英汉语序差异和在翻译中的调整—英语专业毕业设计.doc

本科生毕业论文（设计）册

学院 XXX学院
专业 英语教育
班级 XXX级1班
学生 XXX
指导教师 XXX

XXXX大学本科毕业论文（设计）任务书
编 号：
论文（设计）题目： 英汉语序差异和在翻译中的调整
学 院： XXX学院 专业： 英语教育 班级： XXX班
学生姓名：XXX 学号： XXX 指导教师：XXX 职称：讲师
1、 论文（设计）研究目标及主要任务
思维差异影响之下的英汉语语序差异，这一研究主要应用于翻译，为了达到信达雅，翻译中要对英汉语序进行适当的调整。

2、 论文（设计）的主要内容
该论文包括四部分内容，第一部分介绍主要术语和论文研究思路；第二部分研究中国人和西方人的思维方式的差异以及在着不同思维方式影响之下呈现出的不同的语序特点。第三部分是关于如何解决语序差异在翻译中造成的问题，即进行语序调整。第四部分对文章进行简单概括并且指出文章的不足。

3、 论文（设计）的基础条件及研究路线
从翻译中出现的语序问题出发，分析语序差异产生的原因，以及如何解决这一差异，主要研究路线是1为什么英汉语序有差异，具体差异是什么，如何解决差异。

4、 主要参考文献
戴浩一. 2009. 时间顺序和汉语的语序. 上海. 华东师范大学出版社.
戴炜栋. 2009. 新编英语语法教程. 上海. 上海外语教育出版社.
冯庆华. 2011. 英汉语言比较与翻译. 北京. 高等教育出版社.

5、 计划进度

阶段
起止日期
1
初定题目查阅资料
2012-12-2013-3
2
列出提纲
2013-3-2013-4
3
确定初稿
2013-4-2013-5
4
论文定稿
2013-5-08
5

指 导 教师： 年 月 日

教研室主任： 年 月 日

注：一式三份，学院（系）、指导教师、学生各一份

XX大学本科生毕业论文（设计）开题报告书
外国语学院 英语教育专业 2013届
学生
姓名
XX
论文（设计）题目
英汉语序差异和在翻译中的调整
指导
教师
XXX
专业
职称
讲师
所属教研室
商务英语研究
研究方向
翻译
课题论证：我们在描述一个事件或想法的时候，会考虑先说什么，后说什么，语序问题就由此而生。语序是词语在短语，句子和篇章中的安排顺序。英汉语的语序是有差异的，究其原因是由于语序和思维方式有关。语言和思维紧密联系，语言是思维的外在表现，思维影响着与语言。语序是语言重要的语法方式，思维方式是思维或社会文化的产物，因此可以说，语序反映思维方式，思维方式影响或决定语序。本文以语序和思维方式的关系为切入点，研究不同思维方式影响下的语序差异。中国人擅长整体思维，即从整体到部分，西方人倾向分析思维，即从部分到整体。思维方式的差异使语序在以下三方面表现不同。1.时间顺序，汉语遵循先发生的先说，后发生的后说的原则，英语则不严格，但一般是线性顺序，重要的结论放在前面，充当背景的时间放在后面。2.因果逻辑顺序，汉语从因到果，英语多是从果到因。3.修饰语的位置。从状语和定语两方面分析。语序差异对翻译影响很大。为了解决英汉翻译中语序造成的误解，要对语序进行调整，其调整也相应的从三面展开，按时间顺序调整，按因果逻辑顺序调整，按修饰语的位置调整。

方案设计：从翻译中出现的语序问题出发，分析语序差异产生的原因，以及如何解决这一差异，主要研究路线是1为什么英汉语序有差异，具体差异是什么，如何解决差异。

进度计划：2012年12月至次年3月 确定题目及查阅相关文献
2013年3月31号 列出提纲
2013年4月20号 确定初稿
2013年5月8 号 论文定稿
指导教师意见：

