Translation Of Long Sentences Between English And Chinese

Translation is the most important means of communication between different countries and cultures. Generally speaking, translation refers to the bilingual transferring activity and the content of transferring is of various "meanings". According to Nida "Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style".( Nida & Taber 1982:12.)Sentences are the basic units of translation and discourse. Proper sentence translation may lay a good foundation for the translation of a text and is the essential qualification of a translator. Nowadays, all the textbooks on the translation between English and Chinese give some directions for long sentence translation, but they are only introductory and limited to a few basic general rules. This is an area that demands more in-depth and comprehensive studies, including ontological and methodological research, besides some concrete skills and empirical techniques.The dissertation consists of four chapters excluding the introduction and conclusion. It tries to study translation of long sentences between English and Chinese. It exemplifies many Chinese and English sentences and their translated versions to find the strategies to translate the long sentences between English and Chinese, and to provide the suitable translation criteria to evaluate the translation work.The first chapter deals with the characteristics of long English and Chinese sentences and their language basis. Firstly, the classifications of long English and Chinese sentences are analyzed. The former can be categorized into long simple sentences, long compound sentences, long complex sentences and long compound-complex sentences according to the structure. And they can be classified into loose sentences, periodic sentences and loose-periodic sentences according to the development of the thought. The latter can be classified into long simple sentences, long complex sentences and multi-complex sentences or super-sentence unity according to the structure. And they can be categorized into run-on sentences, parataxical sentences, topic sentences and sentences with several predicates by the...