Error Analysis Of The C-E Paragraph Translation In The New CET-4

Error analysis first appeared in the 1950 s and is based on the contrastive analysis.It is the collection of learners' errors through the second language acquisition and the classification of learners' general errors in linguistics.Contrastive analysis is a rigorous analysis of the first and second language from the level of language,form,meaning and related cultural links,while error analysis is based on the theory of interlanguage and cognition science,which is closely related to Chomsky's universal grammar.Interlanguage is different from the mother language and the target language,which is an independent language system in the second language acquisition(SLA).Furthermore,the basic assumption of universal grammar is the existence of a special mechanism in the brain to deal with language knowledge and one of its objectives is to reveal that the process of the second language acquisition is influenced by the universal grammar.In the process of learning the second language,the learner is bound to have all sorts of errors.Chinese SLA learners are no exception.Although some of them enter the university after years of English learning,their English expressions are still filled with a wide variety of errors.The C-E translation part in CET-4 is a gauge of one of the most important measurement of the college English level.It was reformed in December 2013,involving many aspects such as Chinese history,culture,economy,social development and so on.The error analysis of C-E translation in the new CET-4 can help learners understand their mastered second language system better,to further improve the ability of language application and have a positive effect on the development of language teaching.Therefore,it is very necessary to use the theory of error analysis to analyze the C-E paragraph translation in new CET-4.The aim of this study is to investigate typical translation errors and language translation ability of the non-English major college students in order to improve their English translation ability and college translation teaching methods.At the same time,it also puts forward some guidelines and countermeasures for the students who will take CET-4.Through error analysis(EA),it is found that learners not only commit interlingual errors which is the negative transfer of mother tongue and they also make intralingual errors because the rules for using the target language itself has not been systematically understood.Based on the EA theory,this paper attempts to analyze the errors of C-E paragraph translation exercises in new CET-4 through two aspects of intralingual errors and interlingual errors and point out in which aspects those errors in C-E paragraph translation of non-English major students occur most frequently.The source texts are the authentic translation materials chosen from past CET-4,including the source texts of the 2013,2014 and 2015 of CET-4 produced by 100 sophomores of non-English majors at South-Central University for Nationalities from their mid-term test,and the author made a detailed analysis of the collected samples.The results of the research are as follows:1.The main types of C-E translation errors of the Chinese non-English major students are intralingual errors and interlingual errors.Intralingual errors include lexical errors,grammatical errors and discourse errors,and interlingual errors include pragmatic errors,cultural errors,contextual errors.At the intralingual level,lexical errors are the main errors including misspelling,misuse of words,misuse of collocations and misuse of parts of speech;grammatical errors include: misuse of plurality,misuse of tense,grammatical disagreement and misuse of voice;discoursal errors include: redundancy in discourse,lack of cohesive devices and inappropriate logic in discourse.At the interlingual level,pragmatic errors include Chinglish expression and inappropriate sentence order;cultural errors include cultural default and cultural confusion;context errors include wrong deictic reference and repetition of subject.2.Overall,intralingual errors have a higher frequency than interlingual errors in C-E translation of the Chinese non-English major students.Lexical errors have a higher frequency than grammatical errors and discoursal errors among intralingual errors;while pragmatic errors have a higher frequency than cultural errors and linguistic errors among interlingual errors.3.The main reason for intralingual errors is that Chinese Non-English major students still have not fully mastered the basic English knowledge and rules although they have learned English for several years;The main reason for interlingual errors is the interference of Chinese language habits and thinking model.Intralingual errors are mainly due to the misunderstanding and misuse of the rules in English,while interlingual errors are due to the choice of the improper words or forms.4.This study offers a reference and guidance in English translation teaching.Teachers should pay more attention to the cultivation of students' English skills and the comparison between Chinese and English,which aims to avoid the typical intralingual errors and interlingual errors effectively.Lastly,this paper puts forward the significance and limitations of the study,and gives some suggestions for future research.