Conversion Of Parts Of Speech In English-Chinese Translation

Since there are so many differences between the English and Chinese languages inthe syntactic structure, expression, means of rhetorical and logical way of thinking, weoften adopt word conversion to the translation between Chinese and English. Thephenomenon of conversion is well-known to translators. As unprofessional translators,the student translators are limited in translation abilities and skills. They mayencounter such phenomenon in the way. In many cases, the original parts of speechcannot be transformed mechanically one by one accordingly. If the translator cannotuse the parts of speech appropriately, instead of choosing an equivalent expression inthe target language in his own conceit, the translation text would be stiff and rigid. Intranslation practice, the conversion of parts of speech is essential; the most importantone is the mutual conversion between verbs and nouns, because these two kinds ofparts of speech in English-Chinese translation are the most common. Furthermore,there are conversions between adjectives and nouns, verbs and adjectives, verbs andprepositions, nouns and adverbs, they are all research objects. The ultimate goal ofconversion among various parts of speech is to make the translation smooth and fluent,not only correspond with English and Chinese language habits, but also keep theoriginal style. The real purpose of conversion among various parts of speech is to finda balance between the source language and the target language. While the differencesin grammar and expression between English and Chinese increase the difficulties oftranslation, but also influence the translators’ abilities. Research on conversion inEnglish-Chinese translation will help the translators better understand the source text,improve their translation abilities and guarantee the translation quality.The thesis attempts to explore the following three research questions:(1) What isthe necessity of conversion?(2) How can we realize the transformation among variousparts of speech?(3) What kinds of strategies can be adopted in the conversion inEnglish-Chinese translation？ In order to achieve the research target, this paper mainlyuses descriptive methodology. Taking the translation practice of The ContemplatedSpouse of Wallace Stevens as a case, the paper carries on the research from thenecessity of conversion, the specific rules of conversion among various parts of speech,and what kinds of strategies can be adopted in the translation. Through the case study,the paper figures out the transformation rules of five main parts of speech in theEnglish-Chinese translation, consisting of the transformation of nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions and adverbs. With regard to the transformation among variousparts of speech, the author adopts word-adding skill. Word-adding usually has twooccasions, one kind is according to the needs of meaning or rhetoric, another kind is tomeet the needs of the syntax, respectively embodying in such aspects as vocabulary,grammar, logic and rhetoric. Finally, the paper presents some pertinent suggestions inorder to avoid stiff and rigid translation. For instance, conversion among various partsof speech should be based on loyalty and smoothness, on the needs of syntactic andrhetoric, or on the purpose of cross-cultural communication. Therefore a translatorshould cultivate cross-cultural translating perspective, establish and make good use ofthe corpora of conversion in the English-Chinese translation.