浅析英汉语言对比分析

2023-05-12 来源：步旅网

Contrastive Study Between English and Chinese

Abstract

The languages in different countries and nations have their own cultural background and thinking mode. For Chinese students, contrastive study can help them know the differences between English and Chinese, thus having a deep recognition of the importance of contrastive study.

In translation, the differences in the cultural background and thinking mode lead to the translation differences between English and Chinese, especially in the language order aspect which makes it difficult to communicate with each language.

Language order is the word and phrase arrangement which is related with the unit of words. English and Chinese differ from the origin, and due to the differences in the thinking ways, they seem to express the same thing in the different way. So it is meaningful to have a research on the subject of language order in English and Chinese translation.

Key Words: Comparison； Culture and custom；Cultural background；

Thinking model

摘要

浅析英汉语言对比分析

摘要

不同的国家和民族的语言表现出的文化背景和思维模式都有所不同。对学习英语的中国学生来说，通过英汉语言的对比，可以使其认识到英语和汉语的差别，从而对英语学习能够有更深刻的认识。

在英汉语言的翻译工作中，正是由于不同国家和民族语言的文化背景和思维方式的不同才导致了翻译上的种种差别，尤其在语言组织的顺序中体现得淋漓尽致。这种差异给语言之间的沟通与交流带来了巨大的障碍，所以英汉翻译中的语序问题研究就显得意义重大。

语序是指句子成分的排列次序,它体现了词语之间的关系。英汉两种语言源自不同的语系,由于汉族和英语的民族思维方式不同,对同一客观事实就有着不同的语言表达顺序,因而有必要对英语和汉语的词序及其各种变化方式进行分析与研究。

关键词：英汉对比; 文化风俗; 文化背景; 思维方式

CONTENTS

CHEPTER ⅠINTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 CHEPTER Ⅱ LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................... 2 2.1 The Definition Of Contrastive Study ...................................................... 2 2.2 The Process of the Development of Contrastive Study in China ............ 3 CHEPTER Ⅲ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONTRASTIVE STUDY ..... 7 3.1 Helping Learners Find the Focus of Study ............................................. 7

3.1.1 Focus on Differences in Linguistic Aspect ................................... 8 3.1.2 Focus on Differences in Cultural Aspect ....................................... 9 3.2 Helping Learners Avoid Chinglish ........................................................ 10

3.2.1 Avoiding Linguistic Chinglish ................................................... 11 3.2.1.1 Avoiding Wrong Word Formation ............................................. 11 3.2.1.2 Avoiding Wrong Matching of Words ....................................... 13 3.2.1.3 Avoiding Wrong Use of Idiom ................................................. 14 3.2.2 Avoiding Cultural Chinglish ..................................................... 16 3.3 Helping Learners Improve Their Translation Skills .............................. 17

3.3.1 Linguistic Skills .......................................................................... 17 3.3.1.1 Differences in Word Order .......................................................... 18 3.3.1.2 Differences in Sentence Structure ............................................... 19 3.3.1.3 Differences in Paragraph Structure ............................................. 20 3.3.2 Cultural Skills ............................................................................. 21 CHEPTER Ⅳ CONCLUSION ................................................................. 22 REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 23 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... 24

西京学院本科毕业论文 CHEPTER Ⅰ INTRODUCTION

Some American scholars developed an idea that most of the difficulties in foreign language study spring from disturbance of the mother language. If the mother language and a foreign language are different, the former will disturb the learning of the later. However, when they are the same, the former will help the learning of the later. It is called “language transfer”. Language transfer is positive when the two languages have much in common, and will be negative when they are different, which are called positive transfer and negative transfer. In their opinion language learners should pay attention to the differences caused by negative transfer.

The purpose of contrastive study is to promoting positive transfer by contrasting the characteristics of the two languages. In the process of language study we often find that if the foreign language is familiar with the mother language, it will be easy to study. Take Korean and Chinese for example, there are a lot of words having the same pronunciation, so Chinese people will find it easy to study Korean. On the contrary, if the two languages are different, the study will be difficult. For English learners, it‟s a good way to do contrastive analysis between English and Chinese to help learn English well.

Contrastive study will make English learners know the characteristics of the two languages. The contrast will tell us what should be focused on and in what way the negative transfer could be avoided. Chinese learners of English need to know how to avoid Chinglish and how to improve their skills, especially translation skills. They should make contrastive analysis on words formation, words matching, word order, sentence structure, paragraph structure and culture. Thus we can see the significance of contrastive English on English study.

西京学院本科毕业论文 CHEPTER Ⅱ LITERATURE REVIEW ON

CONTRASTIVE STUDY

Contrastive study between English and Chinese has developed for

many years, but there are still so many people who don‟t realize the significance of contrastive study, even they don‟t know what contrastive study is. As a English major, I want to improve English level, for 10 years of English study, I‟ve found English is not as difficult as I imagined, maybe the reason is that I like both English and Chinese. Engels said, “You could know your own language only if you compared it with other languages.”1 So, when we learn a language, we should compare it with our own languages, thus having deep recognition of the characteristics of the tow languages. If we do so, we can improve our study efficiency.

In China, so many linguists do lots of study on contrastive study, and base it on their study, I do a literature review on contrastive study between English and Chinese before I write my paper, this literature review includes: 1) The definition of contrastive study

2) The process of the development of contrastive study in China

I want to use this literature review to show the development of contrastive study, I hope more and more English learners would realize the significance of Contrastive study

2.1 The Definition Of Contrastive Study

The famous linguist Lv Shuxiang said, “Contrastive study means paying attention to the differences between English and Chinese…”Mr Xu Yulong made a definition of Contrastive study like this: Contrastive study is a branch of Contrastive linguistics, the purpose is to analyze and compare the two languages, to describe the differences and the common ground, especially their differences, and use this series of theory to solve problems in other

西京学院本科毕业论文 fields.

