A Study On English Translation Of Ba-construction By Advanced English Learners

Ba-construction is a commonly used Chinese special sentence pattern with complex and changeable form and there is no corresponding special sentence pattern in English.These properties not only make Ba-construction a subject with special popularity and significance in the field of Chinese grammar,but also make the English translation of Ba-construction an important subject in the field of English translation studies.In this study,Ba-construction is classified into seven categories and the corresponding translation solutions for each kind of Ba-construction are sorted out and put forward according to the representative previous studies;then 48 typical Ba-constructions are selected as translation materials for 37 advanced English learners and both the subjects' translation results and translation process are recorded after the experiment on Translog-?.With a combination of key-logging experiments and post-translation interviews,this study aims to investigate the advanced English learners' translation proficiency in different categories of Ba-constructions from three aspects: the success rates of the translation results,the choices of translation solutions and the revisions on syntactic level and to probe further into the causes for the current translation proficiency situation,which will then contribute to the translation teaching.The major findings are as follows:From the perspective of success rates of translation results of the subjects,the success rates are relatively high for the English translation of the “S + Ba + O + V1(+ V1)” Ba-construction,the “S+ Ba + Of + V + On” Ba-construction and the “S + Ba + O + V + C/A” Ba-construction,which indicates that the English translation of these categories of Ba-construction is less difficult for the subjects.The success rates are on the medium level as to the English translation of the Instrument and Location Ba-construction and the Causative Ba-construction,which demonstrates that there are a certain amount of difficulties for the subjects in the translation of these Ba-constructions.The success rates are low as to the translation of the “S + Ba + O + V1 + X + V2” Ba-construction and the Non-subject Ba-construction,which indicates that these Ba-constructions are most difficult for them.From the perspective of the choices of translation solutions to Ba-construction,the most preferred and proficiently used solutions with high success rates are the SVO pattern for the “S +Ba + O + V1(+ V1)” Ba-construction,the double-object pattern for the “S + Ba + Of + V + On”Ba-construction,the SVOA pattern for the “S + Ba + O + V + C/A” Ba-construction,and due to the firm grasp and proficient use of these solutions,the choices of translation solution are relatively single and monotonous.As to the two Ba-constructions with medium success rates,the most preferred and proficiently used translation solutions are SVOpp for the Instrument and Location Ba-construction,and the causative verb phrase pattern and SVC pattern for the Causative Ba-construction.The choices of translation solutions are still relatively single and monotonous,anddue to the lack of the expression ability of the semantic relationship in English translation and weak grasp of the sentence structure in English translation,more syntactic misuses begin to appear.As to the two kinds of Ba-constructions with low success rates,unlike the other Ba-constructions,there is not a most preferred and proficiently used translation solutions for the “S + Ba + O + V1 + X + V2”Ba-construction and the success choices of translation solutions are almost evenly distributed on the SVOA pattern,the compound sentence pattern and the infinite verb phrase pattern.This reflects that there is not a united translation solution to this kind of Ba-constructions in the subjects' cognition.Besides,the most preferred and proficiently used translation solution for the Non-subject Ba-construction is the imperative pattern but most of them are misused,which reflects that the main cause for the low success rate is the indiscriminate use of imperative pattern and the subjects are lacking in the syntactic reserve of translation solutions to these Ba-constructions.Revisions on syntactic level and post-translation interview demonstrate that the subjects' translation competence to Ba-constructions with high success rates is relatively well developed,while the syntactic reserves of the translation solutions still need enriching.The translation competence to Ba-constructions with medium and low success rates are still under development.Besides,as to the two Ba-constructions with low success rates,the main difficulties in the translation of the “S + Ba + O + V1 + X + V2” are the cognition and transformation of semantic relationship of the multiple verbs,and as to the Non-subject Ba-construction,the main difficulties lie in the lack of cognition and differentiation of three types of Non-subject Ba-constructions,as well as the knowledge and mastery of the diversity of translation solutions.The main causes for the current proficiency situation for these two Ba-constructions are the lack of knowledge of the typological differences between the two languages,the influence of mother tongue transfer and the influence of interlanguage fossilization.Therefore,in the translation teaching,it is well grounded to start with the three categories of Ba-constructions with less difficulty,then to teach those with more difficulty and eventually to focus on those most difficult ones.Besides,different and targeted strategies can be adopted in the translation teaching of different Ba-constructions.For the three types of Ba-constructions with high success rates,translation teaching can focus more on enhancing the richness of translation solutions and improving the proficiency of translation solutions in combination with translation practice.As to the two types of Ba-constructions with medium success rates,more attention can be paid on the analysis and comprehension of the semantic relationship among the subjects,the objects of “Ba”and sometimes the object after the verb of the source sentence,so as to clarify the correspondence between source sentences and English translation solutions.As to the two categories of Ba-construction with low success rates,it is better to start with analyzing the semantic relationship between multiple verbs and the specific reasons and characteristics of the lack of subjects to clarifythe sub-classification;and then to summarize the corresponding English translation solutions in various situations.