The Contrastive Study Of Inversion And Its Application To Translation

This thesis studies inversions from the perspective of translation based on the classification and the function analysis of the inverted constructions. Through the presentation of previous contributions made by earlier scholars, the thesis approaches inversion from various perspectives. It makes an overview of the definition, history, types, functions and causes of the construction and presents a detailed contrastive study of inversions in Chinese and in English in respects of syntactic structure, information focus and cognitive psychology. The analysis of English inversion and its comparison with Chinese inversion will shed light on the basic methods of EC translation of inversions. We can draw the conclusion that the inverted sentences in English should be restored into the word order in most cases when they are rendered into Chinese and if the inversions are employed for the functional purpose,there are also cases to maintain the original word order structure or resort to some special lexical items. The detailed study of types and functions of inversions in English will also enlighten the application of English inversions in CE translation. In CE translation, inversions will be employed in English for various purposes such as balance, link, and information focus.There are seven chapters in the thesis. The first chapter serves as the introduction, presenting the research background, previous studies of the inverted construction, the significance and the framework of the research. In the second chapter, there are the review of definition and historical development of the construction. The third chapter deals with the classification of inversion with numerous authentic illustrations quoted from recent issues of Time. Inversions fall into two major categories: full inversion and subject-auxiliary inversion. To the former go subcatergories of VP-inversion, AdjP inversion, AdvP inversion, PP inversion, and to the latter go subcatergories of Pro-inversion, Corr-inversion, Neg-inverted construction and inverted conditionals. In the fourth chapter, functions of inversion are explored from the perspective of information focus, end weight, coherence of discourse. As to the focus-making function, unmarked focus is achieved by postposing the most emphatic constituents and marked focus by fronting them. As to the syntactic function, inversions are often employed to achieve end weight through the postpostion of prolonged subjects. As to the semantic function, cohesion of a text is achieved through inversions following deictic pronouns, fronting of repeated lexical items or inversions in comparative constructions. The fifth chapter gives a detailed contrastive study of inversions in Chinese and in English in definition, information focus and cognitive principle. The sixth chapter receives the greatest focus in the thesis, applying the study of inversion to translation. Inverted constructions in English are to be translated into Chinese in similar inverted order, or restored to the canonical order or compensated lexically or syntactically. Inverted constructions are to be employed in Chinese to English translation to achieve emphasis on certain constituents, to balance sentences, to link information in a discourse. The seventh chapter gives a summary of the study and points out its academic significance.