科技英语中介词IN的解析.docx

科技英语中介词IN的解析.docx

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科技英语中介词IN的解析

1.Introduction

Thepreposition“In”isoneoftheprepositionsthatEnglishlearnershavestudiedsinceprimaryschoolandalsooneofthemostcommonlyusedEnglishwords.Therearealmost14differentmeaninglistedinOxfordAdvancedLearner’sEnglish-ChineseDictionary.Howeverstudentshavedifferentunderstandingsforit,

Forexample：

1）Wewerefortunateinouropponent.

我们侥幸得胜。

（Totallymisunderstood）

我们为我们的对手感到幸运。

（Uncomfortablewordorder）

我们感到很荣幸，因为我们有一个强大的对手。

（Word-for-wordtranslation）

有这样的一个对手，倒是我们的幸运。

（TheCorrectone）

2）Hestoodthereinathreateningattitude.

他气势汹汹的站在那里。

（Misunderstanding）

他站在那里，样子很凶。

（Nomistake,butimproper）

他站在那里，摆出一副吓人的样子。

（Correctone）

AssomeEnglishlearnershavehadanambiguousunderstandingoftheword“in”sincetheirpreliminarystageoflearning,whethercouldtheymakemoremistakeswhentranslatingotherliteralstyles?

ESTisakindoflanguagethatisresponsibleforconveying,scientificthoughts,pursuingtheaccuratewords,andusingcloseandlogicalsentencestructures.Unlikeotherkindsoftranslation,thetranslationofESThasthemoststringentdemandonthecorrectunderstandingofeveryword.“Skopostheory”,simplifiedas“theendjustifiesthemeans”（Nord,2001:

124）,wasfirstputforwardbyHansJ.Vermeer.Ittriestoliberatethetranslationfromtheconfinementofthesourcetext.Theaimistoexplainthetranslationactivityfromthepointofviewofthetargetlanguage.ThereforethetranslationofESTmustbeaccurate,conciseandcriterion,butstudentsstillfeelconfusedwhentheyarefacingtheword“in”inEST.

Forexample:

Forgingandpress-productionmethodsofshapingmetalareoftremendousimportanceinmachine-buildingingeneral,andinautomobileandtractorindustryinparticular.

在一般的机械制造业，汽车制造业和特殊拖拉机制造业中，金属成形的锻压加工方法意义重大。

Therearetwomistakesinthistranslationthefirstoneisfailingtorecognizethephrases“ingeneral”and“inparticular”arejustparenthesizesandareparallelconstructionsbecauseofthesecond“and”inthissentence,andthesecondis“ingeneral”isanadverbratherthananattributivephraseinChinesewhichmeans“一般的”.

金属成形的锻压加工方法在一般在机械制造业中意义重大，特别是汽车和拖拉机制造业。

Thelattertranslationisbettercomparedwiththeformer,butitdoesn’thighlightthephrase“inparticular”anddiscordedwithanativeChineseexpression.

金属成形的锻压加工方法，在一般的机械制造业，特别是汽车和拖拉机制造工业中具有重大意义。

Thisisthecorrectone.Obviouslythewholesentencestressesonthe“inautomobileandtractorindustryinparticular”.

Inthiscase，themisunderstandingofwordsinESToftengeneratesafalsehoodintranslation.Duetothespecialtarget,purposeandlanguagefeatureofEST,onecannottrumpupameaninginhisorherownmindandtakeitforgranted.Therefore,thispaperstartswiththepreposition“in”,analyzingitsmisunderstandingandambiguityinESTfromthreeaspectswhicharecognitionlevel,semanticslevel,andsyntaxlevel,andtryingtofindoutthedefectsofChinesestudentswhentheyunderstandtheIN.FinallythispaperconcludeswithsuggestionsandrecommendationsforChinesestudents.

