定语从句的翻译方法.docx

1、定语从句的翻译方法On the Translation of Attributive Clauses from English into Chinese 1. IntroductionAttributive clause, a very complicated part of a sentence, often appears in both written and spoken English and causes the difficulty of English learners to understand it, or to put it into Chinese. This is b

2、ecause it is quite different from Chinese in placement, structure and function and hard to be identified. Following is my preliminary study of English attributive clauses and handing of them in terms of translation practice. 2. Types of English attributive clausesThe attributive clause in English ge

3、nerally varies in restrictive and non-restrictive ones. The former is usually led by a relative pronoun or relative adverb and closely attached to the antecedent. It is not separated from the head by a break in intonation, or by a comma in writing. It forms an integral part of the noun phrase, witho

4、ut which the head cannot be identified as the specific object. The latter does not restrict the referential meaning of the antecedent, and is separated by a comma from the main clause. If it is taken away, the antecedent still refers to the same person or thing (章振邦，1995：210 ). See the following exa

5、mples: 1) There were few students that escaped without serious injuries.（逃出来的学生无不受重伤者。）2) There were few students, who escaped without serious injuries.(没有几个学生，他们都逃出来了，无重伤者。)As shown in the above examples, the that-clause is restrictive while the who-clause is non-restrictive. They mean differently

6、though the words used are the same except the relative pronouns. More examples: 3) Shaoshan, where (=in which) Chairman Mao was born, is visited by thousands of people everyday. 4) The village rich in national flavor and beautiful in environment has become a resort most people like to visit.Apart fo

7、rm those introduced by relative pronouns, an attributive clause can also be headed by a relative adverb (as in example 3), or can have no relative to link with its antecedent (as in example 4). 3. Differences between English attributive clauses and Chinese attributes 3.1 Different in placement Attri

8、butive clauses, or rather attributes in Chinese grammar, are common in English and Chinese but different in placements. Chinese attributes are generally preposed, i.e. placed before the center words being modified; English attributive clauses are postposed: placed after the center words that are mod

9、ified. See the following: 1) 他只是一个年方十二的男孩。（ He is a boy whose age is only at twelve. ） 2) 我迟到的理由羞于启齿。 （ The reason why I was late for class is ashamed to mention. ） 3) The girl who was wounded in the war is his sister. ( 那位在战场上受伤的女孩是他的妹妹。) 4) Water pollution is a pressing problem (that) we must dead

10、 with. ( 水污染是我们必须处理的紧迫问题。)An analysis enables us to see the Chinese attributes are always positioned before the center word or antecedents ( nouns or pronouns ) such as “男孩” “理由” ,“女孩” and “ 问题”， while the English attributive clauses go right after the antecedents like “ boy “ , “reason” “girl” and

11、“problem” respectively.3.2 Different in structure English and Chinese belong to different language systems; they have different histories of language and established different characteristics. English is divided into restrictive attributive clause and non-restrictive attributive clause. But in Chine

12、se there is no such classification of it, or no such notion of “attributive clause”. English attributive clauses are of hypotaxis and joined the main clauses by or without relatives. However, Chinese as a language of parataxis, few connectives are used between sentences and sentence members. Yet, so

13、me of its structures or phrases can be treated as attributive clauses when turned into English ( 严迈，2005: 101-120). The following examples can make a point. 1) He is a good physician who cares himself. ( 能给自己治病的是好医生。) 2) On that day she looked the happiest (that) Ive ever seen her. ( 那一天她显得特别的高兴，我从未

14、见她这么高兴过。)3） We will put off the outing until next week, when we wont be so busy.（ 我们把郊游推迟到下星期，那时我们就不会这样忙了。）According to Zhang Daozhen ( 张道真，1995:565-571 ), we can infer from the above examples that the corresponding Chinese in e.g.1 “能给自己治病的” is a noun phrase served as the subject of a Chinese simpl

15、e sentence; the corresponding “我从未见她这么高兴过” to the English in e.g.2 is a coordinate clause of a Chinese compound sentence and, in the third “我们就不会这样忙了” is a subject-predicate-object structure, functioning as the predicate of a Chinese simple sentence. This analysis of the structural difference, accor

16、dingly, draws our due attention to whatever can play the role of an attributive clause when translating Chinese into English. More examples: 4) 台湾确定是个好地方，我刚去过。 （ Taiwan is indeed a beautiful place, where I have just been. ）5) 我有许多朋友，其中有些是画家。 （ I have many friends, some of whom are painters. ）6) 那个工厂

