英语本科毕业论文-Long English Sentences.doc

许昌学院本科生毕业论文IntroductionTranslation is the most important means of communication between different countries and cultures. It is not as simple as translating the original message. Nidas definition of translating is rendered into Chinese as: “Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style” (quoted in Ma, 46).Long English sentences can be found everywhere in legal documents, contracts, literary works, science and technology discourses. How to translate long English sentences has become a classic topic in translation. All of us know that the long English sentences can be easily understood by the people who come from the English speaking countries, but it is difficult for the Chinese to translate them well into Chinese. Proper long English sentence translation can establish a good foundation for the translation of a text and it is the essential qualification of a translator.Nowadays, all the textbooks on the E-C translation supply some valuable directions for long English sentence translation. On the one hand, these directions are introductory and limited to a few basic general methods. Such as: sequential translation, reverse translation, split translation, which are incomplete and non-thorough. But these methods play valuable instructive roles. On the other hand, the translator empathizes the faithfulness to the content of the original, but fails to see the text types, original style and some important aspects related to the long English sentence translation. The translation of long English sentence is so difficult that it often causes miscomprehension and mistranslation. So it is necessary to improve the capabilities of the translator to translate the long English sentences.The thesis consists of three chapters excluding introduction and conclusion. It tries to analyze the methods of translating long English sentences. The thesis first defines long English sentence and then categorizes it into three kinds, which lays a good foundation for comprehension.The second chapter expounds the comprehension of long English sentences from two main aspects: macro-comprehension and micro-comprehension. The macro-comprehension mainly discusses the text types and the original style, and the micro-comprehension mainly discusses the grammatical relations, logical relations and the words meaning in different contexts or specialties.Chapter three discusses the main methods of translating long sentences from English into Chinese, such as: embedding, cutting, reversing, splitting, inserting and recasting. Sometimes, we can use one or several methods together. This thesis illustrates these methods with a number of examples. 17 Chapter One General Introduction of Long English SentencesThe practice of translation proved that comprehension is very important in long English sentence translation. In this chapter, the definition and classification of long English sentences will be discussed.1.1 Definition of Long English SentencesIn terms of length, sentences can be long or short. Sentence length is usually regarded as one of the linguistic marks measuring the degree of formality. The longer the sentence, the more formal of the language. Long English sentences are capable of expressing complex ideas with precision, because it may contain many modifiers. Short sentences are suitable for the presentation of important facts and ideas, and long sentences for the explanation of views and theories, or the description of things with many details.According to the number of words in a sentence, it is generally acknowledged that the average number of words in a sentence is 20. But Geoffrey, N. Leech and Short, H. Michael in their Style in Fiction concluded that the average number of words in a sentence is 17.8 in all kinds of stylistics. Generally speaking, sentences that contain fewer words about 10 are considered short and those that contain far more than 25 or about 30 or more are considered long. Some translators defined long English sentence as follows: The sentence that contains a great number of words, phrases, or clauses and many modifiers and that can express complex ideas (Peng, 11).The sentences with more than one modifiers, parallel clauses and complex lingual structures (Tian, 71). Obviously, these definitions are incomplete and non-thorough. Above all, long English sentence can be defined as: the sentence containing a great number of words (more than 25), phrases or clauses and many modifiers, forming a complex grammatical structure, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark and expressing complex ideas.1.2 The Types of Long English Sentences The long English sentences can be classified into three kinds according to their structures. They are: long simple sentence, long compound sentence and long complex sentence. Long simple sentence has only one subject-predicate structure with one or more long and complex constituents. For example:(1) The East Greenland Current carries much ice from the Arctic down the coast of Greenland, maintaining the low temperatures and rendering access to the east coast of Greenland difficult. It is a simple sentence because it has only one subject-predicate structure “The East Greenland Current carries”. Long compound English sentences have two or more subject-predicate structures with coordinate relationship between each other. For example:(2) Other scientists were interested, and soon this substance and others that were closely related were tested in many laboratory experiments and doctors everywhere began to use the so-called sulfa drugs.There are four subject-predicate structures in this long compound English sentence. So there are four clauses in it. The third clause is an attributive clause and introduced by “that”. The first, second and fourth clause are linked by a coordinating conjunction “and”, the