英语论文网

Abstract: English and Chinese, relegated to subject-prominent and topic-prominent languages, differ in the system-sentences subject –predicate vs. topic-comment. In this connection, therefore, one has to translate with latitude at the level of text and change sentence types where necessary through various approaches so as to highlight communicative value and guarantee coherence and cohesion. In dealing with Chinese English(C_E) translation, the sentence is the basic component of each passage. In order to have a good command of the skill in the translating process, it is necessary to have an accurate definition of sentence in both English and Chinese. Simply put, in traditional English grammar a sentence is a language unit consisting of a subject and a predict (Jesperson 1949) In the book A NEW ENGLISH GRAMMAR written by SWEET (1958), he pointed out that a sentence is composed of a logical subject and a logical predict. Till the 1960s,with advent of Chomsky’s TEANSFORMATIONAL-GENERATIVE GRAMMER, it evolves like this S→NP+VP. Although different in the analysis of feature grammar pattern, all these definitions reflect a common feature: English is subject-prominent language. On the other hand, let’s have a look at the Chinese sentences. Researches conducted by the grammarians show that, subject-prominent structure accounts for 50%, while the rest 50%belongs to topic-prominent structure. The leading Chinese grammarian Zhao yuanren points out in the English version of the book SPOKEN HINESE GRAMMAR(1968):“the grammatical meaning of subject and predicate in a Chinese sentence is topic and comment, rather than actor and action.” “In Chinese, the proportion of applicability of the actor-action meanings is still very low, perhaps not much higher than 50 percent and wider conception of topic and comment is much more appropriate. 如：（1）各类书籍放了整整一个书包。（2）教室坐满了各班级学生。（3）今天晚上，很好的月亮。（4）这锅饭五个人吃。 Analyzed these sentences from the logical prospective ,we can see that “several kinds of books”（各类书籍）“in the classroom”（教室里） “tonight” （今晚）and “the meals in the pan” （锅里的饭）are actually subjects of topics, rather than subjects of sentences .Whereas “filled the whole bag”（放了整整一个书包） “students of different classes are seated”（全班各年级学生）“the wonderful moon”（很好的月亮） and “five people eat” （五个人吃）are explanations of the topics. Shen Xiaolong (1988) confirmed Zhao Yuanren’s point of view.” English is subject-prominent language, while Chinese is topic-prominent language” The differences between these two languages lies in that a subject-prominent language is a language in which the grammatical units of subject and the predicate are basic to the structure of sentences and in which sentences usually have subject _prominent structure. A topic-prominent language is one in which the information units of topic and comment are basic to the structure of sentences.” This finding is of great significance to the recognition of the nature of both languages and it serves as an important link to the C-E translation. Since great differences exist in the subject of English and Chinese, applying the finding to the practice, the first step of C-E translation is to determine the corresponding part in English. But if there is not the corresponding part, with the use of some techniques, adding the appropriate subject is the only way to save the information missing in the process of translation. In the following passages, the thesis will focus on the different types of the subject and