定语从句地翻译方法

1、On the Translation of Attributive Clausesfrom English into Chinese1. In troduct ionAttributive clause, a very complicated part of a senten ce, ofte n appears in both written and spoken English and causes the difficulty of English learners to understand it, or to put it into Chinese. This is because

2、it is quite different from Chinese in placement, structure and function and hard to be identified. Following is my preliminary study of English attributive clauses and handing of them in terms of tran slatio n practice.2. Types of En glish attributive clausesThe attributive clause in En glish gen er

3、ally varies in restrictive and non-restrictive on es. The former is usually led by a relative pronoun or relative adverb and closely attached to the an tecede nt. It is not separated from the head by a break in inton ati on, or by a comma in writing. It forms an integral part of the noun phrase, wit

4、hout which the head cannot be identified as the specific object. The latter does not restrict the refere ntial meaning of the an tecede nt,a nd is separatedby a comma from the mai n clause. If it is taken away, the antecedent still refers to the same person or thing章振 邦，1995: 210 ）. See the followin

5、g examples:1）There were few studentsthat escaped without serious injuries.（逃出来的学生无不受重伤者。）2）There were few studentswho escaped without serious injuries（没有几个学生，他们都逃出来了，无重伤者。）As shown in the above examples, the that-clause is restrictive while the who-clause is non-restrictive. They mean differently th

6、ough the words used are the same except the relative pronouns. More examples:3) Shaosha n,where (=i n which) Chairma n Mao was born, is visited bythousa nds of people everyday.4) The village rich in national flavor and beautiful in environment has become aresortmost people like to visit.Apart form t

7、hose in troduced by relative pronouns, an attributive clause can also be headed by a relative adverb (as in example 3), or can have no relative to link with its an tecede nt (as in example 4).3. Differe nces betwee n En glish attributive clauses and Chin ese attributes3.1 Differe nt in placeme ntAtt

8、ributive clauses, or rather attributes in Chin ese grammar, are com mon in En glish and Chin ese but differe nt in placeme nts. Chin ese attributes are gen erally preposed, i.e. placed before the center words being modified; English attributive clauses are postposed: placed after the center words th

9、at are modified. See the followi ng:1) 他只是一个年方十二的男孩。( He is a boy whose age is only at twelve.)2) 我迟到的理由羞于启齿。(The reasonwhy I was late for class is ashamed to mention.)3) The girl who was woun ded in the waris his sister.(那位在战场上受伤的女孩是他的妹妹。)4) Water polluti on is a press ing problem(that) we must dea

10、d with.(水污染是我们必须处理的紧迫问题。)An an alysis en ables us to see the Chin ese attributes are always positi oned before the center word or antecedents ( nouns or pronouns ) such a男孩” “理由”，“女孩” and “问题”， while the English attributive clauses go right after the antecedents like”I”I ai |”丄|boy , reason girl and

11、 problem respectively.3.2 Differe nt in structureEnglish and Chinese belong to different Ianguage systems; they have different histories of Ian guage and established differe nt characteristics. En glish is divided into restrictive attributive clause and non-restrictive attributive clause. But in Chi

12、nese there is no such classification of it, or no such notion of attributive clause”.English attributive clauses are of hypotaxis and joined the main clauses by or without relatives. However, Chinese as a Ianguage of parataxis, few connectives are used between senten ces and sentence members. Yet, s

13、ome of its structures or phrases can be treated as attributive clauses when turned into English （严迈，2005: 101-120）. The followi ng examples can make a point.1）He is a good physicia nwho cares himself.（能给自己治病的是好医生。）2）On that day she looked the happies（that） I 'e ever seen her（那一天她显得特别的高兴，我从未见她这么高

14、兴过。）3） We will put off the outi ng un til n ext week, whe n we won'be so busy（我们把郊游推迟到下星期，那时 我们就不会这样忙了。）According to Zhang Daozhen （道真，能给自己治病的 ” is a noun phrase served as the subject of a Chin ese simple senten ce; the corresp on dir我从未 见她这么高兴过 ” “我们就不会这样忙了” is a subject-predicate-object struct

15、ure, functioning as the predicate of a Chinese simple senten ce. This an alysis of the structural differe nee, accord in gly, draws our due attention to whatever can play the role of an attributive clause when translating Chin ese into En glish. More examples:4) 确定是个好地方，我刚去过。(Taiwa n is in deed a be

16、autiful placewhere I have just bee n.)5) 我有许多朋友，其中有些是画家。(I have many friends,some of whom are painters.)6) 那个工厂已生产出了到处都买不到的 那种产品。(The factory has produced the product that is not yet available in any market at the present time)3.3 Differe nt in fun ctio nThe attributive in Chinese is to modify or qu

17、alify nouns and pronouns, functioning as an adjective, and so is the attributive in English. Yet, there is an exception for English attributive clauses that can function as adverbials, and modify the part or the whole of a sentence as well.Let'firstly come to the cases that an attributive clause

18、 modifies the part or the whole of a sentence and see how the Chin ese equivale nts come up with us:1) Whe n deeply absorbed in work,which he ofte n was,he would forget all about eat ing and sleep ing.Obviously, which-clause in the sentence is inten ded to modify the manner ofone's work ingdeepl

19、y absorbed in work',he nee the versi on:他常常聚精会神做工作，这时他就会废寝忘食。2) They tur ned a deaf ear to our dema ndsyhich en raged all of us.Which-clause in this case is desig ned to modify the matter the preced ingwhole sentenc They turned a deaf ear to our demand indicates, hence theChin ese equivale nt:他对