2.DiscrepancyofINbetweenChineseandEnglish

2.1DiscrepancyinCognitionlevel

WhenwestartedtolearnEnglish,thefirststepmustberememberingthevocabulary,andthenrecitedsentencesandarticleswherethesewordswerebelongto.Thusitisclearthatourcomprehensionononewordisbasedontwolevels,semanticslevelandsyntaxlevel.HoweveratthebeginningofEnglishstudy,wehaveourChineseasmothertone,andthenuseittotransferfromtwokindsoflanguagesandunderstandingthedifferent.Sobelowthetwolevels,semanticsandsyntax,thereareanotherlevel——cognitionlevel——asthebottominourmind.Inthispartwediscussthemfromlowtohigh.

2.1.1Spacecognition

人类在生理、心理特征及赖以生存的客观外在环境方面的共性与个性决定了各语言社团在空间认知上存在着异同（文旭&匡芳涛,2004:

81）

Thecognitionstructuresvitallyaffecttheunderstandingof“in”.Accordingthistheory,cognitionindifferentlanguageshassimilaritiesaswellasindividualities.Becauseofthecognitiveresultsonspace,thesimilaritiesarethatthe“in”inEnglishshouldbecorrespondingto“在…里/内/中”inChinese.Theyallbeusedtoexpressiona3-dimensionspacecondition,forexample“inthebox（在盒子里）”.Butsometimes“in”alsocouldbetranslated“在…上”,whichshouldbeequalto“on”inEnglishanddescribeaconditionof2-dimensionsurface,inChinese.Lookatthesentenceinthefollowing：

Afilterbaginthesupplytankisinstalledtocatchlargepiecesofunwantedmaterialintheusedtubeoil.

给供油箱装上一只过滤袋，以便挡住用过的管路润滑油中那些大颗粒无用物质。

Usedtube

Filterbag

Supplytank

Pleasepayattentiontothetwo“in”inthissentence.Thefirst“in”isprocessedinto“在…上”,butsecondis“在…中”.“IN”represent:

containing,surrounding,andembedding.“在…上”isusedina2-dimensionspaceconditionandrepresents:

touching,attachingandsupporting.Butduetothedifferenthabitandviewingangle,sometimesweuse“在…上”toreplace“in”.Chineseprefertousemicroscopicviewingangle,andconsiderthetankasa3-dimensionboxwhichisattachedbyafilterbag,butEnglishusemacroscopicviewingangletoconsiderthatthefilterbagisattachingonthesurfaceofthesupplytank.Whilethesecond“in”representthesamemeaning:

theusedtubeoilcontainsunwantedmaterial.

2.1.2ViewofGrammar

英语各类介词含动态或动作之意,而汉语只能用动词表示（范忠英,1994:

156）Althoughwealwaystranslate“in”as“在…里/内/中”,actuallywedon’tobeythisrule.Thereare3otherways:

“在….，….里，”ordon’tuse“…里”,“在…”.

Forexample:

1）Inthefuture,robotswillactsasourcarers.

未来,机器人将充当我们的护工。

在未来，机器人将充当我们的护工。

在未来里，机器人将充当我们的护工。

未来里，机器人将充当我们的护工。

Inthissentence,“inthefuture”isanadverbialoftime,whichshouldbe“在未来里”asthesamefunctioninChinese.ButinChinesethesinglenounoftimecouldbethetimeadverbialatthebeginningofsentence.Soweonlyuse“未来”conciselyandclearly.

2）Heatcausesthechemicalbondsincellstobreakdown.

热会导致细胞内化学键的断裂。

热会导致在细胞内化学键的断裂。

热会导致在细胞化学键的断裂。

热会导致细胞化学键的断裂。

Inthissentence,“incells”isputtedafterverb“导致”.Using“在”,itwillconflicttothepredicateverbbecauseofitsverbmeaning“exist”.Butifwegiveup“内”,itwillnotconformtoitsadverbialfunction.Soweuse“细胞内”without“在”.

3）Mostcall-boxesinLondonareontheSTDsystem.

伦敦的大部分电话间都与用户的直拨长途系统联机。

在伦敦，大部分电话间都与用户的直拨长途系统联机。

伦敦里大部分电话间都与用户的直拨长途系统联机。

在伦敦里大部分电话间都与用户的直拨长途系统联机。

Astheattributeofcall-boxes,thephrase“inLondon”shouldbetranslatedasthestructureof“…的”,whichisthesameasthestructureof“…of”inEnglish.

