英語專業(yè)本科畢業(yè)論文英語長難句翻譯

1、本科生畢業(yè)設計（論文）摘 要英語長句指詞語多、結構復雜、形體較長的簡單句或分句多、層次結構關系復雜的復雜句。在英譯漢的翻譯中，長句的翻譯歷來是重點或難點之一。主要體現(xiàn)在英語長句中主要成分往往帶有很多修飾語，錯綜復雜、細膩入微，這就需要翻譯者具備一定的語言功力和翻譯技巧。此外，英漢兩種語言存在著較大的區(qū)別：英語是拼音文字，而漢語屬于象形文字，這就要求翻譯者在英譯漢過程中應做出必要的調(diào)整以符合漢語表達習慣。如：調(diào)整語序、轉變句子結構、轉換詞性、詞義等。因此，本文將從長句的定義、主要特點、分析方法和翻譯技巧等方面對英語長句的漢譯問題做一個全面的總結和論述，力圖克服學生或翻譯實踐者對英譯漢中長句翻譯的

2、畏難心理并解決他們在翻譯實踐中遇到的具體問題。關鍵詞: 英語長句；修飾語；分析；技巧和方法abstractthe long english sentence refers to the wordy, lengthy, complicated simple sentences or compound sentences. so in the translation from english to chinese, the translation of lengthy sentences has always been one of the focal points or the difficul

3、t points for translators. it mainly embodies on the point that there are always many involved and delicate modifiers in the essential components of a long english sentence, which challenges the translators linguistic quality and translating skills. moreover, there are great differences between engli

4、sh and chinese: english belongs to the language of pinyin, while chinese belongs to the language of glyph, which requires the translator to make some necessary adjustments in order to accord with the norms of chinese expression, such as adjusting the sentence order, changing sentence structure, conv

5、erting the part of speech and the meaning of the words and so on. so this thesis dwells on analyzing and summarizing the definition, features, means of analysis and translation techniques of the lengthy english sentences, trying to help the students and translators conquer the fear of difficulty and

6、 solve the concrete problems in their translation practice. key words: long english sentence; modifiers; analysis; skills and methodsprefacethis thesis is a bachelors thesis, which is about the translation of the lengthy english sentences into chinese. the present thesis consists of three parts. par

7、t one mainly discusses the comprehension of long english sentences, especially the position of modifiers. part two attempts to compare chinese with english and analyze their respective syntax so as to highlight the difficulties in transferring the english sentences into chinese. this comparison lays

8、 a good starting ground for the discussion that mainly deals with necessity of adaptation and general practice of adaptation. part three, the bulk of the thesis, discusses the four kinds of methods in english-chinese translation.in the translation from english to chinese, the translation of the leng

9、thy sentences has always been one of the focal points or the difficult points for translators, so this thesis aims to analyze and summarize the definition, features, means of analysis and translation techniques of the lengthy english sentences, trying to help the students and translators conquer the

10、 fear of difficulty and solve the concrete problems in their general practices of english-chinese translation.there are a great number of people to whom this thesis owes a great deal. first of all, i would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to jin yinghao, my academic supervisor. meanwhile, i expres

11、s my many thanks to the teachers who have instructed me during my university study. luckily, i have had the opportunity to study under their supervision. contentschapter 1 introduction1chapter 2 comprehension of long english sentences22.1 definition of long english sentences22.2 features of long eng

12、lish sentences22.3 the position of modifiers3chapter 3 linguistic transfer of long english sentences53.1 the differences between english and chinese53.2 necessity of adjustments83.3 general practices of adjustments9chapter 4 methods of english-chinese translation114.1 analysis of long english senten

13、ces114.2 skills and methods of english-chinese translation12conclusion17references18acknowledgements19iv大慶石油學院本科生畢業(yè)設計（論文）chapter 1 introductiondue to the intrinsic differences between english and chinese, the long english sentence more often than not poses a problem for english-chinese translation.

14、how to translate long english sentences has become a classic topic in translation studies. in the light of this problem, this thesis will discuss the translation of long english sentences, which i hope can be helpful to the translators. the present thesis consists of three parts. part one mainly dis

15、cusses the comprehension of long english sentences, especially the position of modifiers. part two attempts to compare chinese with english and analyze their respective syntax so as to highlight the difficulties in transferring the english sentences into chinese. this comparison lays a good starting

16、 ground for the discussion that mainly deals with necessity of adaptation and general practice of adaptation. part three, the bulk of the thesis, discusses the four kinds of methods in english-chinese translation. chapter 2 comprehension of long english sentences2.1 definition of long english senten

17、cesa typical long english sentence has a finite verb as the core, surrounded by relatives and conjunctions that organize phrases and clauses at different levels. more often than not, its main clause contains some clauses, which can be further embedded. the following example suffices to show the feat

18、ures of long english sentences mentioned above: example: they (the poor) are the first to experience technological progress as a curse which destroys the old muscle power jobs that previous generation uses as a means to fight their way out of poverty.they are the first. (main clause)a. to experience

