| With the rapid growth of sci-tech or science and technology in the contemporary age, the translation of sci-tech texts from English to Chinese and the EFL writing of sci-tech texts is flourishing and is nevertheless in urgent need of more knowledge about the differences between English and Chinese sci-tech texts in different aspects including the use of passive constructions. Naturally, various studies have been conducted in the similarities and differences between English and Chinese sci-tech texts from different perspectives. While they have made impressive achievements, they are often limited by their tendencies in choosing a macroscopic perspective and employing a purely rational methodology or bibliographical method, thus neglecting the empirical study of microscopic facts, including the differences in the frequency and occasions of using passive voice in English-Chinese sci-tech texts.Oriented to the practice of sci-tech translation between English and Chinese and EFL sci-tech writing, targeted toward the problems in the comparative study of English and Chinese sci-tech texts, the present study attempts to compare the English and Chinese sci-tech texts in terms of the frequency and situations of their use of passive constructions under the guidance of the common views regarding the difference in the thinking patterns between the West and the East accessible in comparative cultural studies, linguistics and translation studies, on the basis of the theories about the differences between English and Chinese available in contrastive studies of the two languages, employing the Scientific American and its Chinese counterpart Huan Qiu Ke Xue as data, and through a methodology of theory-based case study integrating both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Through data analysis and discussion, this study reaches the following conclusions:(1) English and Chinese sci-tech texts are different in terms of the frequency of using passive constructions. English sci-tech texts are more abundant with passive sentences than Chinese ones though Chinese sci-tech texts have more agented passive sentences than English ones.(2) English and Chinese sci-tech texts are different in terms of the occasions of using passive constructions. English sci-tech texts employ passive constructions both in emphasizing and in neglecting the agent whereas Chinese ones utilize passive structures only when the agent is not highlighted.(3) The differences between English and Chinese sci-tech texts in the frequency and occasions of using passive constructions are consistent with the differences between Western and Chinese thinking patterns. While Western thought is characterized by nature-orientation, objectivity, rationality, analysis and abstraction, Chinese thinking possesses the features of self-centeredness, subjectivity, intuitiveness, synthesis and imagination.This study may be both practically and academically relevant to the EFL writing and translation of sci-tech texts in particular and nonliterary texts in general. Practically, this study may help to improve EFL sci-tech writing and English-Chinese translation practice by more knowledge of the differences between English and Chinese sci-tech texts in the use of passive constructions. Academically, it may compensate for the inadequacy in the partial emphasis on theoretical macroscopic approaches and the negligence of microscopic empirical approaches in the comparative study of sci-tech texts. |
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