论文总字数：21094字

摘 要

本课题主要是比较分析英语和汉语之间的语序差异，讨论翻译中调整语序的方法。就句子内的语序（即主、谓、宾或施事、行为、受事）而言，汉语语序的排列显得比英语更灵活，因此，在进行英汉互译时，需要根据目的语的语言习惯进行调整。英语中，除了祈使句，其他句子中必须有主语，但是汉语中可以省略主语；英语中，宾语一般处于谓语后，但是在汉语中，宾语经常处于主语和谓语中间；状语在汉语中的位置比较固定，一般在主语和谓语之间，有时为了强调，也放在主语之前，而英语状语的位置比较灵活，一般出现在宾语后的句尾，但它常常也出现在句首、句中或句尾。有鉴于此，语序的调整也不可避免。

关键词：语序；调整；语言习惯

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The Origin of Difference of Word Order 1

2.1 Difference of culture 1

2.2 Difference of thinking mode 2

3. The Comparison of Chinese and English Word Order 3

3.1 Subject and topic 4

3.2 Object 4

3.3 Additional components 5

4. Common Cases of Inappropriate Word Order 5

5. Method of Adjusting Word Order 6

5.1 Considering linguistic habits 7

5.2 Method of arranging subject 7

5.3 Method of arranging verb 8

5.4 Method of arranging additional components 8

6. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 10

1. Introduction

To do a proper translation, we should not only have good basic in both original language and target language, but also have some translation skills. Having good basic need years of accumulation, but translation skills can be gotten in a short time through scientific training.

Every language has its characteristic and form. Also, there are both similarities and differences in vocabulary, grammar and expression. To master those similarities and differences is important for translation.

When we do the translation, many things need to be considered, one of them is adjusting word order.

Word order is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. It shows the relationship between word and sentence constituent. What’s more, it reflects the logical thought and mental structure mode of language user.(Zhang 78) Thinking modes of Chinese and English-speaking have both similarities and differences, so does the word order of Chinese and English.

Word order plays an important role in translation cause it can make articles unitary. As a tool of communication and thought, language reflects the thinking mode of language user and is affected by thinking mode. Therefore, word order is actually the reflection of thinking mode, and the differences between Chinese and English word order are caused by differences of thinking mode of two nations. Translation is not only the transformation of two language, more important, it’s a transformation from one thinking mode to another.

Word order has grammatical usage, and different word order expresses different meanings. This topic starts from the origin of difference of word order, researches different meanings resulted from different word order and finds out solutions of avoiding deviation while translating.

2. The Origin of Difference of Word Order

2.1 Difference of culture

In ancient China, Confucianism was understood as the core of human civilization. Now, it still provides abundant resources for modern people. Confucian culture and its value have become an important factor in the spirit of Chinese nation.

In Confucianism, people are required to contribute to social and nation. They should be responsible for family and nation. The governor request people to forget their selves.

Compared with Chinese culture, western culture is more aggressive and free. Western people lived in a harsh environment at past, they faced more danger from nature than our Chinese, so they dare to have challenge and chase for freedom.

In this kind of environment, western people pay more attention to impersonal world. They want to find out the truth. Their personal value is more important.

Another aspect of culture differences is the culture origin.

For western culture, it was influenced by Roman and Greek culture. Just like Chinese, there are a lot of proverbs related with myth and historical allusions. For example, ‘Love is blind.’ was from the story of Cupid, but in Chinese myth, there was no Cupid, so we translate it to “情人眼里出西施”. “西施” is a beauty in Chinese history, so it is a well-known character for Chinese.(Jin 567)

Because of this, we need to consider the culture gap when we translate English to Chinese.

2.2 Difference of thinking mode

Language is dominated by thought, it is the carrier of thought of people in communication. As translation is an act that transfers a language to another, it is not only a kind of language activity, but also a kind of thinking activity. Much difficulty that we meet in translation is caused by domination of thought to language. In another word, differences between English and Chinese word order reflect differences between English and Chinese thinking mode.

English-speaking nations have straight thought. They are used to putting the key points at the beginning of sentence, then add to some other factors one by one. However, Chinese are used to describe things with indirect ways. First may be environment, then the key information. This is why core is at the beginning in English sentence structure(e.g. It is well-known that he has criminal record), but core is at the end in Chinese sentence structure(e.g. 他是有前科的，这件事大家都知道).

Thought of people is similar, thinking mode of most of nation is ‘ main body behavior object’, but different language-speaking nations also have some different thinking modes. Thinking mode of English-speaking nations mainly is ‘main body behavior object behavior symbol’, so their language mode is ‘subject verb object adverbial’. However, thinking mode of Chinese is ‘main body behavior symbol behavior object”, so their language mode is ‘subject adverbial verb object’. It means that adverbial is before verb in Chinese while adverbial is behind verb in English.

English-speaking nations divide main body and object strictly while Chinese do not. English-speaking nations pay attention to impact that object brings on human beings, so they distinguish main body and object strictly. However, Chinese think human beings are the center, only human beings can do conscious action, so Chinese rarely distinguish main body and object. Because of this, English sentences concentrate on subject but Chinese sentences concentrate on topic, English has more passive sentences but Chinese has more active sentences.

