Hypotaxis And Parataxis In English-Chinese Translation

As one of the most important subjects in comparative linguistics, study of hypotaxis and parataxis indicates that there is a major discrepancy in organizing languages between English and Chinese. English is hypotactic and connects phrases and clauses by using particles like conjunctions, relatives and prepositions. English sentences are tree-like and established on the "subject-predicate" mechanism. On the contrary, the Chinese language is paratactic and attaches great importance to the semantic relations between language elements. Chinese sentences follow a bamboo-like structure and a "topic-comment" mechanism, usually connected by their inner logical relations that are displayed by the different order between words and clauses, flowing-water sentences, contracted sentences and four-character construction.Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis consists of three chapters. At the beginning of the thesis elaborates on the manifestation of hypotaxis in English and parataxis in Chinese, which is briefly introduced in the above paragraph. In the following chapter the thesis analyzes the influence hypotaxis and parataxis exerts on English-Chinese translation from the angle of logical relations, sentence formation and cohesive devices. English pays much attention to the strict form of the language so the sequence of logical relations is relatively feasible while Chinese stresses the inner logical relations of the sentence itself and represented through word order so that the sequence of the logical relation is relatively fixed. English sentences tend to be long and complicated, connected with various cohesive devices while Chinese sentences tend to be short. Appropriate cohesive devices are important in English sentences because the language is required to be very precise and complete in form while in Chinese sentences the inner relations are embodied in the sentence itself to make cohesive devices invisible. Then the last part of thesis focuses on the translation strategies for transferring from hypotaxis to parataxis in E-T translation through three aspects: regulation of procedures, re-organization of sentences and concealing of dominant cohesive devices.The research methods used in the writing of this thesis are literature research method, contrast method and inductive method.