Lecture 2 English vs. Chinese.ppt

1、Lecture 2 English vs. Chinese,Introduction,a reflection of cultural differences English and Chinese belong to two distinct language families: English the Indo-European family Chinese the Sino-Tibetan family Far more differences than similarities: # Similarities: synthetic-analytic language (English)

2、 analytic language (Chinese) # Differences: reflected at three levels (lexical, syntactic, textual),Differences at the Word Level (1),Inflectional (English) vs. Non-inflectional (Chinese) English nouns / pronouns: gender, number, case, etc. English verbs: tense, aspect, voice, mood, etc. e.g. We hop

3、ed that you would come. We were hoping that you would come. e.g. It has been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do. A: 大家看到凡是起死回生的人或者幸免一死的人，他们对所做的任何事情，总是兴趣盎然。 B: 人们已经注意到大凡受到死亡威胁的人或是死里逃生的人对于他们做干的事情总是兴趣盎然。,Differences at the Wor

4、d Level (1),Translation of Plural English Nouns Plural concept English: inflection Chinese: words 1) Omitting the plural meaning 2) Supplying additional words (esp. numerals and unit words) e.g. He stretched his legs which were scattered with scars. 他伸出双腿，露出腿上的道道伤疤。 e.g. The lion is the king of anim

5、als. 狮子是百兽之王。 e.g. Newsmen went flying off to Mexico. 记者纷纷飞到墨西哥去了。,Differences at the Word Level (2),Heavy Use of Pronouns (English) Brevity e.g. The shopman offers you a third apple; but, before biting it, you examine it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not

6、 have it, as it must be sour. Nominalization Convert English passives into Chinese actives.,Difference at the Sentence Level (3),Passive (English) vs. Active (Chinese) The heavy reliance on impersonal subjects in English sentences contributes a lot to the frequent use of passives, while the predomin

7、ance of personal subjects in Chinese sentences entails the use of active voice. Static (English) vs. Dynamic (Chinese) English: 1) predominance of nouns over verbs 2) frequent use of adjectives and prepositions 3) non-finite verbs Chinese: preponderance of verbs e.g. He is a good eater and a good sl

8、eeper. e.g. A small plane from Kunming carried us over the mountains and sent us to Jinghong.,Differences at the Sentence Level (4),Substitutive (English) vs. Repetitive (Chinese) English usually avoids repetition while Chinese generally requires some form of repetition. e.g. He hated failure; he ha

9、d conquered it all his life, risen above it, and despised it in others. 他讨厌失败，他一生中曾战胜失败，超越失败，并且藐视别人的失败。 Frequent Use of Antithesis or else you must be going to a very bad teacher. 你一定不善于学习，要不然就是教你的人很不会教。 2. The real meaning of Christmas had been restored to us. 我们再次体会到了圣诞的真正内涵。 3. A wave of cigar sm

10、oke accompanied Ogilvie in. 奥格尔维进门时带进来一缕雪茄烟雾。 4. Bitterness fed on the man who had made the world laugh. 这位曾给全世界带来笑声的人自己却饱偿辛酸。,Extensive Exercises,5. 一打开开关，我们就可以看见一英里处正在发生的事情。 At the turn of a switch, we can see what are taking place a mile away. 6. 我们的民族是一个伟大的民族。 Ours is a great nation. 7. 他收集了大量的材

11、料，为他的论点提供论据。 He collected a large number of materials in support of his argument. 8. 鉴于海湾局势日趋严重，中国政府决定暂时停飞中东航班。 In consideration / light of the worsening Gulf situation, the Chinese government has decided to suspend its Middle-East flights temporarily / make a provisional cancellation of its Middle-

12、East flights.,Homework (1),Cloning is suddenly in the news, thanks to revolutionary techniques developed by genetic engineers and other new breeds of biologists. The newspapers are full of stories describing how scientists can produce a clone, or an identical copy, of an organism from just a single

13、cell. Biologists now have the ability to clone some plants and small animals. Can people be far behind? All of this seems frightening to many, not quite right to some, just plain startling to others. Perhaps the basic question is: how can cloning experiments contribute to future human welfare?,Homew

14、ork (2),The big question is, just how progressive has China become, especially in the villages? Obviously, development occurs on many different levels and phases. A powerful nation without Western ethics or socialist ethics would confront the rest of the world with difficult problems, especially in the nuclear age. It is very much in the future interest of the rest of t