4）Heatsetstheseparticlesinrandommotion.

热量使这些粒子做随机运动。

Englishisastaticlanguage,whichmeanshasabundantconnectivewords.InsteadChineseisadynamiclanguagepreferringtouselotsofverbs.“英语是静态性语言，汉语是动态性语言。

”（张学毅,2008:

254）SothestaticofChinesegivethephrase“inrandommotion”aactivemeaning.This“in”means“在做”.

“汉语介词大多是从动词借来的，严格的说中国语根本就没有真正的介词。

”（连淑能,2002:

18）InChinese,therearenotspecializedprepositions.Mostprepositionsbothhavethefunctionsofverbandpreposition,especially“在…”.Thesefoursentencesseparatelylistfourconditionsof“in”’sgrammarfunctions,firstoneastimeadverbial,secondoneasadverbialafterverb,thirdoneasnoun’sattributeandthelastoneasaverb.Obviously,everyonehasthebestwaytotranslateandfollowtheChinesehabits.Thereforetheconclusionisasthefollowingform.

Timeadverbial

Noun’sattribute

Asverb

Adverbialafterverb

Onlykeywords

未来

Add“的”

伦敦的

在…（prep）

在未来

在（verb）

在做…

…里，…内

细胞内

Allinall,thepreposition“in”isveryflexibleinform,andeasytomixupwithotherprepositionwhenbetranslated.Soanalyzeitattentively,andtrytousedifferenttypes,andthenmakeit.

2.2Discrepancyinsemanticslevel

Thereare14meaningsof“in”inOxfordAdvancedLearner’sEnglish-ChineseDictionary,including8specificmeaning,5abstractmeaning（expressioncategoriesmeaning）,and1specialmeaningforwearing.Usuallywecouldeasilyunderstanditsbasicmeaning,butINalwayshavealargequantityofcombinationswithallkindsofwords.Themainambiguitiesarefromitscombinationsanddifferentcontexts.SothispartwilldiscussthesemanticslevelfromthecombinationaswellasthebackgroundofEST.

2.2.1Combinationsof“in”

“In”isoneofthemostactivewordsinEnglish.Ithasstrongabilitytocombinewithotherwords,flexibleusageandrichmeaning.Itsphrasecannotonlyrepresentadverbialsoftimeandlocation,butalsoinESTtorepresentarea,volume,length,height,aswellaslotsofcollocations.ThetranslationofprepositionalphraseinESTmustfollowtheways:

concise,clearandprofession.

Forexample:

1）Weusuallythinkoflightenergyintermsofwavesandofmatterintermsofparticles.

[right]我们通常用波来表示光能，用离子表示物质。

[wrong]我们通常在波方面考虑光能，在离子方面考虑物质。

Indictionary,“intermof”means“依据,按照,在…方面”.WhiletheprepositioninEnglishcontainsthemeaningofaction,andespeciallywhenexplainshowwedoit,whatthewayis,andwhatthestateisin.

2）Theboilerhadaworkingpressureof200ib.perSqin.andwas15feetinlengthand3feetindiameter.

[right]锅炉长15尺,直径3尺,工作压力每平方寸200磅。

[wrong]锅炉工作压力每平方寸200磅，长为15尺，直径为3尺。

Whenwedescribeonething,Chineseisusedtointroducethelength,breadth,heightfirstly,whichisbasicinformation,thenleadstothefurtherdetails.Sowecouldnottranslatethissentenceastheoriginalwordorder.What’smore“in”inthissentencerepresentsthelengthanddiameter.

3）Notonlythosesatellitesperformavarietyoftasks,buttheycomeinnumerousshapes,sizesandnationalities.

[right]这些卫星不但执行的任务多种多样，而且形状有别，大小不等，国籍迥异。

[wrong]那些卫星不仅执行各种各样的任务，它们还来自不同国家，形状大小不一。

Inthissent