relationships of these clauses are coordinate. Long complex English sentences contain one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses, with a connective word denoting the relation between the two parts. For example: (3) You must keep in mind the symbols and formulate, definitions and laws of physics, no matter how complex they may be, when you come in contact with them, in order that you may understand the subject better and lay a solid foundation for further study. (Dang, 65)There are four clauses in it. The clause: “You must keep in mind the symbols and formulate, definitions and laws of physics,” is the main clause. And the other four clauses are subordinate clauses which are introduced respectively by “no matter how”, “when” and “in order that”. From the above examples, we can conclude that long English sentences develop from the basic structure of subject-predicate. There are two ways to expand them into long sentences: one is to add modifiers or coordinate constituents, the other is to combine two or more simple sentences into compound or complex sentences. The first way always leads to simple long sentences which contain only one subject-predicate structure. The second way creates the sentences which consist two ore more subject-predicate structures. Sometimes, the two ways embody in a long sentence simultaneously.Chapter Two Comprehension of Long English SentencesWe know that accurate comprehension of the original is always the foremost concern in translation. Therefore, correct comprehension of long English sentence is the first and foremost step in long English sentences translation. But the correct comprehension does not always produce the correct version. Translation is also related to the basic knowledge that a translator possesses. It asks the translator to comprehend the long English sentences well, familiar with the characteristics, similarities and differences between English and Chinese.In fact, more errors in translation are made because of failure to comprehend the source text than any other reason (Nida, 137). In this sense, how to completely and deeply comprehend a long English sentence becomes more important. Comprehension can be divided into macro-comprehension and micro-comprehension according to their contents. 2.1 Macro-comprehensionFully understand the original is the basis of translation. Macro-comprehension is the most important aspect to grasp the entire original. Macro-comprehension refers to the comprehension of the text types, original style, historical background, and context and so on. Macro-comprehension plays a very important role in translating long English sentences. 2.1.1 Comprehension of Text typesTraditionally, four major types of writing are identified and categorized as: argumentation, description, narration and exposition. However, according to the Hatim-Mason model of text typology, there are three major types: exposition, argumentation and instruction. All these three types have sub-types under them: “conceptual exposition, narration and description under exposition; through-argumentation and counter-argumentation under argumentation; instruction with option and without option under instruction” (quoted in Zhao, 31). The characteristics of three major text types are summarized as follows:The argumentative writing generally has a contextual focus on the evolution of concept relations, such as: reason, volition and opposition. One purpose of argument is to persuade people to agree with the writers opinion. The other purpose is to refute the opinion that may be misguided, untrue, or evil. The contextual focus of the expository text is either on the analysis into constituent elements of given concepts or their composition from constituent elements. “In the instructional text type, the contextual focus is on the formation of future behavior since there is an attempt to regulate through instruction the way people act or think” (quoted in Zhao, 32).Before tackling the task of translating, the translator should first identify the text type of the source text which guides him in choosing his writing methods for the purpose of producing an equivalent text type in the target language. Therefore, if the view of taking translation as a text type is true, it will bring us much closer to the very nature of translation. In order to distinguish text types, people take degrees of formality and sentence length into consideration. Any text type should be a unit with relatively complete and independent meaning for the sake of understanding and translating. 2.1.2 Comprehension of Original Style Style, any specific way of using language, which is characteristic of an author, school, period, particular styles may be defined by their diction, syntax, imagery, rhythm, and use of figures (Baldick, 214). In the process of translating, all the paragraphs, sentences and words should be attentively studied so that the best expressions may be chosen to satisfy the needs of reproducing the thought, feeling and style of the original (Liu, 1991: 123). Tytler also thinks that the style and manner of writing should be of the same with that of the original. In this sense, the translation of long English sentence does not seem as simple as a linguistic transfer of content, so we have to consider the original style in the process of comprehension. The purpose of translation is to achieve a stylistic and ideological unity between the translated version and the original text. So the translator must always try their best to reproduce the original style and the authors style in their translation as much as possible. It is universally-accepted truth that style represents the essential characteristics of each writers writing，and various writers have various styles. This can be explained by the novels of Hemingway and Henry James. Hemingways simple, short, uncomplicated and active sentences have become the trademark of his novels. On the contrary, Henry James used longer and more complex sentences on average. Both English and Chinese use such terms to describe the writing style as: humorous, sarcastic, grave, simple, plain and so on. Both west and China, the translator tends to go in a direction for the construction of stylistic coherence. The analysis of style involves examination of a writers choice of words, phrases and clauses, the types of sentence (loose and periodic), rhythm, sentence length and sentence complexity, of every conceivable aspect of his language and the way in which he uses it. Thus, in translating, it is necessary to comprehend the original style and make the version closest to the original. 