浅析英汉翻译中语序的处理及其效果—以《傲慢与偏见》的翻译为例

Comments The Arrangement of Word Order in English Chinese Translation and Its Effect Illustrated by the Case of Pride and Prejudice 评论 浅析英汉翻译中语序的处理及其效果评论 浅析英汉翻译中语序的处理及其效果 以以 傲慢与偏见傲慢与偏见 的的 翻译为例翻译为例 Introduction Jane Austen 1775 1817 is a famous English novelist She was born in a country clergyman s family of Hampshire in England and educated at home and unmarried Though the place was secluded from the outside world it gave her an intimate knowledge of a segment of English society the landed gentry that was to provide the materials for most of her fiction As a matter of fact Jane Austen began writing when she was still a little girl and by 1787 she had already started to write stories dramas and short novels 刘洊波主编 2005 67 Pride and Prejudice is also called First Impression It mainly depicts the love affair between Darcy and Elizabeth Darcy from a wealthy upper class family is apparently a serious and arrogant young man whereas Elizabeth has her own strong personality and is a lovely young woman though from middle class family Elizabeth makes misjudge about Darcy because of a poor impression Darcy cannot find Elizabeth s virtues because of his prejudice against Elizabeth s inferior social position and his haughty contempt for the poor manners of her family members When Darcy finds himself attracted by Elizabeth s lovely personality he proposes to Elizabeth but fails For Elizabeth Darcy is a disagreeable and extremely proud man by Wickham s lie and Darcy s behavior Later Darcy writes a letter explaining his past conducts to Elizabeth and removes himself from Elizabeth s prejudice against him After a series of events Darcy secures his marriage for helping solve the problem of Lydia s elopement with Wickham At last Darcy gets rid of his bad habits and renews his proposal to Elizabeth and Elizabeth accepts his order and they have happy life This thesis focuses on the analysis on the arrangement of word order in English Chinese translation and its effects by the case of Pride and Prejudice It mainly comprises two parts Part One gives the definition of word order and causes of differences in word order Part Two focuses on the three main aspects time logic and modifier in rearranging word order and their effects Definition of Word Order and Causes of Differences in Word Order Word order refers to the order of the syntactic constituents As a tool for communication and thinking language not only reflects thinking modes of language users but influences the speaker s thinking modes The differences in thinking modes between English and Chinese are represented in different language forms 2 1 Definition of Word Order The definition of word order is as follow In linguistics word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language and how different languages can employ different orders Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest The primary word orders that are of interest are the constituent order of a clause the relative order of subject object and verb the order of modifiers adjectives numerals demonstratives possessives and adjuncts in a noun phrase and the order of adverbials Word order Wikipedia 2012 The writer and the speaker always choose a special word order according to their intentions when they write a passage or say something They do that to achieve some certain effects such as emphasizing some information and semantic intention Ex1 I admire his learning but I despise his character 我佩服他的学识 但鄙视他的人格 庞人骐 1985 194 Ex2 His learning I admire but his character I despise 庞人骐 1985 194 他的学识 我佩服 但他的人格 我鄙视 王东风 2009 80 Obviously example1 and 2 both talk about the same thing while example2 stresses the objects which are preposed his learning and his character Besides example2 highlights the comparative relation between the two objects his learning and his character which to a certain extent reflects the writer s special feeling The Chinese translation of example2 not only keeps the original word order but also conveys the writer s strong feeling to his learning and his character The special word order reflects the writer s intention so that the translator should be familiar with the semantic difference of the word order and then convey the intended meaning of the original and improve the quality of the translation 2 2 Causes of Differences in Word Order In general English language emphases on hypotaxis while Chinese language emphases on parataxis To some extent there are some differences in word order between English and Chinese Chinese sentence has a relatively fixed word order because it does not have inflection and mainly depends on semantic collocations However English has such rich vocabulary and grammatical devices that its word order is relatively flexible Furthermore there are great differences in the sequence of time the sequence of logic and the modifier in terms of the sequence of time Chinese narrative logic always narrates the actions and events according to the time they happen while English can narrate the things either first happened or next without time limit in terms of logic order Chinese logic relationship usually comes from cause to result from analysis to conclusion from presupposition to supposition and from condition to result while English word order is more flexible and is often contrary to Chinese In terms of the modifier Chinese always put the modifier before the nouns and verbs except for highlighting something important English is no exception It is well known that the work of a language is close to that of the thought In other words language is the form while the thought is the content Actually word order is the reflection of people s thinking modes As a result differences in word order between English and Chinese are influenced by the thinking modes of the two nations Easterners emphasis on synthesis conclusion and hint a circle of thinking mode while westerners emphasis on logic and analysis a one way thinking mode Easterners like to say some things indirectly while westerners like to say some things directly As a result Chinese people always talk about the facts and then express their opinions On the contrary English people put forward the argument and then analyze the details and background In view of the differences between English and Chinese from the perspectives of word order and thinking modes the paper will analyze the English Chinese translation in Pride and Prejudice and its effects from three aspects time logic and modifier The Arrangement of Word Order in English Chinese Translation and Its Effects Illustrated by the Case of Pride and Prejudice In order to achieve certain effects like arousing the readers same feelings and exactly conveying the author s intention translators should follow the principle of translation the translation should be faithful to the original and be clear and coherent The differences of word order between English and Chinese are manifested as