English-Chinese Sentence Comparison And Translation Method Selection

In English-Chinese (E-C) translation practice, translators may intuitively understand thesource language message and transform it into the target language text on the basis of hisbilingual experience. However, they will often make translational errors when there aredifferences between English and Chinese sentences due to their failure to rationally recognizethe differences and select appropriate translation methods. E-C sentence comparison andtranslation research is therefore relevant to E-C translation practice. Naturally, many studieshave been carried out on E-C sentence comparison and translation and have made muchprogress, especially in terms of their understanding of the basic similarities and differencesbetween the two languages and the methods for dealing with them. Studies so far, however,are still inadequate in their coverage and depth and need to be extended and deepened. In thelight of the knowledge of English and Chinese languages and cultures, on the basis of relevantcomparative linguistic and translation theories, incorporating findings of related studies, andthrough a methodology combining theoretical exploration and exemplification, this studytherefore attempts to investigate the underlying factors and manifestations of the differencesbetween English and Chinese, and the translation methods for dealing with the differences.It is found through this study that the differences between English and Chinese sentencesarise from the discrepancies in language habits, linguistic philosophies and thinking patternsbetween Western and Chinese people. The worldview of Westerners is characterized byobjectivity or rationality, discreteness or analyticity, truthfulness or practicality, steadiness orstativity whereas that of the Chinese is characterized by subjectivity or sensibility,interconnectedness or integrity, aestheticity or artisticity, dynamicity or flexibility. Thedifferences between English and Chinese sentences are manifested on the planes of function,meaning and form. On the level of function, English sentences are functional on a formalbasis and subject-prominent, tending to take the subject as topic and the subject-predicatestructure as the determinant functional unit whereas Chinese sentences are functional on asemantic basis and topic-prominent, using various sentence components as the topic and the topic-comment structure as the dominant unit of function. On the plane of meaning, Englishsentences often assume the tree-like structure, with the subject-predicate structure as the trunkand the other subordinate components as branches and leaves of the tree whereas Chinesesentences tend to be structurally bamboo-like, linking section by section the often usednumerous verb phrases according to the chronological order of the events they describe. Onthe level of form, English sentences tend to be hypotactic, employing various overt cohesivedevices in connecting different components to formalize its logical and grammatical meanings,while Chinese sentences are inclined to be paratactic, organizing constituents through covertlogic and meaning rather through overt cohesive ties. When the domestication strategy isadopted in E-C translation, the translator may, according to the differences between the twolanguages and the conventions of Chinese utterances, respectively employ such methods oftranslation as transforming subject into topic, non-subject into topic, head word into topic, orhead word into comment.This study may be practically and theoretically significant to E-C comparison andtranslation. Practically, its findings may have important implications for E-C translation, andmay even be directly applied in it, reducing translation errors arising from the ignorance ofthe differences between English and Chinese sentences and the corresponding measures fordealing with the differences. Theoretically, this study may hopefully play a part in the furtherdevelopment and prosperity of the field of E-C comparison and translation research.