A Study On The Europeanization In English-Chinese Translation From The Perspective Of Language Contact

Languages are rarely sufficient to themselves, so one language should contact and interact with other languages to improve and perfect itself. One of the natural and significant results of language contact is the contact-induced language change in two sides. The former covers vocabulary and syntax, while the latter refers to morpheme, phoneme, semantics, pragmatics, etc. The main form of language contact is translation. English-Chinese translation has greatly triggered and facilitated the development of Chinese, but it also has led to the Europeanization of Chinese. As the dominant language in present world, English has caused series of changes in Chinese. It has pushed the Chinese into the stage of Europeanization in the course of English-Chinese language contact. Actually, it helps to enrich and perfect the Chinese language as well as to enforce a deleterious effect on it.The thesis illuminates the Europeanization in English-Chinese translation from the perspective of language contact. Firstly, it gives the definition, the types and the influences of the language contact. Secondly, it holds that Europeanization mainly performs at three levels: vocabulary, sentence structure and context. Thirdly, it analyses two causes for Europeanization of Chinese. Finally, it comes up with a pair of concepts of "positive Europeanization" and "negative Europeanization" and the dynamic norms for classification. As to the disadvantages of negative Europeanization the thesis tries to advance some adaptation strategies with some examples.After the careful study of the Europeanization in English-Chinese translation, the thesis gets some conclusions. Firstly, the tendency of Europeanization is an inevitable event due to the contact between the English and Chinese. The birth of Contact Linguistics both contributes to and challenges the related academic researches, including translation, especially Europeanized translation, at least it tells people that language may and will change with translation. Secondly, there are at least two causes for Europeanization of Chinese:one being the need to enrich the Chinese language and the other being the thirst for western learning. The Chinese should absorb the new language expression and constructions to make up for its deficiencies and to establish the efficient and accurate standard written Chinese. Finally, this thesis divides Europeanization into positive Europeanization and negative Europeanization. It claims the former has some positive effects on the development of Chinese. While the negative Europeanization will "pollute" the purity of the Chinese.In present time, a penetration to the research of the Europeanization in English-Chinese translation is important and significant, not only for the cause of translation but also for a better understanding of the current Chinese language and its changes.