19、curse (infinitive clause modifying first)b. which destroys jobs (relative clause modifying progress)c .that previous generations jobs (relative clause modifying means)d. to fight. (infinitive clause modifying means) the example shows that the embedded clauses greatly lengthen the sentence. a long se

20、ntence can be seen as a clause enhanced, enlarged or expanded. although modern english demonstrates a tendency of the shortening of sentence length, such complex sentences with embedded clauses are still a common thing. on the contrary, a long sentence with embedded clauses is nowhere to be found in

21、 chinese.2.2 features of long english sentences firstly, there are more phrases. in the long sentences there are prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, infinitive phrases, gerund phrase or participial phrase: sometimes some word in the phrase is decorated by other phrases, thus forms a multicolor

22、 structure in which a phrase contains other phrases. secondly, there are more coordinate ingredients. adding coordinate subject, predicate, object, attribute, and adverbial modifiers, these compound ingredients (such as: the subject, the object) are sometimes narrated by the decorating words and exp

23、ressions or the subordinate clauses, which lengthen the sentence and make it more difficult. thirdly, there are more additive ingredients. there are parenthetical remarks, appositive remarks or the independent components, superadded other ingredients, thus the punctuation marks, especially the comma

24、 “,” increases, it is common that there are five or more commas in a sentence. fourthly, there are more compound sentences. it is an effective way to expand a sentence by increasing compound sentences. fifthly, there are more subordinate clauses. it is an important method to expand a sentence by inc

25、reasing subordinate clauses. sometimes we expand some certain subordinate clauses to compose a long sentence; sometimes even the compound sentence and the host subordinate clause interlock in the same place or a subordinate clause includes another subordinate clause, thus composing a multicolor subo

26、rdinate clause.2.3 the position of modifiersthere are always many modifiers in the essential component of a long english sentence, for example, the noun that serves as a subject or an object often has one or some adjectives, prepositional phrases, participial phases as well as the attributive clause

27、s, which modify and limit this noun. another example is a verb that serves as a predicate often has one or several adverbs, participial phases, prepositional phrases as well as adverbial subordinate clauses, which decorate this verb. when translating a lengthy sentence with a complex structure, we h

28、ave to differentiate the essential component and the modifier first, and we can mark the essential components and the modifiers in the original english sentence in order to make the structure of the sentence clearer at a glance, and reorganizes the main information of this sentence in the brains. ob

29、viously, modifier is a key point in the process of translation; next we discuss the position of modifiers.word order in english is more flexible than in chinese. in english, as long as the article concord is realized, the word order becomes relatively flexible. however, since the chinese language do

30、es not require this sort of grammatical concord, the word order tends to be more fixed. the position of modifiers reflects the flexibility of word order in both languages. in english, modifiers can be put before or after the headword and there are no limits to the length or the number of modifiers o

31、ne headword can be loaded with. in chinese, attributive modifiers are mostly put before rather than after the headword and one sentence can only be loaded with a certain number of modifiers. english is principally right-branching as opposed to chinese, which is principally left-branching. english se

32、ntences are marked by their closed beginnings and open endings. on the contrary, the beginnings of chinese sentences are open to syntactic elements while their endings are closed. the convention of open beginning in chinese encourages the occurrence of pre-modification. for example, if the basic sen

33、tence is“那個人是王芳”, and it can be expanded in the direction from right to left in this way:和小明說話的那個人是王芳。站在那邊和小明說話的那個人是王芳。你看到的站在那邊和小明說話的那個人是王芳。今天你看到的站在那邊和小明說話的那個人是王芳。on the contrary, english sentences usually branch at the end of its main clause. open ending encourages the positioning of modifiers afte

34、r the modified and thus the sentence expansion model shows a right-branching tendency. chapter 3 linguistic transfer of long english sentences3.1 the differences between english and chineseaccording to the language family, english belongs to the language of pinyin, while chinese belongs to the langu

35、age of glyph. next, we talk about the differences between english and chinese. firstly, english emphasizes structure, while chinese stresses semantics. in the translation work from english to chinese, we can see that long english sentence is always complex, because through the arrangement of the str

36、ucture we can express extensive meaning in a sentence. first we have to see several examples: (1) it applies equally to traditional historians who view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources, and to social science historians, who equate their activity with specific techniques

37、. this sentence, which has as many as thirty words, is a typical complex sentence. saying from the content, it mainly provides the information from two aspects: one is “it applies to. historians”, the other is the concrete details of historians; saying from the structure, it is a principal clause wi

38、th two subordinate clauses guided by whom. although the structure is complex and the information content is large, this speech in english is certainly not disorganized, because the sentence structure is linked together, and the semantics is clear: the attribute clause guided by who is put behind the

39、 noun to modify this noun, and this expression form is commonly used in english, that is the semantics of the two subordinate clauses is both relatively independent and is also united together as one body with the principal clause. if this sentence is altered to a sentence like:(2) it applies equall

