A Contrastive Study Of Hypotaxis And Parataxis In English And Chinese & Its Implication For Translation

Hypotaxis and parataxis are one of the most important research subjects in contrastive linguistics and textual linguistics. It is generally agreed that English is a hypotaxis-prominent language while Chinese is a parataxis-prominent language. This paper makes a comparative study of hypotaxis and parataxis in English and Chinese in terms of culture, language and translation.This paper consists of five chapters. Besides Chapter 1 Introduction and Chapter 5 Conclusion, the content of the other parts of the paper are as follows:Chapter 2 analyzes the causes for hypotaxis and parataxis in different cultures. Besides the superficial linguistic factors, a deep-rooted cultural explanation is made to prove the hypotaxis-prominence of English and the parataxis-prominence of Chinese are the natural outcome of the disparities in philosophy and in modes of thinking.Chapter 3 elaborates on the manifestation of hypotaxis and parataxis in the two languages. Hypotaxis in English lies in the S-p mechanism, the use of relatives and conjunctions as well as other cohesive devices. Parataxis in Chinese finds its best reflection in T-C construction, flowing-water construction, compressed sentences, four-character construction, etc. However, the contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis is not absolute. On the contrary, either hypataxis or parataxis is an integral part of the construction of sentences and discourses.Chapter 4 is the key part of the paper. It deals with the translating strategy and principle in translation of hypotaxis and parataxis, with the particular reference to the English version of Fu Sheng Liu Ji. This paper adapted Nida's functional equivalent translation as the translating principle of hypotaxis and parataxis. Hypotaxis and parataxis can be explained from the perspective of function and form. Based on this perspective, a general principle is proposed: in translating a literary work, the translator must put the translation of the primary intention of the author in the first place and the formal equivalence in the second place. Then the paper demonstrates how the functional equivalent translation theory is applied in the translation practice in literature with examples from the English version of Fu Sheng Liu Ji translated by Lin Yutang. According to the analysis of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the angle of diction and syntax respectively, the paper finally comes to a conclusion that in the translation of hypotaxis and parataxis we should try to make use of domestication as more as possible. Only when there are unconquerable difficulties, can we adopt the strategy of foreignization.