Chinese translation of English attributive clauses.docx
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ChinesetranslationofEnglishattributiveclauses
第一种翻译成简单句，合二为一
第二种前置，因为位置不同。
第三种去掉连接词。
重复先行词都可以。
第四种翻译成状语从句
TheattributiveclauseisoneofthemostcomplicatedclausesinEnglish,andcausesmany
difficultiestotranslators,becauseEnglishandChinesebelongtodifferentlanguagefamilies.andeachofthemhasitsownspecialsyntacticcharacteristics.
First,let’shaveabriefreviewofAttributiveclausesinEnglish.Attributiveclausesareusedtomodifynoun.Sotheyarealsoknownas“adjectiveclauses”,buttheplaceisdifferent.Mostly,theyarepost-modifiersofnounsandarealwaysintroducedbyrelativewordssuchas“who”“whose”“that”“which”“as”“when”“where”“why”.Therearetwotypesof
attributiveclausesinEnglish,namelyrestrictiveandnon-restrictiveattributiveclause.Thefunctionoftheattributiveclauseistoindentifyandclassifytheprecedingnounandnon-restrictiveattributiveclausesareusedtoaddextrainformationthatreadersmaynotknow.
clause.增加一些定语从句的信息。
thoughattributivestructuresexistbothinEnglishandChinese,theconceptof
attributiveclausedoesnotexistinChinesesyntax.
Chineseoftenuseindividualwordsorphrasesasattributiveelementsorothertypesofclausestoperformsimilarfunctions.SincethereisnoattributiveclauseinChinese.
1.Beingtranslatedintosimplesentences
SometimesthetranslatorcanrearrangetheorderoftheEnglishcomplexsentenceandchange
theattributiveclauseintothepredicateofasimplesentence（SongTianxi,2005）.ThismethodisfrequentlyadoptedintranslatingEnglish“therebe“structure.
e.g.1Thereareamanintheclassroomwhoarewaitingforyou.（教室裏有人等.。
）
ThiswastheperiodwhenNewtonbegantheresearchwhichresultedinthecreationofhisfamousTheoryofGravity.
就在这期间，牛顿开始了一项研究。
经过这项研究，他创立了著名的重力理论。
2.前置法prepositioning
Thewayattributiveclauses1 areformedisoneoftheclearestdifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishgrammar.AttributiveclausesinEnglishareright-branching,thatis,followthenountheymodify,whereasattributiveclausesinChineseareleft-branching,thatis,precedethenoun.
SoWhenEnglishattributiveclausesareeasyandshort,theycanbetranslatedintoChinese
attributeswith“de（的）”beforethewordsbeingmodified.Thismethodcanalsobecalled
“prepositioning”whichisthemostcommonpracticeintranslatingtheEnglish
attributiveclause,anditisinaccordancewiththenormalorderofChinesesyntax,since
Chineseprefers“leftbranchdirection”intheusageofattributes
Example1:
Peoplewho meditateneedtoeatanddrinkalot.
坐禅的人必须大吃大喝
e.g.Amanwhoreallyknowshowtolearnwillalwaysbesuccessfulbecausewhenhehasto
dosomethingnewwhichhehasneverhadtodobefore,hewillrapidlyteachhimselfhowtodo
itinthebestway.（一個真正懂得怎樣學習的人總是會獲得成功，因為他必須去做他從前
不曾做過的工作時，他會很快掌握完成這項工作的最佳方法。
）
Theall-important de/的isthegluewhichattachestheattributiveclausetotheheadword（people,inthiscase）.
3.分译法Division
“Differentlanguagesmighthavedifferentsystemsofcohesivedevices…
Expressedanotherway,Chineseprefersparataxis（sequencingofelementsinasentencewithoutconnectives）,Englishprefershypotaxis,orusingconnectives.parataxis意合,thecombiningofideas;hypotaxis形合,thecombiningofforms.
ConjunctionsinEnglishareusedmorefrequentlythaninChinese.ThisisbecausetheclausesinaChinesecompositesentenceareusuallyconnectedbyparataxis,whereasthoseinanEnglishcomplexorcompoundsentenceareconnectedbyhypotaxis….connectivesaremuchlessimperativelyneededinaChinesecompositesentence.Therearenosuchrelativewordsasthatwhichwhoetc.sowecantranslaterelativeclauseintoandindependentclausewithinacompoundsentence.（Chan2002:
308）
e.g.AIDSisalife-threateningsicknessthatattacksthebody’snaturaldefensesystem
againstdisease,（愛滋病是一種威脅生命的疾病，它侵襲人體內的自然免疫系統。
）
inthissentence,werepeattheantecedentbyusingpronoun.
AndrelativeclausesinChineseareleft-branching,wecannotputtoomuchinformationaheadofthenounthatismodified.Ontheotherhand,relativeclauseinEnglishisright-branching,soanouncouldbefollowedbyaverylongclauseespeciallyinnon-restrictiveclauses.Tosolvethisproblem,wecanalsousethedivisionmethod.Forexample:
e.g.TheyarestrivingfortheidealwhichisclosetotheheartofeveryChineseandforwhich,
inthepast,manyChinesehavelaiddowntheirlives.（他们正在为实现一个理想而努力，这
个理想是每个中国人所珍爱的，在过去，许多中国人曾为了这个理想而牺牲了自己的生
命）inthissentence,werepeattheantecedent.
e.g.Isabelwasatallgirlwiththeovalface,straightnose,fineeyesandfullmonththat
appearedtobecharacteristicofthefamily.（伊沙貝爾是個身材高挑、橢圓臉、直鼻樑、眉
清目秀、嘴巴豐滿的姑娘，這一切看來都是他家族的特徵。
）
4.Beingtranslatedintoadverbialclauseswithincomplexsentences
Relativepronounsfunctionastheadverbialinadjectiveclauses.
