguage.Suchbasicrelationsascause-effect,problem-solution,temporalsequence,andsoon,areuniversallyfundamentaltomeaningandthewayitisstructuredisreflectedonthesurfaceoftext–thecohesion,orsequentialconnectivityofthesurfaceelements—aremuchmorelikelytobelanguage-specificortext-specific.Therearemanypossiblecohesivedevicescapableofrelying,say,agivenrelationshipbetweenpropositions.Andinagivenlanguage,somearelikelytobepreferredoptions.Bothcohesionandcoherence,then,maybesaidtobestandardsoftextuality(Beaugrande&Dressler,1981);bothneedtobemaintainedifcommunicationistobesuccessful.AccordingtoHallidayandHasan(1971),therearefivetypesofcohesioninEnglish,namely,reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunctionandlexicalcohesion,amongwhichreferenceandsubstitutionarethemainwaystoachievecohesionbothinChineseandEnglish.Inthispaper,wewillmainlydiscussreferenceandsubstitutio
4.1Reference
Referenceisasemanticrelation.Referenceisadirectindicationthatinformationistoberetrievedfromelsewhereandtheyareimportanttypesofcohesion.Whatcharacterizesreferenceisthespecificnatureoftheinformationthatissignaledforretrieval.Inthecaseofreferencetheinformationtoberetrievedisthereferentialmeaning,theidentityoftheparticularthingorclassofthingsthatisbeingreferredto;andthecohesionliesinthecontinuityofreference,wherebythesamethingentersintothedisco
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