2.2 Micro-comprehension Micro-comprehension includes the comprehension of the meaning of words, the logical relations, grammatical relations, stylistic features and so on. If we want to comprehend the long English sentence better, we have to consider all these factors. 2.2.1 Comprehension of Meaning of WordsFirth once said: “Each word when used in a new context is a new word” (Li, 49). So it is difficult for us to choose the correct meaning in different writing styles and context. The style and context can supply a useful information for understanding the meaning of words. Sometimes, the meaning of words is related with different specialties, so the translator can not translate one single word or sentence directly. The first thing they should do is to read the sentence or text and analyze the stylistic features of its context, and then choose the correct meaning of words. (1) In1900 they (boxers) swept into Peking, murdered the German and Japanese ministers, and besieged the foreign legations.1900年他们（义和团）攻入北京，杀死德国和日本的传教士，包围了外国公使馆。“Minister” has many meanings in different contexts. According to the context and the historical background of China, we should choose the meaning of “someone who has been sent to foreign country to teach people about Christianity and persuade them to become Christians.”(2) A pushing or pulling, however, dose not necessarily means doing work.推或拉，并不一定就可以做功。(3) Temperature required for annealing is a function of two factors: the nature of the material, the amount work that has been done prior to annealing.退火温度取决于两方面的因素：一是材料的材质，二是退火前的加工度。This pair of sentences expresses the meaning of “work” in different specialties. In order to choose the correct meaning, the translator should possess relevant scientific knowledge as well as linguistic knowledge.2.2.2 Comprehension of Grammatical RelationsGrammar is the rules of language. Having a good knowledge of grammar is helpful for the better comprehension of long English sentences. Analyze the grammatical relations among the elements of the sentence plays a very important role in clearing up the structures of the sentence or text. For example:(4) When Smith was drunk, he used to beat his wife and daughter; and the next morning, with a headache, he would rail at the world for his neglect of his genius, and abuse, with a good deal of cleverness, and sometimes with perfect reason, the fools, his brother painters. The whole sentence is formed by a time adverbial clause and two coordinate sentences. There are several predicates,“heat”, “rail at”, “abuse”, and they are coordinate. Clearing up the grammatical relations among the elements of long sentences makes translation easier. 2.2.3 Comprehension of Logical RelationsLogical thinking is very important in translation. The scientific document, literary works pay more attention to the logical relations of sentences. Sometimes, the logic relations might be helpful for comprehending the text or the long English sentences. (5) After all, all living creatures live by feeding on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive.In this sentence, “it” refers to “something,” not “living creatures”. If we dont understand the relation between them, we will mistranslate it. So the Chinese version should be: 所有活着的动物毕竟是靠吃别的东西生存的，而不管这些东西是植物还是动物，是死的还是活的。(6) The tendency for the oil to oxidize is greatly increased by presence of air, water and certain fine metal particles produced by water.According to the logic analysis we know the phrase “produced by water” is the attribute for “particles.” So this sentence is translated into: 空气、水和磨损产生的细微的金属颗粒的存在能够加速促使油的氧化。Macro-comprehension and micro-comprehension of long English sentences are complementary. Only considering the two aspects simultaneously can reduce the miscomprehension of the original.Chapter Three Methods of Translating Long English SentencesThe translation of long English sentences is perhaps the most difficult one in E-C translation. It not only requires a good understanding of the long English sentence, but also a good knowledge of the basic principles and methods of translation. Liu Miqing states in his book Style and Translation that there are six methods of translating long English sentences, they are: embedding, cutting, reversing, splitting, inserting and recasting. In order to be faithful to the original several methods can be used simultaneously. 3.1 Embedding The so-called embedding means placing the modifiers（including phrases and clauses）before the word being modified, thus the modifiers are embedded in the Chinese sentences (Xu, 164). The preposition embedding makes the Chinese version compact and coherent, but the embedding part cannot be too long or too complex. Therefore, the method of embedding is frequently adopted in translating attributive clauses and appositive clauses.This is because Chinese and English differ in the word order. In English, when a short phrase is used as an attribute to modify a noun, it is usually put after the noun, while in Chinese it is usually put before the noun. In English, all of us know that a word used as an adverbial to modify