指导教师签名： 年 月 日
教研室意见：

：
XXXX大学本科生毕业论文（设计）文献综述
In the development of the western modern linguistics, the grammar studies are comprehensible and successful. Seen from the methods and the scope of study, the research on word order in different grammatical schools generally falls into two categories: “the first is to regard word order as an abstract underlying property of sentences and the other is to consider word order as an independent issue.” (Liu Xinming, 2004:19)
In the case of the first category, according to the study of Siewierska (Siewierska,1988: 1), “word order was viewed as an abstract underlying property, and the problem to explain various possible orderings is handled within all other aspects of the structure. Chomsky’s transformational grammar is a representative case.” The publishing of the work Syntactic Structure of Chomsky in the late 1950s marked the beginning of the Transformational Generative (TG) Grammar. In TG Grammar Chomsky (1957: 90) points out that the word order of the kernel sentence is determined by Phrase Structure Rules (Rewriting Rules), that is to say, in the process of X Y+Z , and whether Y or Z should come first is controlled by rewriting rules. However, in the procedure of transformation from deep word order to the surface word order, there are several determinant rules including core transformations, deletion rules filters and stylistic rules. (Liu Xinming, 2004) The form of the linearization rules will mainly rely on the type of data that they give access to. Nevertheless, in spite of the considerable efforts made on the studies of word orders, some scholars find that Chomsky’s approaches are highly formalized and too abstract. According to the study of Koktova (Koktova, 1999: 5-6), “Chomskyan paradigm overestimates word order on the surface layer and attempts to describe word order only with syntactic terms. What is more, it does not pay much emphasis on the information structure.
Liu Mingqing (1991:141) points out that “word order in essence is the syntagmatic ordering of elements according to the grammatical relations. The feature of word order is linear and horizontal, which reflects the structure of language. ”From the study of word order universals conducted by Greenburg (1963: 271), “it posits that there are six possible word order variations of Subject (S), Object (O) and Verb (V), and the three main types are SVO, VSO and SOV.” Greenburg（1978: 67）states that“ in any language there is one dominant word order among the several possible variations”.
Crystal holds that “SVO, OVS, VSO, OSV and SOV can all occur in English discourse, but
only the first one SVO is considered to be the “natural, usual and unmarked” one”.(Crystal,1997: 251). Determining the natural word order is not an easy job for all languages, which is the same case in both Chinese and English. The words in the sentence follow a certain order, which makes the sentence a meaningful unit. Usually the word order complies with several principles and fulfills several functions. Generally speaking, there are mainly three types of functions namely, grammatical, emphatic or communicative and linking functions. The first and major function of word order is to express grammatical relations and determine the grammatical status of a word by deciding its place in the sentence. Two ways of arranging words are inclusive here; namely, direct word order and inverted word order, and we will discuss them one by one in later chapters.
The second function of word order is emphatic and communicative function, which is to lay emphasis or prominence on the part of the sentence which contains more information or is more important. In these cases, prominence and emphasis are achieved by putting the word in an unusual position, which is different from normal position in the sentence. For example, subjects, which are normally put in the beginning of the sentence, is place at the end of the sentence, or objects and predicative, which are usually are placed closer to the end of the sentence, are shifted to the beginning. By such shifting word order, the rhetorical effect of emphasis or prominence is reached.
In the book the Outline of Chinese Grammar (1982) written by Lv Shuxiang, he discusses that the natural word order in Chinese statement often follows the route of “starter---verb---ender”, and he also talked about the abnormal occurrence of word order in Chinese. Lv Shuxiang (1982) suggests four basic sentence types in Chinese, namely, narrative sentence, declarative sentence, judgment sentence and existence sentence. Wang Li discussed in his book the Modern Chinese Grammar (1985:317) the notion of “inversion” in Chinese: “When the constitutes employed for purpose, description or statement depart from their normal position, they are called inversion.” During the period of 1950s, there was a heated discussion about the identification of subject and object among scholars.
The 1980s has witnessed a popularity of the study of word order in Chinese. It became a topic of hot interest and was studied from different perspectives. Zhang Zhenbang (1999) attempts to elaborate word order from semantic and pragmatic approaches, while Zhan Delu (1997) and Zhang Zhenbang (1999) try to analyze word order in Chinese from a functional approach. These all lay a solid foundation for the modern studies in word order in Chinese.

编号：

本科生毕业论文设计

题目 英汉语序差异和在翻译中的调整

作者姓名 XX
指导教师 XXX
专业（系） 英语教育
班所在学院 XXX学院
级（届） XXXX级X班

完成日期 2013 年 5 月 8 日

Word Order Differences between English and Chinese and the Adjustments in Translation

BY

XX
Prof. XXXX, Tutor

A Thesis Submitted to Department of English
Translation in Partial
Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of B.A in English
At XXXX University

May.8th, 2013

Iii

Abstract

The question that which component should be said first and second comes into people’s minds when they want to describe an event or idea. The question is word order, word arrangement in phrase, clause and utterance. Chinese and English have different word orders which are resulted from respective thought patterns. Word order is closely related with thought pattern: word order is the outward manifestation of thought pattern and thought pattern determines or influences word order. This paper analyses word order differences from the point of thought pattern. Chinese people tend to have a synthetic thinking, from whole to part and westerners have a tendency of analytic thinking, from part to whole. The effect of thought pattern on word order is illustrated from three parts. 1 Time sequence: Chinese follows the principle of “what happens first is always described at the beginning and the next action just follows.” English is not that strict, but generally speaking it adopts a linear arrangement: the important conclusion is placed at the beginning and the background information like time is put at the end. 2. The logical sequence of causality. The sequence in Chinese is “cause and effect” and is mainly “effect and cause” in English.3. The position of modifiers. Word order has a significant impact on translation. Different word order may cause misunderstandings in translation. In order to remove the misunderstandings, word order has to be adjusted in translation. Respectively, the adjustment is made from three parts: time sequence, logical sequence of causality and the position of modifiers.