In Confucianism, people should be moderate and veiled. This kind of culture makes people talk implicitly. Chinese don’t like defining something directly, they like using some blurry words, like almost, probably and basically, etc, so Chinese use a lot of metaphor and make sentences ornate.

Different from Chinese, English-speaking people want to control the nature. They use impersonal and scientific ways to make a deep acquaintance of the world. Because of that, Western people talk directly. For example, if they talk about a ‘car’, they will clearly say it is a bus or a truck, not only ‘car’.

Chinese connect sentences relied on using order and thinking process, it’s a kind of entirety thinking mode. Entirety thinking mode starts from entirety, from entirety to part and emphasizes entirety. Western people connect sentences relied on grammar function. Sentence structure is close and cautious. It’s a kind of analysis thinking mode. Analysis thinking mode starts from part, from part to entirety and emphasizes form structure.

This kind of difference can show on word order. For example, when expressing time or place order in English, it is normal that part is before entirety, English-speaking nations are used to talk from small things to large things. Chinese is opposite. Chinese are used to put part after entirety and talk from large things to small things.

To sum up, we have to consider different thinking modes when do translation and adjust word order following the talking habit.

3. The Comparison of Chinese and English Word Order

Chinese is SVO mode, but some of Chinese sentences are SOV mode. Chinese language mode is subject adverbial verb object, it’s all because of Chinese thinking mode.

Ancient English was SOV mode, but now it is also SVO mode. But compared to Chinese, English word order is more flexible and changeable. English language mode is subject verb object adverbial.

3.1 Subject and topic

As English sentence must have a subject except imperative sentence, but a Chinese sentence can ignore subject. Chinese concentrates on topic, almost every component can be the topic, and subject can be omitted.

First, Chinese sentence can have both subject and topic, but English sentence cannot.

Second, Chinese sentence can only have topic but no subject, but English sentence must have subject.

Third, in some cases, Chinese can ellipsis subject and topic, but English must keep the subject.

Also, there are a lot of inversion sentences in English, such as interrogative inversion, command inversion and interjected inversion.

Subject is the topic of a sentence. In Chinese and English, normal word orders are subject verb. However, sometimes word order will change because of the demand of expressing. In this case, Chinese and English both transfer subject to the end of the sentence. In Chinese, transferring subject is to emphasize verb; In English, transferring subject is to emphasize subject.

3.2 Object

There are plenty of SOV sentences in Chinese, it means object is usually put between subject and verb. In ancient Chinese, object fronting is more common. However, SOV sentences don’t exist in English. When translating SOV and OSV sentences to English, object should be put after verb.

In English, there are two ways to emphasize object. First, putting object at the head of sentence; Second, putting object at the end of sentence to make it be the information center.

3.3 Additional components

Additional components conclude attribute, complement and adverbial.

In Chinese, attribute is always before the central noun. However, if the attribute is too long, we can put it after the central noun in English.

There are two kinds of complements in English, object complement and subject complement. Object complement is always after object in English, but in Chinese, it can be both after object and after verb.

The biggest difference between Chinese and English word order of additional component is adverbial. In Chinese, adverbial is always before the central word, but in English, it can be anywhere. Adverbial can be a word or a phrase.

If it is a word, it’s always adverb. Time adverb can be put before the whole sentence or after it, but in Chinese, adverb of time is usually before verb.

When different kinds of adverb are together, adverb of degree is the first one, then adverb of manner, then adverb of place, the last is adverb of time. However, adverb can be placed in different order in Chinese.

If it is a phase, it can be put before or after verb, but in Chinese, it is before verb in most cases. In Chinese, we always talk the earlier matter, then the later matter, word order matches the time order. However, we always put the focus matter at the beginning.

4. Common Cases of Inappropriate Word Order

There are some common cases of inappropriate word order when we translate. For example:

（1）I broke away from my usual living pattern and tried to do new things in order to escape my slump.

[Wrong ver.] 我打破原来的生活模式开始尝试新事物为了摆脱低谷。

[Right ver.] 为了摆脱低谷，我改变了惯常的生活模式并且尝试了新事物。

It is a common top-heavy sentence. The whole sentence has two parts: ‘I broke away from my usual living pattern and tried to do new things’ and ‘in order to escape my slump’. Obviously, the first part is much longer than the second part. When we translate this kind of sentence, we must put the second part before the first part.

（2）As someone who has 4 years of experience, I think that it’s my responsibility to prepare a path for others.

[Wrong ver.] 作为某个有四年经验的人，我觉得为其他人铺路是自己的责任。

[Right ver.] 作为有着四年经验的选手，我觉得为其他人铺路是自己的责任。

In this sentence, there is a word ‘someone’. If we translate it directly, it means “某人”. However, this sentence is from a passage that ‘I’ am a player. So here, we should change “某人” to a specific word. What I want to say is that considering the whole passage is very important. Sometimes, literal translation is not suitable.

（3）It it a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.(Han and Wang 82)

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