英语长难句翻译

1、摘 要英语长句指词语多、结构复杂、形体较长的简单句或分句多、层次结构关系复杂的复杂句。在英译汉的翻译中，长句的翻译历来是重点或难点之一。主要体现在英语长句中主要成分往往带有很多修饰语，错综复杂、细腻入微，这就需要翻译者具备一定的语言功力和翻译技巧。此外，英汉两种语言存在着较大的区别：英语是拼音文字，而汉语属于象形文字，这就要求翻译者在英译汉过程中应做出必要的调整以符合汉语表达习惯。如：调整语序、转变句子结构、转换词性、词义等。因此，本文将从长句的定义、主要特点、分析方法和翻译技巧等方面对英语长句的汉译问题做一个全面的总结和论述，力图克服学生或翻译实践者对英译汉中长句翻译的畏难心理并解决他们在翻

2、译实践中遇到的具体问题。关键词: 英语长句；修饰语；分析；技巧和方法AbstractThe long English sentence refers to the wordy, lengthy, complicated simple sentences or compound sentences. So in the translation from English to Chinese, the translation of lengthy sentences has always been one of the focal points or the difficult points fo

3、r translators. It mainly embodies on the point that there are always many involved and delicate modifiers in the essential components of a long English sentence, which challenges the translators linguistic quality and translating skills. Moreover, there are great differences between English and Chin

4、ese: English belongs to the language of Pinyin, while Chinese belongs to the language of glyph, which requires the translator to make some necessary adjustments in order to accord with the norms of Chinese expression, such as adjusting the sentence order, changing sentence structure, converting the

5、part of speech and the meaning of the words and so on. So this thesis dwells on analyzing and summarizing the definition, features, means of analysis and translation techniques of the lengthy English sentences, trying to help the students and translators conquer the fear of difficulty and solve the

6、concrete problems in their translation practice. Key words: long English sentence; modifiers; analysis; skills and methodsPrefaceThis thesis is a bachelors thesis, which is about the translation of the lengthy English sentences into Chinese. The present thesis consists of three parts. Part one mainl

7、y discusses the comprehension of long English sentences, especially the position of modifiers. Part two attempts to compare Chinese with English and analyze their respective syntax so as to highlight the difficulties in transferring the English sentences into Chinese. This comparison lays a good sta

8、rting ground for the discussion that mainly deals with necessity of adaptation and general practice of adaptation. Part three, the bulk of the thesis, discusses the four kinds of methods in English-Chinese translation.In the translation from English to Chinese, the translation of the lengthy sentenc

9、es has always been one of the focal points or the difficult points for translators, so this thesis aims to analyze and summarize the definition, features, means of analysis and translation techniques of the lengthy English sentences, trying to help the students and translators conquer the fear of di

10、fficulty and solve the concrete problems in their general practices of English-Chinese translation.There are a great number of people to whom this thesis owes a great deal. First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jin Yinghao, my academic supervisor. Meanwhile, I express my many t

11、hanks to the teachers who have instructed me during my university study. Luckily, I have had the opportunity to study under their supervision. ContentsChapter 1 Introduction1Chapter 2 Comprehension of long English sentences22.1 Definition of long English sentences22.2 Features of long English senten

12、ces22.3 The position of modifiers3Chapter 3 Linguistic transfer of long English sentences53.1 The differences between English and Chinese53.2 Necessity of adjustments83.3 General practices of adjustments9Chapter 4 Methods of English-Chinese translation114.1 Analysis of long English sentences114.2 Sk

13、ills and methods of English-Chinese translation12Conclusion17References18Acknowledgements19Chapter 1 IntroductionDue to the intrinsic differences between English and Chinese, the long English sentence more often than not poses a problem for English-Chinese translation. How to translate long English

14、sentences has become a classic topic in translation studies. In the light of this problem, this thesis will discuss the translation of long English sentences, which I hope can be helpful to the translators. The present thesis consists of three parts. Part one mainly discusses the comprehension of lo

15、ng English sentences, especially the position of modifiers. Part two attempts to compare Chinese with English and analyze their respective syntax so as to highlight the difficulties in transferring the English sentences into Chinese. This comparison lays a good starting ground for the discussion tha

16、t mainly deals with necessity of adaptation and general practice of adaptation. Part three, the bulk of the thesis, discusses the four kinds of methods in English-Chinese translation. Chapter 2 Comprehension of long English sentences2.1 Definition of long English sentencesA typical long English sent

17、ence has a finite verb as the core, surrounded by relatives and conjunctions that organize phrases and clauses at different levels. More often than not, its main clause contains some clauses, which can be further embedded. The following example suffices to show the features of long English sentences

18、 mentioned above: Example: They (the poor) are the first to experience technological progress as a curse which destroys the old muscle power jobs that previous generation uses as a means to fight their way out of poverty.They are the first. (main clause)A. to experiencecurse (infinitive clause modif

