A Study On Formulaic Sequences Usage In C-E Translation Of Graduate Students

Formulaic sequences(FSs),fixed or semi-fixed multi-word sequences stored and retrieved as a whole,are non-negligible language units in second language learning with definite meanings and functions.Studies of FSs have drawn extensive attention from foreign language researchers,but majority of them focused on the application of FSs in second language writing and speaking,instead,few studies investigated FSs usage in translation.This study takes 192 C-E translations in the Second English Translation Competition for Postgraduates in Hebei Province as research subjects,11 English monographs and 16 English periodicals as references to build two corpora namely learner corpus and native language corpus.After issuing questionnaires to respondents,the study employs Antconc4.0.1.1 and SPSS26 to preliminarily screen FSs in the corpora and analyze data from the corpora and questionnaires.By comparing sub-corpora,the features and distinctions of FSs used by high-level learners,low-level learners and native speakers are zoomed in on.By analyzing the questionnaire results,factors for the features and distinctions are pursued.Finally,Linguistic Memetics(LM)is selected to deeply analyze research results,with a view to providing inspiration and suggestions for English learners in FSs usage in translation.The results of the study are as follows.In terms of the features of FSs usage,firstly,the usage of the FSs that are simple and basic,familiar and general is in the majority by high-level and low-level learners in C-E translation,and both of them apply more polywords than phrasal constrains as well as sentence builders in quantity and frequency.However,there is no significant difference between their usage of phrasal constrains and sentence builders in quantity,but significant differences exist in frequency.Secondly,native speakers use polywords,phrasal constrains,sentence builders in a large number but low frequency,and polywords are used more than the other two.In terms of the distinctions of FSs usage,first of all,the quantity and frequency of all FSs used by high-level learners are greater and higher than those of low-level learners,and high-level learners’ usage is more diverse.Besides,high-level learners apply polywords,phrasal constrains and sentence builders more frequently than low-level learners with significant differences,but there is no significant difference in quantity.In addition,native speakers utilize more FSs than high-level and low-level learners,which are also more diverse.Further more,the quantity of using each category of FSs by native speakers far exceeds that of high-level and low-level learners,with significant differences,but the frequency of the FSs usage is lower than that of the latter two,especially the frequency of polywords usage.In terms of factors for the features and distinctions of FSs usage,the factors can be divided into learner factors,linguistic factors and environmental factors,among which learner factors have the greatest impact on low-level learners,including learning motivation,learning attitude and learning strategy.Other factors such as the understanding and accumulation of FSs,the foundation of English,the difficulty of the original text in C-E translation all influence the FSs usage.Based on the findings above,some suggestions for English learners and teachers are put forward: Learners should lay stress on FSs accumulation and actively learn various categories of FSs through correct learning strategies.When applying FSs in translation,due attention should be paid to differences between Chinese and English,practicing to use FSs repeatedly.Teachers should attach importance to FSs teaching,systematically instruct learners in the FS as well as its learning methods,create more FSs application environment for learners both in and out of class,and so on.