following the former is relatively flexible while the latter is relatively fixed When the writing habit of the translated text can not reach a consensus to that of the original the translator should rearrange the word order according to the readers thinking habits Therefore the translator should make some proper change in word order to achieve equivalence to the original and convey the original meaning Here this paper will deal with the word order in English Chinese translation from three aspects time logic and modifier 3 1 The Sequence of Time In the time sequence Chinese always accords with the natural order while English always is not limited to the time order except for coordinate components Chinese always describe what happens first then following what happens next Chinese word order corresponds well to time order which will lead to the orderly arrangement of phrases Indeed sometimes English sentences will be made according to the sequence of time of acts and events in natural order especially in informal English speaking communication Under this kind of circumstance during the process of English and Chinese translation the translator always take the syntactic linearity to translate the sentences step by step Ex3 He then handed her in Maria followed and the door was on the point of being closed when he suddenly reminded them with some consternation that they had hitherto forgotten to leave any message for the ladies of Rosings Jane Austen 2007 252 natural word order 然后他扶她上车 玛丽亚跟着走上去 正当车门快要关上的时候 他 突然慌慌张张地提醒她们说 她们还忘了给罗新斯的太太小姐留言告 别呢 王科一 1980 245 natural word order Obviously the translator follows the natural word order and uses the same sequence of time as the writer There are 16 kinds of tenses and many conjunctions relative pronouns and prepositions which can indicate the time of the acts and events in English However there are not so many tenses in Chinese Therefore English and Chinese may express the sequence of time in different ways English Chinese translation should adjust the word order without the expense of rhetorical effects Ex4 Elizabeth was sitting by herself the next morning and writing to Jane while Mrs Collins and Maria were gone on business into the village when she was startled by a ring at the door the certain signal of a visitor Jane Austen 2007 207 First the translator can divide the sentence into four parts Elizabeth was sitting by herself and writing to Jane The next morning While Mrs Collins and Maria were gone on business into the village When she was startled by a ring at the door the certain signal of a visitor According to Chinese thinking habits the translator makes some proper change in the sequence of time like Therefore Zhang Ling 张玲 and Zhang Yang 张扬 translate the sentence into 第二天早晨 柯林斯太太和玛丽亚有事到村子里 去了 伊丽莎白独自一人坐在那儿给简写信 忽然门铃响了起来 使她猛然一 惊 这说明有客人来访 1995 164 From above all when people translate English into Chinese they should make some proper changes in the sequence of time according to the readers thinking habits and convey the author s intended meaning 3 2 The Sequence of Logic Chinese always take the order of cause first and result next to express the relationship between cause and result while English can reverse the position and often place the causes after the results Besides people can place the cause phrases and clauses before if they want to emphasize on them vice versa Ex5 She was roused from her seat and her reflections by someone s approach and before she could strike into another path she was over taken by Wickham Jane Austen 2007 375 这时已经有人走近前来 打断了她的沉思 使她从座位上站起来 她刚要从另一条小径走过去 只见韦翰却赶了上来 王科一 1980 361 The writer first gives the result she was roused from the seat and then explains the cause her reflection by someone s approach While the translator first tells readers the cause 这时已经有人走近前来 打断了她的沉思 and then describes the result 她从座位上站起来 After rearranging the word order the translation is easily accepted by Chinese readers English logic order is generally to come straight to the point in judgments and comments People always give their opinions first and then analyze the details and place the important information at the beginning in English However Chinese arrange the information according to the natural logic order Chinese people always describe the events and then make a conclusion and place the important information at last During the processing of translation people should be sure to pay more attention Ex6 Fatigued as she had been by the morning s walk they had no sooner dined than she set off again in quest of her former acquaintance and the evening was spent in the satisfaction of an intercourse renewed after many years discontinuance Jane Austen 2007 297 上午那趟徒步旅行已经弄得她精疲力竭 可是她刚一吃完饭 就出去 寻访她的故交 和阔别多年的老友重逢叙旧 这天晚上过得非常满意 张玲 张扬 1995 236 Jane Austen first gives Mrs Gardiner s feeling fatigued and then tells the readers the reason she had been by the morning s walk While the translators first describe the events 上午那趟徒步旅行 and then talk about the feeling 弄得她精疲 力竭 according to the readers thinking habits in Chinese 3 3 The Modifier Modifier grammatically refers to a word such as an adjective or adverb which describes another word or group of words or restricts its their meaning in some way Oxford advanced English Chinese Dictionary 2004 1117 People always put the modifiers before or after the nouns and verbs to highlight and lay stress on the character of the nouns and verbs The translator may adjust the word order in order that the translation is equivalent to the original text and reach the equivalent rhetorical effects The effect of the original modifier in the sentence may not be equally conveyed by following the original word order in the translation To achieve the equivalent rhetorical effects like emphasis Chinese translator may adjust the word order by the split translation This part focuses on the rearrangement of adverbial modifier and adjective modifier Ex7 I am confident that she would have performed delightfully Jane Austen 2007 202 我相信她演奏起来 一定动听 王科一 1980 197 The writer puts the verb performed and the adverbial modifier delightfully together while the translator divides them and puts the adverbial modifier 一定动听 alone They both highlight the effects of the verb performed Ex8 The Lucases are very artful people indeed sister Jane Austen 2007 163 Chinese translation 真的 弟妹 卢卡斯这一家子可鬼呢 张玲 张扬 1995 131 The writer follows the collocation of the adjective modifier and the noun so that she puts the adjective very artful before the noun people While the translators put the adjective modifier 可鬼呢 after the noun 卢卡斯这一家子 The translation highlights the Lucases artful tactics The above discussed aspects like the sequence of time the sequence of logic and the modifier in translation is to equally convey the original text and represent the rhetorical effects Chinese translator may adjust the word order as required The purpose of the discussion here is hoped to make the translation easily accepted by Chinese readers and help C