19、ying first)B. which destroys jobs (relative clause modifying progress)C .that previous generations jobs (relative clause modifying means)D. to fight. (infinitive clause modifying means) The example shows that the embedded clauses greatly lengthen the sentence. A long sentence can be seen as a clause

20、 enhanced, enlarged or expanded. Although modern English demonstrates a tendency of the shortening of sentence length, such complex sentences with embedded clauses are still a common thing. On the contrary, a long sentence with embedded clauses is nowhere to be found in Chinese.2.2 Features of long

21、English sentences Firstly, there are more phrases. In the long sentences there are prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, infinitive phrases, gerund phrase or participial phrase: sometimes some word in the phrase is decorated by other phrases, thus forms a multicolor structure in which a phrase c

22、ontains other phrases. Secondly, there are more coordinate ingredients. Adding coordinate subject, predicate, object, attribute, and adverbial modifiers, these compound ingredients (such as: the subject, the object) are sometimes narrated by the decorating words and expressions or the subordinate cl

23、auses, which lengthen the sentence and make it more difficult. Thirdly, there are more additive ingredients. There are parenthetical remarks, appositive remarks or the independent components, superadded other ingredients, thus the punctuation marks, especially the comma “,” increases, it is common t

24、hat there are five or more commas in a sentence. Fourthly, there are more compound sentences. It is an effective way to expand a sentence by increasing compound sentences. Fifthly, there are more subordinate clauses. It is an important method to expand a sentence by increasing subordinate clauses. S

25、ometimes we expand some certain subordinate clauses to compose a long sentence; Sometimes even the compound sentence and the host subordinate clause interlock in the same place or a subordinate clause includes another subordinate clause, thus composing a multicolor subordinate clause.2.3 The positio

26、n of modifiersThere are always many modifiers in the essential component of a long English sentence, for example, the noun that serves as a subject or an object often has one or some adjectives, prepositional phrases, participial phases as well as the attributive clauses, which modify and limit this

27、 noun. Another example is a verb that serves as a predicate often has one or several adverbs, participial phases, prepositional phrases as well as adverbial subordinate clauses, which decorate this verb. When translating a lengthy sentence with a complex structure, we have to differentiate the essen

28、tial component and the modifier first, and we can mark the essential components and the modifiers in the original English sentence in order to make the structure of the sentence clearer at a glance, and reorganizes the main information of this sentence in the brains. Obviously, modifier is a key poi

29、nt in the process of translation; next we discuss the position of modifiers.Word order in English is more flexible than in Chinese. In English, as long as the article concord is realized, the word order becomes relatively flexible. However, since the Chinese language does not require this sort of gr

30、ammatical concord, the word order tends to be more fixed. The position of modifiers reflects the flexibility of word order in both languages. In English, modifiers can be put before or after the headword and there are no limits to the length or the number of modifiers one headword can be loaded with

31、. In Chinese, attributive modifiers are mostly put before rather than after the headword and one sentence can only be loaded with a certain number of modifiers. English is principally right-branching as opposed to Chinese, which is principally left-branching. English sentences are marked by their cl

32、osed beginnings and open endings. On the contrary, the beginnings of Chinese sentences are open to syntactic elements while their endings are closed. The convention of open beginning in Chinese encourages the occurrence of pre-modification. For example, if the basic sentence is“那个人是王芳”, and it can b

33、e expanded in the direction from right to left in this way:和小明说话的那个人是王芳。站在那边和小明说话的那个人是王芳。你看到的站在那边和小明说话的那个人是王芳。今天你看到的站在那边和小明说话的那个人是王芳。On the contrary, English sentences usually branch at the end of its main clause. Open ending encourages the positioning of modifiers after the modified and thus the se

34、ntence expansion model shows a right-branching tendency. Chapter 3 Linguistic transfer of long English sentences3.1 The differences between English and ChineseAccording to the language family, English belongs to the language of Pinyin, while Chinese belongs to the language of glyph. Next, we talk ab

35、out the differences between English and Chinese. Firstly, English emphasizes structure, while Chinese stresses semantics. In the translation work from English to Chinese, we can see that long English sentence is always complex, because through the arrangement of the structure we can express extensiv

36、e meaning in a sentence. First we have to see several examples: (1) It applies equally to traditional historians who view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources, and to social science historians, who equate their activity with specific techniques. This sentence, which has as

37、many as thirty words, is a typical complex sentence. Saying from the content, it mainly provides the information from two aspects: one is “It applies to. historians”, the other is the concrete details of historians; Saying from the structure, it is a principal clause with two subordinate clauses gui

38、ded by whom. Although the structure is complex and the information content is large, this speech in English is certainly not disorganized, because the sentence structure is linked together, and the semantics is clear: the attribute clause guided by who is put behind the noun to modify this noun, and

39、 this expression form is commonly used in English, that is the semantics of the two subordinate clauses is both relatively independent and is also united together as one body with the principal clause. If this sentence is altered to a sentence like:(2) It applies equally to traditional historians an