Key words Word Order Thought Pattern Adjustment

iv

中文摘要

我们在描述一个事件或想法的时候，会考虑先说什么，后说什么，语序问题就由此而生。语序是词语在短语，句子和篇章中的安排顺序。英汉语的语序是有差异的，究其原因是由于语序和思维方式有关。语言和思维紧密联系，语言是思维的外在表现，思维影响着与语言。语序是语言重要的语法方式，思维方式是思维或社会文化的产物，因此可以说，语序反映思维方式，思维方式影响或决定语序。本文以语序和思维方式的关系为切入点，研究不同思维方式影响下的语序差异。中国人擅长整体思维，即从整体到部分，西方人倾向分析思维，即从部分到整体。思维方式的差异使语序在以下三方面表现不同。1.时间顺序，汉语遵循先发生的先说，后发生的后说的原则，英语则不严格，但一般是线性顺序，重要的结论放在前面，充当背景的时间放在后面。2.因果逻辑顺序，汉语从因到果，英语多是从果到因。3.修饰语的位置。从状语和定语两方面分析。语序差异对翻译影响很大。为了解决英汉翻译中语序造成的误解，要对语序进行调整，其调整也相应的从三面展开，按时间顺序调整，按因果逻辑顺序调整，按修饰语的位置调整。

关键词 语序 思维方式 语序调整

Table of Contents V
Abstract …………………………..………………………………………………….iii
Abstract in Chinese…………………………..……………………………………iv
Table of Contents…………………………..………………………………………..v
ChapterⅠIntroduction………………………………..………..……………………1

ChapterⅡWord Order Differences between Chinese and English……………4
2.1 The Reason for Word Order Differences………………………………………..4
2.1.1 The Relationship between Language and Thought…………………………..4
2.1.2 The Relationship between Thought Pattern and Word Order…………………5
2.2. An Overview of Chinese and English Thought Patterns……………………….6
2.2.1 Synthetic vs. Analytical……………………………………………………….6
2.2.2 Circular vs. Linear…………………………………………………………….7
2.3 Study on Word Order Differences between Chinese and English………………8
2.3.1Word Order Differences in Time Sequence………………………………8
2.3.2 Word Order Differences in Logical Sequence of Causality………………...9
2.3.3 Word Order Differences in the Position of Modifiers……………………….11

ChapterⅢ Word Order Adjustments in Translation…………………………14
3.1Word Order Adjustments according to Time Sequence……………………14
3.2 Word Order Adjustments according to Logical Sequence of Causality………15
3.3 Word Order Adjustments according to the Position of Modifiers…….………17
3.3.1 The Adjustment of Attribute………………………….……………………17
3.3.2 The Adjustment of Adverbial…………………………..…………………20

ChapterⅣ Conclusion……………….…………….…………………………….21

Bibliography…………………………..…………………………..………………22

Chapter Ⅰ Introduction

Crystal (1997) has defined word order as “the linear arrangement of words (and more generally components of various sizes) in a clause, sentence or utterance.” Word order is a reflection of language users’ thought pattern. Westerners and Chinese people have different thought patterns and thus their languages have different word orders. This paper takes word order differences as subject and probes into its adjustment in translation.
Word order, however, is not as simple as it seems to be. Firstly, word order is hierarchical. Word order exists in two levels: sentence level and text level. The former takes phrase and sentence as unit and adjust words within a sentence, while the latter regards several sentences as a group and makes arrangement beyond sentence. Secondly, word order is various: there is conventionalized form and non-conventionalized form or inversed form. The non-conventionalized form is so complex that it is impossible to exhaust all the cases and have a comprehensive understanding. Third, word order adjustment is rather complicated. When and how it should be adjusted becomes hot topic in translation.
Though difficult to investigate, word order can still be approached if we find out the reason for the differences. As we all know, language is closely related with thought. In the book on language , Wilhelm Von Humboldt(2001) wrote “the spiritual traits and the structure of language of a people are so intimately blended that, given either of the two, one should be able to deserve the other from it to the fullest extent…Language is the outward manifestation of the spirit of people.” Language is the carrier of thought and externalizes the unseen thought. Therefore the arrangement of words in a language, word order is influenced by the thought pattern. If a look at different thought patterns is taken, the analysis of word order would be available. Chinese have a tendency of synthetic thinking and westerners tend to have analytic thinking. Synthetic thinking makes Chinese follow the “principle of time sequence, PTS”,(Dai,1985) that is word order corresponds with the natural time in mind. While English, a manifestation of analytic thinking has the “principle of importance sequence, PIS”, that is the constituent of a sentence is arranged by its importance. Take the following as example,
a.他在桌子上跳。
b. he jumped on the table.
The constituent“在桌子上” comes first into people’ s mind before “跳”so the principle “PTS” is applicable. In 1b the importance of “jumped” ranks above “on the table” as English is a verb-oriented language and the principle is applied in example 1b. Different thought pattern also influences logical thinking of causality. Synthetic thinking makes Chinese people prefer a “from cause to result” order in Chinese sentence and westerners think in a reversed order in English sentence. At last, the thought pattern has an influence on the position of modifiers, too. All the above three aspects will be discussed in this paper and word order is adjusted according to time sequence, logic sequence and the position of modifiers.
Word order differences between Chinese and English have caused problems in translation. This paper will help solve th