Contrastive_Studies_of_Chinese___and_English

1、Contrastive Studies of Chinese and English,I. Hypotactic vs Paratactic II. Complex vs Simplex III. End-weight vs Top-heavy IV. Subject-prominent vs Topic-prominent V. Static vs Dynamic VI. Impersonal vs Personal (Inanimate vs Animate,Hypotactic vs Paratactic形合与意合,Hypotaxis: The dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses arranged with connectives; Parataxis: The arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them; e.g. Related terms

2、: Tree structure/bamboo structure,Hypotactic English 1. frequent use of relative words, conjunction 关系词和连接词 Who, whom, whose, that, which, what, when, where, why, how And, or, but, yet, so, however, as well as, (n)either(n)or, when, while, as, since, until, sothat, unless,Examples: 1) That is our policy and that is our declaration. W. Churchill 这就是我们的国策。这就是我们的宣言。 2)发展体育运动，增强人民体质。 Promote physical culture, and build up Peoples health,3 ) When I try to understand what it is that prevents so many A

3、mericans from being as happy as one might expect, it seems to me that there are two causes, of which one goes much deeper than the other. 为什么如此众多的美国人不能如想象中那样幸福呢？我认为原因有二，而两者之间又有深浅之分,2. frequent use of preposition It is estimated that there are about 286 preposition in English, of which nine are most frequently used: with, to, from, at, in, of, by, for and on The many colors of a rainbow range from red on the outside to violet on the inside. 彩虹有多种颜色，外圈红，内圈紫。 He had a disconcerting habit of express

4、ing contradictory ideas in rapid succession. 他有一种令人难堪的习惯：一会儿一个看法，自相矛盾，变化无常,Paratactic Chinese Covert coherence 隐性连贯 1)word order （因为）她不老实，我不能信任她。 Because she is not honest, I cant trust her,打肿脸充胖子，吃亏是自己。 If you get beyond your depth, you will suffer. 说是说了，没有结果 Ive made proposals, but they proved futile,2)repition, parallelism, contrast, antithesis 种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆 As you sow, so will you reap 吃苦在前，享乐在后 Be the first to bear hardships and the last to enjoy comforts,3)four-character word 物极必反 Once a certa

5、in limit is reached, a change in the opposite direction is inevitable. 欲盖弥彰 The more one tries to hide, the more one is exposed. 玩火自焚 Whoever plays with fire will perish by fire,II. Complex vs Simplex 复杂与简单,As English is hypotactic, more often than not, syntactic devices are employed in the formation of sentences. In normal writings people use much more complex sentences than simple ones. The English complex sentences are often like chains with clauses linking clauses. On the other hand, the Chi

6、nese sentences or clauses tend to be short and simple in structure. They are flowing and simplex, with one clause following the other rather in a line. 英译汉时要破句重组、化繁为简,Illustrative examples: 1. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colours. 门口放着至少有十二把五颜六色，大小不一的雨伞。 门口放着一堆雨伞，少说也有十二把，五颜六色，大小不一,2. The moon is so far from the earth that even if huge trees were growing on the mountains and elephants were walking about, we could not see them through the most powerful telescopes w

7、hich have yet been invented. 月球离地球非常遥远，即使那边山上长着大树，有大象在移动，我们用当今发明的最高倍率的望远镜，也不能看见它们,3. As we lived near the road, we often had the traveler or stranger visit us to taste our gooseberry wine, for which we had great reputation, and I confess, with the veracity of an historian, that I never knew one of them to find fault with it. 我们就住在路边，过路人或外乡人常到我们这里，尝尝我们家酿的醋栗酒。这种酒很有名气。我敢说，尝过的人，从没有挑剔过。我这话像历史学家的话一样靠得住,III. End-weight vs Top-heavy,In an English sentence, the shorter elements usually go before longer o

8、nes in arrangement order, thus the weight of the sentence is put at the end, and the whole sentence looks like a pyramid. The arrangement of a Chinese sentence seems quite the opposite, where the important elements are often said at the beginning of a sentence. So it looks like an inverted pyramid or triangle,Illustrative examples: 1. Gone are the days when we Chinese people depended on foreign steel. 中国人民靠洋钢的日子已一去不复返了。 2. Before them lay miles of miles of beautiful plain with lots of wild anima

9、ls among the grass. 美丽的草原，茵茵的绿草，野生动物成群结队，绵延数英里，展现在眼前,3. 普通人在办公处和家庭中使用电子计算机的时代已经到来。 The time has come when ordinary people can use electronic computers both in the office and at home. 4. 学科技、学英语，对社会主义现代化建设很重要。 It is important to study English as well as science and technology for our socialist modernization drive,IV. Subject-prominent vs Topic-prominent 主语显著与主题显著,In an English sentence, prominence is usually given to the subject. Five basic sentence patterns in English: SV SVC SVO SVO1O2 SVOC all

10、 with SV as its essentials. English sentences are built on the subject-predict-pivot, with the subject and predicate in agreement. On the other hand, Chinese sentences often lay emphasis on the thought or notion, so it is based on the thought pivot,Illustrative examples: 1. A dialect is known by every linguist in this room. 有一种方言这间屋子里的每个语言学家都懂得。 2. You dont grow the grain you eat and you dont make the clothes you wear. 你吃的粮食不是你自己种的，你穿的衣服也不是你自己做的,3. 1978年改革开放开始了。 The year 1978 saw the beginnings

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