17、已生产出了到处都买不到的那种产品。 （ The factory has produced the product that is not yet available in any market at the present time. ）3.3 Different in functionThe attributive in Chinese is to modify or qualify nouns and pronouns, functioning as an adjective, and so is the attributive in English. Yet, there is an e

18、xception for English attributive clauses that can function as adverbials, and modify the part or the whole of a sentence as well. Lets firstly come to the cases that an attributive clause modifies the part or the whole of a sentence and see how the Chinese equivalents come up with us: 1) When deeply

19、 absorbed in work, which he often was, he would forget all about eating and sleeping. Obviously, which-clause in the sentence is intended to modify the manner of ones working“deeply absorbed in work”, hence the version:他常常聚精会神做工作，这时他就会废寝忘食。2) They turned a deaf ear to our demands, which enraged all

20、of us.Which-clause in this case is designed to modify the matter the preceding whole sentence“They turned a deaf ear to our demandsindicates, hence the Chinese equivalent: 他对我们的要求置之不理，这使我们大家都很气愤。Now, lets have a close study of the following examples and see whether we can threat the attributive clau

21、ses as the ordinary ones in terms of their functioning as adjectives, and whether we can translate them as usual into smooth Chinese. If not, what do they actually function as, and how should we comprehend and represent them in Chinese? 3) The ambassador was giving a dinner for a few people whom he

22、wished especially to talk to or to hear from. 4) There was something original, independent, and heroic about the plan that pleased all of them. 5) My assistant, who had carefully read through the instruction before doing his experiment, could not obtain satisfactory results, because he followed them

23、 mechanically. 6) So my chances of getting to revolutionary China are pretty slim, although I have not given up my efforts to a passport, which will enable me to visit the countries of socialism.7）Men became desperate for work, which will help them to keep alive their families.It is logically appare

24、nt that all the attributive clauses mentioned above, in effect, function as adverbial clauses. They each have to be translated as follows into an adverbial clause of cause as in e.g.3; of result as in e.g.4; of concession as in e.g.5; of purpose as in e.g.6 and of condition as in e.g.7, respectively

25、 ( 张培基，1980:136-137).3) 大使只宴请了几个人，因为他特别想和这些人谈谈，听听他们的意见。4）这个方案富于创造性，独出心裁，很有魄力，所以他们都有很喜欢。5）虽然我的助手在做实验之前已从头到尾仔细阅读过说明书，但由于他的死搬硬套，所以不能得到满意的结果。6）因此，我到革命的中国来的希望相当小了，虽然我并没有放弃努力来争取一张护照，以便访问社会主义国家。7）人们极其迫切地要求工作，不管什么工作，只要它能维持一家人的生活就行。4. Handling the differences and choosing the methods for translation Basicall

26、y, handling differences is a matter of accurate comprehension and adequate representation. The methods for translation must chose in the light of the Chinese habitual practice in wording, which is the principle for a translator to go by. Therefore, preposition, postposition and combination of both s

27、hould not be regarded as set rules in translating English attributive clauses. What really matters is to identify them when no relatives to lead them, to know the true sense of the relatives or connectives at the heads of them, to figure out their functions based on their structures. 4.1 Translating

28、 according to the structures There are often the cases that the antecedent is separated form its modifier as in: 1) All is not gold that glitters.As it is shown, the placement of that-clause is unusual, split by “is not gold” from its antecedent “All”. An analysis enables as to see the clause functi

29、ons as a noun and should be rendered into the subject of a Chinese sentence, placed at its head, quite different from the normal handing of a restrictive attributive clause: 闪光的未必都是金子。Also some other cases find it hard to identify the attributive clause because of lacking the relative and being rare

30、ly seen. But we can make sense of it after all so long as we know the context where it is used: written at the beginning of a formal letter when you do not know the name of the person you want to communicative with. For example: 2) To whom it may concern. 敬启者（ 致收件/致该信的收阅者）。Another example tells us s

31、everal attributive clauses used in succession forming a chain of modifiers, which is special in structure. It needs us to make known the relationship between each neighbours so as to grasp the information conveyed by the whole and represent the whole in the Chinese way to say things. 3) The cook tur

32、ned pale, and asked the housemaid to shut the door, who asked Brittles, who asked the tinker, who pretended not to hear.厨子面色苍白，使唤女佣把门关上；女佣叫布立特尔关去；布立特尔叫补锅匠去；补锅匠装着没听见。Viewed form the Chinese version, the English attributive clauses are changed into coordinate clauses, losing their original function. Then the following two examples, whose points lie in the cognition of the structures and the application of the relatives, can be regarded as special cases. Lets deal with them one by one for the sake of translation. 4) She