| “Bei” Sentence is one of special Chinese sentence patterns.Its English translation poses a pivotal issue in both English and Translation teaching.Although quite a few researches have delved into this problem and harvested plentiful fruits,most of them adopt intuitive or didactic methodology,resulting in various classifications and translation schemes of “Bei” Sentence that are far from systematic and need polishing.Furthermore,researches on the developmental ability of “Bei” Sentence' translation by English learners have been found relatively wanting,especially those driven by experiments with modern technology and quantitative analysis.After the launch of China's Standards of English Language Ability,the instruction in translation ability is cast a marked trait of structuralism,rendering pure didactics unqualified for the new era.Therefore,this thesis tries to clarify the structures of “Bei” Sentence and propose a syntax-based translation scheme before delving into the development and issues of “Bei” Sentence' translation by English learners.The thesis mainly answers the following research questions:1.How many translation schemes mainly are there based on syntactical classification? And what are they?2.What solutions will English learners render when translating “Bei” Sentence into English? And what difficulties does the developmental acquisition of “Bei” Sentence' translation pose?For starters,the thesis gives a summary description of “Bei” Sentence by reviewing previous research papers on the definition,structures and classification of “Bei” Sentence.And it summarizes a set of formulae for the translation of “Bei” Sentence according to Chinese-English translation textbooks in extensive use domestically.The formulae concluded herein are also partly proven by a small self-constructed corpus with over 500 thousand strings.Then a translation practice experiment was conducted with the help of Translog,a keyboard logging program to record the process of translating “Bei” Sentence into English by 35 advanced English learners so as to investigate the development of English major postgraduates' translation competence for “Bei” Sentence.The whole experiment was controlled rigorously in a language lab,which enables an efficient recording of all performance on keyboards.Last,a thorough analysis is imposed upon the first-hand data collected for more objective revelation of the development of “Bei” Sentence translation by English majors speaking Chinese.The thesis divides “Bei” Sentence into three classes,i.e.A.“?(?/?/?)” introduces an agent,with a format like “Noun(patient)+ ?(? ? ? ??)+Noun(agent)+VP”;B.No nominal components show up after “?(?????)”,with a verb attached directly.Its format is “Noun(patient)+?+VP”;C.This type includes “?/?……?……”/“?(?)……?”/“?/?……?”,and “?……?”.Afterwards concrete translation schemes are put forward for every class and tested by a self-made corpus as much as possible.The research finds that Chinese “Bei” Sentence is so varied that it is not parallel to English passive voice,thus it needs careful choice of translation techniques based on the structures before and after the Chinese character “Bei”.What's more,the research discovers that under most circumstances senior English learners struggle to simulate Chinese “Bei” Sentence with English passive voice.Only few of them manage to switch to other translation techniques or idioms.That demonstrates a dyed-in-wool impact of the equation of Chinese “Bei” Sentence with English passive voice upon Chinese high-level English learners.So,appropriate pedagogy needs introducing from the onset of teaching “Bei” Sentence translation. |
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