40、y to traditional historians and to social science historians. traditional historians (or the former) view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources. social science historians (or the latter) equate their activity with specific techniques.these two sentences express a completely

41、same meaning, but the way of expression seems a little plain and wordy, which explains a fact that english emphasizes sentence structure very much, and a proper arrangement of the sentence structure may achieve a better expression effect. according to the norms of chinese expression, the sentence is

42、 generally not suitable to be too long, and if the modifiers are excessively more or longer, it may be like a presumptuous guest usurps the hosts hole and make the semantics a little ambiguous. lets have a look at the metaphase of this sentence: 它同樣適用于將歷史僅僅看作是對歷史材料來源的內(nèi)部的和外部的批評的傳統(tǒng)歷史學家,和把歷史研究活動等同于具體研究

43、方法的社會科學歷史學家。 such translation is very faithful, but actually the expression does not accord with the norms of chinese, when translating the translator makes great effort to translate and the reader also needs great effort to read. so we make an adjustment to this sentence like: 它同樣適用于傳統(tǒng)歷史學家和社會科學歷史學家

44、,傳統(tǒng)歷史學家(或前者)將歷史僅僅看作是對歷史材料來源的內(nèi)部的和外部的批評,社會科學歷史學家(或后者)把歷史研究活動等同于具體的研究方法。 obviously, after the adjustment, the translation gives us a much clearer and smoother feeling. it is very coincident that it is much closer with the structure of the rewritten english sentence, and this shows that chinese does not

45、 need a complex structure in order to enhance the expression level, we just have to make great efforts to make the meaning of the sentence clear and correct, thus we may have more freedoms in the way of expression. secondly, english has more long sentences, while chinese has more short ones. because

46、 english emphasizes structure, chinese stresses semantics, english sentences are always a little longer, while chinese sentences are often short. this aspect has been displayed very clearly. when understanding this difference fully, we can get rid of the fetter of the original text naturally and str

47、ive for certain initiative, this is just like what qianzhongshu said “get the meaning, forget the words”.（得意忘言）thirdly, english usually has more passive sentences, while chinese has more active ones. every person with just a little chariness can discover that people use passive structure frequently

48、in english, but in chinese people actually do not use the passive structure very much. facing this contradiction, we certainly cannot translate each passive structure into chinese mechanically; we must carry on suitable processing according to the special details. lets see another example:(3) and it

49、 is imagined by many that the operations of the common mind can by no means be compared with these processes, and that they have to be required by a sort of special training. this sentence has three passive structures: is imagined., be compared, be required behind the first passive structure is the

50、sender of the action, we can easily turn such a passive structure into an active one by putting the sender of the action ahead. “it is imagined by many that = many imagine that” therefore, it is much easier for us to translate as, “許多人認為” this is the first situation to change a passive sentence into

51、 an active one. the second situation is: we do not have to make any modification of chinese and we can complete such a conversion, the second passive structure of this sentence belongs to this kind of situation, “be compared with” can be translated directly as “與相比較”, because “與被比較” in chinese is ob

52、viously wrong. the third kind of situation needs to make big adjustments on the whole sentence. the third passive structure in the sentence has the preposition “by” as the guidance, but it is obviously invalid if we simply exchange the position of the subject and the object, this kind of situation i

53、s usually created by the use of words, for example, “what does the pronoun they refer to?” “what does the word required in the sentence mean?” to solve these problems we need a further understanding of the differences in the use of words between english and chinese.fourthly, english uses pronouns fr

54、equently, while chinese has a frequent use of nouns. english often uses the pronouns, although chinese also uses the pronoun, the frequency of use is obviously inferior to english. in order to clarify the accurate meaning of the sentence, we must know what the pronoun really refers to? because the i

55、gnorance of the subject can also have an effect on the determination of the verb and the misunderstanding of the pronoun may even influence the whole version. these pronouns play an important role, so when translating the sentence into chinese the pronouns must be converted into nouns. when encounte

56、ring this kind of situation we have to seek clues in the article, and then we can express the sentence accurately. now lets see the third example mentioned above again.and it is imagined by many that the operations of the common mind can by no means be compared with these processes, and that they ha

57、ve to be required by a sort of special training. 許多人認為：普通人的思維活動根本無法和科學家的思維過程相比較,他們并認為這些(科學家的)思維過程必須經(jīng)過某種專門訓練才能掌握。 pay attention to the pronoun “they” which is translated as “思維過程” and “be required” is translated as “掌握”, the passive structure disappeared, and the acceptation also changes a lot, then

58、we can easily bethink of another difference of the expression of english and chinese.fifthly, english has more expanding meaning, while chinese has more inferential meaning. the word “require” appears frequently in english sentences. we have a feeling that we have known this word, but we actually do

59、 not know its accurate meaning. the reason for this may be complex, but we can get some inspirations from two english proverbs: the first one is “you know a word by the company it keeps” (要知道一個詞的意思就要看它周圍是什么詞); another one is “words do not have meaning, but people have meaning for them”(詞本無義,義隨人生)。in other words, a word may have a completely new meaning in a specific