The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx

The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx

《The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《The Differences between English and Chinese Discourse and Their Effect on Translation.docx（17页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

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