SomeEnglishattributiveclausesappeartomodifytheheadword,butfunctionastheadverbial
inthecomplexsentencesifanalyzedsemantically.Thiskindofattributiveclausehasavery
closelogicrelationshipwiththemainclauseandindicatingthecause,result,purpose,time,
condition,andconcessionetc.ofthemainclause,thusclassifiedbysomescholarsas
“semi-adverbialattributiveclauses.”.WhentranslatingsuchsentencesthetranslatorcantranslatethemintocorrespondingChineseadverbialsentences.Forexample:
a）.TranslatedintoChineseadverbialclauseofcause
e.g.theyarefarmorevaluableendowmentsforafemalethanthosefugitivecharmswhicha
fewyearswillinevitablytarnish（對於一位女性來說，它們好看的相貌有價值得多了，因
為紅顏難保，不過幾年便消退了。
）
b）.TranslatedintoChineseadverbialclauseoftime
e.g.Thethief,whowasabouttoescape,wascaughtbythepoliceman（小偷正要逃跑時，
被員警抓住了。
）
e.g.Electricalenergythatissuppliedtoalampcanbeturnedintolightenergy（當把電供
給電燈，它就會變成光能。
）
Chinese,ontheotherhand,makesnodifferencebetweendefiningandnon-definingrelativeclauses3 —theysharethesamestructureandpunctuation.I
InthissituationtheycanbetranslatedintoChinese
attributeswith“de（的）”beforethewordsbeingmodified.Thismethodcanalsobecalled
“prepositioning”whichisthemostcommonpracticeintranslatingtheEnglishrestrictive
attributiveclause,anditisinaccordancewiththenormalorderofChinesesyntax,
e.g.2Amanwhoreallyknowshowtolearnwillalwaysbesuccessfulbecausewhenhehasto
dosomethingnewwhichhehasneverhadtodobefore,hewillrapidlyteachhimselfhowtodoitinthebestway.（一個真正懂得怎樣學習的人總是會獲得成功，因為他必須去做他從前不曾做過的工作時，他會很快掌握完成這項工作的最佳方法。
）
e.g3.ButPeter’slaugh,whichwasveryinfections,breakthesilence.（但彼特的富有感染力的笑声打破了静默。
）
Weshouldfigureoutmoreandbetterexpressionsof
Chineseinordertobefaithfultothemeaningandwritingstyles
oftheoriginaltexts,makingthetranslationmoreaccurateand
flexible.DonottranslateitintoequalChinesestructure,
What’sthatgottodowithanything?
CoherenceandtheTranslationofRelativeClauses
NickyHarman,ImperialCollege,London
ABSTRACT
Non-definingrelativeclausesinChineseposeaparticularproblemforthetranslator.Employingaright-branchingrelativeclauseinEnglishisalmostneverappropriate.Instead,connectivessuchasconjunctionshavetobeusedtoensuretheEnglishiscoherent.Thisarticlediscusseshowconceptsofcoherenceandparataxis/hypotaxiscanelucidateonewayinwhichChinesediscoursediffersfromEnglish.
KEYWORDS
Non-definingrelativeclauses;left-branching;right-branching;coherence;cohesivedevices;conjunctions,hypotaxis;parataxis.
ThereisanewfloweringofChinesetranslationtheory,asexemplifiedinthe ChineseTranslationJournal （publishedinChinese）andnumerousEnglish-languagepapers—theTranslationStudiesAbstracts/BibliographyofTranslationStudies hasanextensivelistofthese.Yetthereisstillalackofbottom-uparticleswhichtakeastheirstartingpointaparticulartranslationproblem.Ofcourse,therearesplendidexceptionstothisrule:
AnEncyclopaediaofTranslation:
Chinese-English,English-Chinese haschapterson“BodyLanguageinChinese-EnglishTranslation”and“[Translating]ColourTerms,”andthetranslationresourceswebsite PaperRepublic includesarticlesonsuchtopicsastranslatingslang.
Thisarticleonrelativeclauseshasafootinbothcamps:
itisinspiredbymyownpractice,butalsotouchesontheoriesofcoherence.Ihope,insodoing,toshedlightonhowChinese“makessense”incertaintypesofrelativeclauses.
RelativeclausesinChinese
Thewayrelativeclauses1 areformedisoneoftheclearestdifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishgrammar.RelativeclausesinEnglishareright-branching,thatis,followthenountheyqualify,whereasrelativeclausesinChineseandJapaneseareleft-branching,thatis,precedethenoun.（GassandSchachter1989:
90）.
Example1:
Peoplewho meditateneedtoeatanddrinkalot.
坐禅的人必须大吃大喝
Literally:
Meditate de/的peopleneedbigeatbigdrink
Theall-important de/的isthegluewhichattachestherelativeclausetotheheadword（people,inthiscase）.
RelativeclausesinEnglish
InEnglish,bycontrast,relativeclausesareformedbyusingwho/which/thatandcomeaftertheheadnoun.Englishdistinguishestwotypesofrelativeclauses,definingandnon-defining（alsoknownasrestrictiveandnon-restrictive）.
Peoplewhomeditate —above—isadefiningclausewhere whomeditate definesthenoun,people,andanswersthequestion“whichpeople?
”
Dogs,whicharepackanimals,makegoodcompanionsforhumans….containsanon-definingclause, whicharepackanimals.Suchclausesarealwaysseparatedfromtheheadnounbyacommaandthesentencestillmakessenseifthisclauseisremoved.
Ch
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