Influence Of Negative Transfer Of Chinese On Chinese-English Translation

Language transfer is the phenomenon that second language learners’knowledge of mother tongue (MT) has an influence on their second language acquisition (SLA). In fact, translation is a process in which one language is converted into another. Therefore, translators will be definitely influenced by MT in the process of translating. When differences between MT and the target language in grammar and culture exist, the negative transfer of MT occurs. On the basis of the language transfer theory in SLA, this thesis make no efforts to find an effective way to improve Chinese students’C-E translation. Besides translating skills, the negative transfer of MT is one of the most important reasons why students often make errors in their C-E translations. In this study, we collect and analyze all the errors in the C-E translation test papers of38sophomores majoring in Accounting in Northwest University, and classify them as lexical, syntactic, discoursal and so on. The result shows that Chinese has an influence on students’C-E translation products and the errors caused by the influence of Chinese accounts for46.3%. At the level of lexicon, errors are often committed mainly in articles, collocation, and redundancy; at the level of syntax, errors are often committed in tense, voice, and subject-predicate agreement. As a matter of fact, all the errors are caused due to the differences between Chinese and English. For example, when students do the C-E translation, they will use the knowledge of MT unconsciously. Finally, it is hoped that the study can help students have a clearer and comprehensive understanding of the negative transfer of MT in C-E translation.