英语专业毕业论文 英汉语序对比及翻译中的语序调整(4)

translated English attributes are both placed behind of central words.

Therefore, unlike Chinese attributes always put in front of central words, the

position of English attributes is not fixed. Sometimes changing the order of attributes

is necessary in translation.

3.2.2 Adverbials

Following the SAVO structure, the word order of Chinese sentences is generally

subjects--adverbials of time--adverbials of place--adverbials of manner--predicates

and then objects (N. Zhang 78). That is to say, Chinese adverbials are placed between

subjects and predicates. Sometimes, Chinese adverbials can also be placed at the

beginning of sentences for emphasizing. Unlike Chinese, the position of English

adverbials is not fixed. The word order of most English sentences is subjects–

predicates–objects– adverbials of manner–adverbials of place and then adverbials of

time (78). That is to say, most English adverbials are placed behind of predicates or

objects. Some English adverbs showing frequency like usually, often, never and

seldom can be placed in front of predicates. Considering the different positions of

Chinese and English adverbials, we need to shift the word order of adverbials in

translation if necessary. For example,

他每天早晨在室外高声朗读。

Translated version: “He reads aloud in the open every morning” (Jiang 59).

In the Chinese sentence,“每天早晨”，“在室外”and “高声”are adverbial

of time, adverbial of place, and adverbial of manner respectively. When translating the

three adverbials into English, the order of these adverbials should be rearranged to

follow the rules of English sentence structure. Thus, the correct order of the attributes

英语专业翻译方向 毕业论文

in the English sentence should be “aloud”, “in the open” and “every morning”.

To sum up, the position of English modifiers is more flexible than that of

Chinese. Given the differences on the word order of English and Chinese modifiers,

rearranging the order of modifiers contributes to more precise translation.

3.3 Time order

What happened first is placed at the beginning of Chinese sentences and then

followed by some descriptions or explanations of the events. That is to say, Chinese

people tend to follow the chronological order to describe events or actions. However,

as prepositions, conjunctions and relative pronouns can be used to illustrate time order

in English, English sentences do not have to follow the chronological order, and the

sequence of events can be arranged arbitrarily according to an author’s intentions.

Therefore, sometimes we need to rearrange the sequence of events in translation,

especially in E-C translation process. For example,

My family and I were surprised and joyful after hearing the news that I got a position in Microsoft.

Translated version: 得知我在微软公司谋得一份工作这一消息之后，我和家 人既吃惊又高兴。

Apparently, the chronological order of the events should be “hear the news” and

then “were surprised and joyful”. Though the original English version putting what

happened later at the beginning of the sentence does not follow chronological order to

organize the sentence, the conjunction “after” serves to link the two actions and

makes the sentence acceptable. However, in the Chinese translated version which

must follow the sequence of events,“得知消息”should be placed in front of “既吃

惊又高兴”.

3.4 Logical order

Influenced by logical thinking pattern, Chinese word order follows the

英语专业翻译方向 毕业论文

sequence of reasons–results, assumptions–deductions and conditions–consequences.

Chinese always gives some descriptions or background information at the beginning

of sentences and then put the most important information at the end of sentences.

With the help of abundant vocabularies and grammatical forms, English sentences can

flexibly arrange word groups according to the author’s intentions or sentence

structures. Besides, unlike Chinese, English tends to put the most important

information such as the author’s opinions or attitudes and the results of events at the

beginning of sentences, and then give some descriptions and reasons to support the

opinions or facts. Besides, Given different logical orders, sometimes changing the

order of word groups and rearranging sentences are needed in translation to make

translated versions logical. For instance,

得病以前, 我受父母宠爱, 在家中横行霸道。

Translated version: “Before I fell ill, I have been the bully under our roofs owing to my doting parents” (Z.M. Huang 121).

After analyzing the sentence structure, we can come to a conclusion that “我受

父母宠爱” is the reason of “在家横行霸道”. As what have been mentioned

above, results are more important than reasons and should be put in front of reasons in

English sentences. So the correct word order of the English sentence is to put the

result “I have been the bully under our roofs” in front of the reason “owing to my

doting parents”.

4. Conclusion

Chinese and English, the two most important languages in the world, differ

from each other in various ways, and word order is one of these differences. Growing

up in different environments, influenced by thinking patterns, English and Chinese

nations have formed their own distinguished ways to organize words and sentences,

which results in grammatical mistakes and even misunderstanding of the connotation

in translation process. On the basis of former stu …… 此处隐藏：4680字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……