| Originating in nature, balance exists almost in every discipline, and human beings have always been seeking for a harmonious relationship with nature. We thus assume that language, as a natural reflection of human intelligence, has its own way of expressing balance. Our assumption is partly based on psychology, for balance, to some extent, is a psychological experience. According to Gestalts, in the course of perception, the observer tends to view the object as a complete and "pragnant" form, though practically they might not be so. Such sensation reaction makes the object being perceived and the viewer's nervous system in a balanced state. Besides, since an idea can be expressed in one way or another, balance in language should also be concerned with rhetoric and aesthetic appraisal.To understand balance in language better, we need to pay attention to two factors: the idea of patterns and the reader's expectation. For one thing, since all the forms of thought and cognition tend toward equilibrium, languages of different kinds are supposed to possess certain patterns underlying the structures of mental life. For another, what readers anticipate when they are dealing with a discourse is a pattern that can best economize their comprehension. Balance, due to its psychological basis and aesthetic property, is such a pattern that greatly satisfies the reader's expectation in this respect. Meanwhile, since this pattern of balance is explicitly realized through grammatical rules and rhetorical principles, either of which may be quite different in different languages, the actual presentation of balance in different languages should have their dissimilarities.The study of balance in language is especially instrumental in ESL teaching and learning. The traditional English teaching focusing on grammatical correctness turns some ESL learners into slaves of rules of thumb who tend to take rhetoric only as a luxury. As a result, these learners often find their English writing marked as awkward, even if there is no grammatical accusation in the expression. Indeed what matters here is the unawareness of balance, which thwarts the reader's expectation. This is an even worse case in translation practice. On many occasions, the translated versions sound unnatural and immature because learners regard only information transfer from one language to another their utmost task, paying little attention to the forms that underlie rhetorical pattern or aesthetic appraisal in different languages. To crown it all, the special study on balance in language itself has been lacking. This paper is meant to bridge the gap in some way, to provide some new guidance in the understanding of English sentences and Chinese ones as well from the rhetorical sense, and at last to put forward proposals for achieving maturity in translated versions.This paper consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter One presents an overview of studies concerning balance in language before making a classification and definition of language balance. The mentioning of balance in language is rather fragmented and scattered among the books or articles on grammar, rhetoric and writing skills, etc. After sorting the available material out, we find that linguists from abroad and home make their remarks on this phenomenon from different angles. American linguist Lehman asserts that in many languages balance in language force in syntax lies in the proportional arrangement of elements around the verb. Quirk et al notice that the motivations of discontinuous modification are to achieve a stylistically well-balanced sentence and observe the principle of end-weight. Parallel structures are the most agreeable balanced pattern both in Chinese and English. As to balance in a discourse, some regard it generally as a strategy to organize the discourse, others insist that balance should be reached between form and content, and still others believe that consistency in viewpoint result in some desirable balance. Even in words, Wu Tiepin...
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