| Definiteness is the core in a language grammar and cross-linguistic researches. With Chinese-English parallel corpus, translation test and multiple-choice questionnaire, we investigate the association between word order and definiteness of Chinese noun phrases (NPs) and Chinese EFL leaners’awareness of the association.The definiteness of the NPs and the position to their corresponding verbs in parallel corpus are coded. Parallel sentences are retrieved by Paraconc and Chi-square test is performed to explore the association between word order and definiteness of NPs. The results show the significant association between the definiteness and the position of Chinese NPs. It proves the NP position reflects its definiteness in Chinese language.The translation test consists of typical sentence translation and observes Chinese EFL learners’treatment of the position of the Chinese NPs in Chinese-English translation. The results show that pre-verbal and post-verbal Chinese NPs tend to be modified by definite markers in English translation, but English NPs with and without definite markers tend to be post-verbal in Chinese, which shows that there is no explicit treatment of the association between word order and definiteness of NPs by English learners in translation.The questionnaire consists of multiple choices of best translation and the judgment of the definiteness of NPs. It shows pre-verbal Chinese NPs are associated with definite markers and post-verbals are associated with indefinite markers in translation, which shows Chinese EFL learners are aware of the association between word order and definiteness of Chinese NPs.Translators prove the association between word order and definiteness of Chinese NPs and Chinese EFL learners are aware of their association but their treatment of the association in translation is not explicit, which entails more attention to the association between word order and definiteness of Chinese NPs in teaching translation between Chinese and English. |
PDF Full Text Request