20、我们的要求置之不理，这 使我们大家都很气愤Now, let'have a close study of the followi ng examples and see whether we can threat the attributive clauses as the ordinary ones in terms of their functioning as adjectives, and whether we can tran slate them as usual in to smooth Chin ese. If not, what do they actually fun

21、 cti on as, and how should we comprehe nd and represe nt them in Chin ese?3) The ambassador was giving a dinner for a few peoplwhom he wishedespecially to talk to or to hear from.4) There was someth ing origi nal, i ndepe ndent, and heroic about the piahatpleased all of them.5) My assista nt,who had

22、 carefully read through the in struct ion before doing hisexperime nt,could not obtai n satisfactory results, because he followed them mecha ni cally.6) So my cha nces of gett ing to revoluti onary Chi na are pretty slim, although Ihave not give n up my efforts to a passportwhich will en able me to

23、visit the coun tries of socialism.7) Men became desperate for workwhich will help them to keep alive theirfamilies.培基，1980:136-137).3) 大使只宴请了几个人，因为他特别想和这些人谈谈，听听他们的意见。4) 这个方案富于创造性，独出心裁，很有魄力，所以他们都有很喜欢。5) 虽然我的助手在做实验之前已从头到尾仔细阅读过说明书，但由于他的 死搬硬套，所以不能得到满意的结果。6）因此，我到革命的中国来的希望相当小了，虽然我并没有放弃努力来争 取一护照，以便访问社会主义国家

24、。7） 人们极其迫切地要求工作，不管什么工作，只要它能维持一家人的生活 就行。4. Han dli ng the differe nces and choos ing the methods for tran slati onBasically, handling differences is a matter of accurate comprehension and adequaterepresentation. The methods for translation must chose in the light of the Chin ese habitual practice in

25、wordi ng, which is the prin ciple for a tran slator to go by. Therefore, prepositi on, postpositi on and comb in ati on of both should not be regarded as set rules in translating English attributive clauses. What really matters is to identify them when no relatives to lead them, to know the true sen

26、se of the relatives or connectives at the heads of them, to figure out their functions based on their structures.4.1 Tran slat ing accord ing to the structuresThere are often the cases that the antecedent is separated form its modifier as in:1）All is n ot gold that glitters.As it is shown, the place

27、ment of that-clause is unusual, split by is not gold” from its antecedent All ”.An analysis enables as to see the clause functions as a noun and should be rendered into the subject of a Chinese sentence, placed at its head, quite differe nt from the no rmal handing of a restrictive attributive claus

28、e:闪光的未必都是金子。Also some other casesfind it hard to identify the attributive clause because of lacking the relative and being rarely seen. But we can make sense of it after all so long as we know the con text where it is used: writte n at the beg inning of a formal letter whe n you do not know the n am

29、e of the pers on you want to com muni cative with. For example:2) To whom it may concern.敬启者(致收件/致该信的收阅者)。Ano ther example tells us several attributive clauses used in successi on formi ng a chain of modifiers, which is special in structure. It needs us to make known the relati on ship betwee n each

30、 n eighbours so as to grasp the in formatio n conv eyed by the whole and represent the whole in the Chinese way to say things.3) The cook tur ned pale, and asked the housemaid to shut the door, who askedBrittles, who asked the tinker, who pretended not to hear厨子面色苍白，使唤女佣把门关上；女佣叫布立特尔关去；布立特尔叫 补锅匠去；补锅匠

31、装着没听见。Viewed form the Chinese version, the English attributive clauses are changed into coordinate clauses, losing their original function. Then the following two examples, whose points lie in the cognition of the structures and the application of the relatives, can be regarded as special casesLet &

32、#39;deal with them one by one for the sake of tran slati on.4) She was not uncon sciousas could be judged from her eyes他没有失去知觉，这从他的眼睛可以看出。5) Hardly a man came to the exhibition but was(= who was not ) deeplyimpressed by the orig in ality of his works.参观展览会的人简直没有一个不深深地感觉到他作品的新颖风格。as” that is rarely u

33、sed as a relative pronoun, and its function to make further suppleme ntary expla nati on of the whole sentence that precedes it.modifier a restrictive attributive clause led by but” which is seldom employed as a relative pronoun in n egative sen se.4.2 Tran slat ing accord ing to the functionsThe at

34、tributive clause itself plays the role of an adjective, but in the practical Ianguage activities, it sometimes plays the role of an adverb, functioning as an adverbial. Sometimes it serves as a supplementary explanation, equival to the function of a noun or nominal phrase. Look at the follow ing and

35、 see what each clause really functions as by comparing the corresponding English and Chinese. Foe more examples, please see those un der 3.3.1) The computer, which seems to pay the role of a human brain (functioning asan adverbial of cause), is ofte n called an electric brain.(由于计算机起着类似人脑的作用，所以常常被称作

36、电脑。)2) She took Chinese medicine which relieved her symptom(functioning as anadverbial of result).(她服了中药，结果缓解了症状。)3) Glass,which breaks at a blow (functioning as an adverbial of concession), iscapable of withsta nding great pressure.(尽管玻璃一打就碎，仍然 能承受很大压力。)4) An electrical curre nt beg ins to flow thr

37、ough coil, which is conn ected across acharged condense(fun cti oning as an adverbial of time).(当线圈同充电的电容器相连接时候，电流开始流经线圈。)As to the other kind of the function an attributive clause may have can be illustrated as follows:5) Those days,when I was a little boy, the city had no industry to speak of.At first sight, we can find in this example those days' and when-clause refer to the same period of time, that is to say, the non-restrictive attributive clause functions the same as the nominal phrase.