Parataxis Versus Hypotaxis--A Comparative Study Between Chinese And English On The Discourse Structure Of The Novel Fortress Besieged

The issue of parataxis and hypotaxis has been for a long time attracting people's (E. A. Nide, Wang Li, to name a few) interest in both linguistics and translation studies. The study of this issue may indicate some of the distinctive features of the language concerned, and on the other hand uncover both the language culture and the mode of thought internalized in the minds of language user. However, the earlier studies of this issue are in fact a matter of controversy, expressing different opinions and giving us vague answers. And the study on parataxis and hypotaxis is found, in most cases, the more in generality and the less in concrete, for example, the results of research are more often than not based on different materials from different texts, which, for my point of view, are hardly convincing. It is also noted that the study on parataxis and hypotaxis is dealt with separately and respectively in both translation and linguistic fields, which more or less, prevent the study from carrying forward due to lacking of cooperation.In view of the facts above comparative method is employed for our study, the novel Fortress Besieged, written by Qian Zhong-shu, a famous scholar in modern Chinese history, is taken both in Chinese and English as the only text of our study and the emphasis is laid more on differences than similarities according to the basic viewpoint of contrastive linguistics. Attempts are to be made to prove that Chinese tends to be more paratactic than English, on the other hand we hold that...