On "Fluency" In English-Chinese And Chinese-English Translation

This article summarizes different argumentations on "Fluency" by scholars from home and abroad, points out that the "Fluency" expatiated in this thesis does not take into account the deliberate disfluency in literature works for the purpose of preserving of the original characteristics of dialogues, proves that "Fluency" is in essence "in conformity with the habit of the target language".In either English to Chinese or Chinese to English translation, proper choice of words is an important prerequisite to ensuring high quality of translated articles. It is also a part of guarantee of "Fluency" in translation. In translation practice, we think, a translator should first understand and differentiate the meaning of the original words according to the context, make clear whether they are in broad or narrow sense, forceful or in feeble, commendatory or derogatory, in what color the writing style is, and then make some proper treatment according to the habits of target language. The difficulty, we think, lies in the translation of commonly-used words because relatively difficult Chinese characters seldom have divergent meaning and can be understood easily with the aid of dictionaries whereas commonly-used words may be used in many different expressions according to the context, the forcefulness, commendatory or derogatory, color of writing style, political connotation and arrangement of the words.The basic language unit for communication of ideas is sentence. Since phrases are part of a sentence, the proper use of them has direct influence on the expressiveness and effect of a sentence. In order to express ideas accurately, lively and vividly, a translator must arrange the phrases used in a sentence properly, pay attention to the properties, characteristics and functions of these phrases. Generally speaking, the modifiers in an English noun phrase can be placed in front of or behind the noun they modify. But in Chinese they are unexceptionably placed infront of the noun. That's why the length of noun phrase is not restricted in English but limited in Chinese. In English to Chinese translation, if there were too many modifiers in front of a noun in English, all these modifiers should not be prefixed in its Chinese version because such a way does not conform to the habits of Chinese language for it is very difficult for Chinese readers to memorize all these modifiers. In Chinese to English translation, however, some small sentences should be translated into modifiers for noun in English.Fixed arrangements of words are formed for English and Chinese languages respectively over the long period of time. A translator should pay attention to the difference between them and should not bring the fixed arrangement of words in Chinese to translated English article, and vice versa. There are two main aspects we should heed: One is the arrangement inside a small sentence and the other is that inside a phrase. In the case of the former, the arrangement inside a sentence refers to the arrangement between subject and predicate or between verb and object. For example, in English, a verb could be used with different objects, but when translated, it may need to be substituted with another Chinese word. For another instance, some verbs can be used with certain nouns, but they cannot be used in such way in Chinese. The latter refers to the arrangement between the attributives and the core word in a noun phrase. For example, if a Chinese character were used with different nouns, different English word might need to be used when translated into English, otherwise it might not convey the meaning exactly.The sequence in translation includes the sequence of words, the sequence of phrases and the sequence of partial sentences. The word sequence of the main components of a sentence in both English and Chinese, i.e., the subject, predicate verbs, object and predicative, is basically the same, but the position of attribute and adverbial modifier differs from English to China. Another difference is: In English, if one would like to emphasize...