40、d to social science historians. Traditional historians (or the former) view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources. Social science historians (or the latter) equate their activity with specific techniques.These two sentences express a completely same meaning, but the way of e

41、xpression seems a little plain and wordy, which explains a fact that English emphasizes sentence structure very much, and a proper arrangement of the sentence structure may achieve a better expression effect. According to the norms of Chinese expression, the sentence is generally not suitable to be

42、too long, and if the modifiers are excessively more or longer, it may be like a presumptuous guest usurps the hosts hole and make the semantics a little ambiguous. Lets have a look at the metaphase of this sentence: 它同样适用于将历史仅仅看作是对历史材料来源的内部的和外部的批评的传统历史学家,和把历史研究活动等同于具体研究方法的社会科学历史学家。 Such translation

43、is very faithful, but actually the expression does not accord with the norms of Chinese, when translating the translator makes great effort to translate and the reader also needs great effort to read. So we make an adjustment to this sentence like: 它同样适用于传统历史学家和社会科学历史学家,传统历史学家(或前者)将历史仅仅看作是对历史材料来源的内部

44、的和外部的批评,社会科学历史学家(或后者)把历史研究活动等同于具体的研究方法。 Obviously, after the adjustment, the translation gives us a much clearer and smoother feeling. It is very coincident that it is much closer with the structure of the rewritten English sentence, and this shows that Chinese does not need a complex structure in o

45、rder to enhance the expression level, we just have to make great efforts to make the meaning of the sentence clear and correct, thus we may have more freedoms in the way of expression. Secondly, English has more long sentences, while Chinese has more short ones. Because English emphasizes structure,

46、 Chinese stresses semantics, English sentences are always a little longer, while Chinese sentences are often short. This aspect has been displayed very clearly. When understanding this difference fully, we can get rid of the fetter of the original text naturally and strive for certain initiative, th

47、is is just like what QianZhongshu said “get the meaning, forget the words”.（得意忘言）Thirdly, English usually has more passive sentences, while Chinese has more active ones. Every person with just a little chariness can discover that people use passive structure frequently in English, but in Chinese peo

48、ple actually do not use the passive structure very much. Facing this contradiction, we certainly cannot translate each passive structure into Chinese mechanically; we must carry on suitable processing according to the special details. Lets see another example:(3) And it is imagined by many that the

49、operations of the common mind can by no means be compared with these processes, and that they have to be required by a sort of special training. This sentence has three passive structures: is imagined., be compared, be required Behind the first passive structure is the sender of the action, we can e

50、asily turn such a passive structure into an active one by putting the sender of the action ahead. “It is imagined by many that = many imagine that” Therefore, it is much easier for us to translate as, “许多人认为” This is the first situation to change a passive sentence into an active one. The second sit

51、uation is: we do not have to make any modification of Chinese and we can complete such a conversion, the second passive structure of this sentence belongs to this kind of situation, “be compared with” can be translated directly as “与相比较”, because “与被比较” in Chinese is obviously wrong. The third kind

52、of situation needs to make big adjustments on the whole sentence. The third passive structure in the sentence has the preposition “by” as the guidance, but it is obviously invalid if we simply exchange the position of the subject and the object, this kind of situation is usually created by the use o

53、f words, for example, “What does the pronoun they refer to?” “What does the word required in the sentence mean?” To solve these problems we need a further understanding of the differences in the use of words between English and Chinese.Fourthly, English uses pronouns frequently, while Chinese has a

54、frequent use of nouns. English often uses the pronouns, although Chinese also uses the pronoun, the frequency of use is obviously inferior to English. In order to clarify the accurate meaning of the sentence, we must know what the pronoun really refers to? Because the ignorance of the subject can al

55、so have an effect on the determination of the verb and the misunderstanding of the pronoun may even influence the whole version. These pronouns play an important role, so when translating the sentence into Chinese the pronouns must be converted into nouns. When encountering this kind of situation we

56、 have to seek clues in the article, and then we can express the sentence accurately. Now lets see the third example mentioned above again.And it is imagined by many that the operations of the common mind can by no means be compared with these processes, and that they have to be required by a sort of

57、 special training. 许多人认为：普通人的思维活动根本无法和科学家的思维过程相比较,他们并认为这些(科学家的)思维过程必须经过某种专门训练才能掌握。 Pay attention to the pronoun “they” which is translated as “思维过程” and “be required” is translated as “掌握”, the passive structure disappeared, and the acceptation also changes a lot, then we can easily bethink of anoth

58、er difference of the expression of English and Chinese.Fifthly, English has more expanding meaning, while Chinese has more inferential meaning. The word “require” appears frequently in English sentences. We have a feeling that we have known this word, but we actually do not know its accurate meaning

59、. The reason for this may be complex, but we can get some inspirations from two English proverbs: the first one is “You know a word by the company it keeps” (要知道一个词的意思就要看它周围是什么词); another one is “Words do not have meaning, but people have meaning for them”(词本无义,义随人生)。In other words, a word may have a completely new meaning in a specific situation. Seeing from the origina