Contrastive study is a branch of linguistics, it has the characteristics of theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics, the main task is to do comparative study, to describe and explain the differences between English and Chinese, and to use this series of theory to solve problems in other fields.

2.2 The Process of the Development of Contrastive Study in China

The theory of Contrastive study was established in China after 1990s. Before the contrastive English, there was another theory Chinese Cultural Linguistics, the researchers were advocated to put the analysis of vocabulary into the cultural background to analyze the vocabulary‟s cultural function. Analysis of Chinese Cultural Linguistics was a foundation to the contrastive English in China. The famous linguists, Lu Shuxiang, Xu Yulong, Yang Zijian and Pan Wenguo etc, have always been called on to do some research on contrastive English from a macro view.

Although the famous linguists, Zhao Yuanren, Wang Li and Lu Shuxiang and Gao Mingkai etc, has always called on English learners to use the contrastive study method, but the term contrast analysis, in china, has been regarded as a academic term since 1970s. Mr. Lu Shuxiang‟s the balance to actively advocates research and practitioner. Mr Lu Shuxiang „S view on the research of contrastive study: 1) Contrastive study is an analysis of errors and explain errors;

2) We should do the research of contrastive study from the concept (or category ) set out in a language;

3) By contrast, the ultimate aim is to explain the differences of the two languages.

Mr Lu Shuxiang‟s view on contrastive study is a significant direction for our words semantic research : Firstly, the contrast of vocabulary we should pay attention to the culture of semantic and realism, thus reach the purpose of second language acquisition, and also should pay attention to the explanation which is associated with the collision and vacancy phenomenon; Secondly, we should do the

西京学院本科毕业论文 contrast of word cultural semantic from the concept of (or category ) set out in a language; thirdly We must focus the ultimate aim of contrastive study is research their national culture and philosophic thinking.

More and more Chinese people concern contrastive study in 1990s. In 1992, professor Xu Yulong‟s book Contrast Linguistics Overview was published. Contrastive study became an independent subject in China. Mr Xu defines contrastive study like this: Contrastive study is a branch of Contrastive linguistics, the purpose is to analyze and compare the two languages, to describe the differences and the common ground, especially their differences, and use this series of theory to solve problems in other fields. If we compare Xu‟s definition with the western linguists James and Fisiak‟s definition, we can find out Mr Xu‟s definition has the following progressive significance:

1) It is clear that the properties of contrastive linguistics is a branch of linguistics, it no longer belongs to applied linguistics , Mr Xu thinks contrastive linguistics includes theory of contrastive linguistics and applied linguistics, thus adding theoretical color to contrastive English; 2) On the analysis of contrastive study, Xu‟s definition emphasizes the common ground of the two languages, the importance of the contrast is their differences;

3) The researching method is focus on the description of their differences;

4) To use the results to solve the problems in other fields.

In 1994, Professor Yang Zijian Professor revised Professor Xu YuLongs

definition of contrastive linguistics. He said, the contrastive linguistics is a branch of linguistics, it has the characteristics of theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics, the main task is to do comparative study, to describe and explain the differences between English and Chinese, and use this series of theory to solve problems in other fields. The definition determines the nature of contrastive linguistics and target, thus it has promoted the development of contrastive study in

西京学院本科毕业论文 China.

In 1990s, the linguists in China made great progress on the contrastive study, Liu Biqin, Xu YuLong, Yang Zijian and Pan Wenguo etc. have written lots of books to explain their views of contrastive English. The Chinese Association of Contrastive English have made great contribution to the establishment of contrastive English linguistics under the leadership of professors Liu Chongde and Yang Zijian. All contrastive English linguistics books that were published in the early 1990s are involved in the research of contrastive study in the aspect of theory and application, and in analyzing the theoretic and practical value of the contrastive research on English and Chinese. Professor Xu Yulong‟s new published book Contrastive Linguistics(2003) highlights that people should use the evidence to carry on the study of contrastive linguistics so that strengthen the reliability and usage of research achievement. After professor Xu, there are seven contrastive linguistics books published, namely, Lian Suxiong‟s book Study on Contrastive English (1993), Yu Yungen‟s book Contrastive English Linguistics (1994), Xiong Wenhua‟s book Contrast Linguistics Application Overview (1997), Pan Wenguo‟s book Outline on Contrastive English (1997), Shao Zhihong‟s book Analysis of Contrastive study (1997), Ke Ping‟s book Contrastive Linguistis (1998) and the book Analysis of Language(2002) written by He Shanfen.

Professor Pan Wenguo is one of the famous scholars in the fields of contrastive English research in China in recent ten years, who published a series of books that to illustrate the theoretic establishment of contrastive English research. Professor Pan‟s book Outline on Contrastive study (1997) is named as “ a book has the most deep impact on the field of contrastive language since 1990s”, which inherits the philosophy view of Hong Baote, studying the features of grammar, sentence, the order of language and organization of words, pointing out that the English is basically a kind of morphological language. On the contrary, Chinese is a semantic language, he discusses the psychological and cultural reasons that form the characteristics of grammar, order of language, sentence and words from the

西京学院本科毕业论文 language philosophy angle. Meanwhile, professor Pan appeals that people should change their point of view to research contrastive study, and start to research it from Chinese, set up Chinese grammar scope and theory system according to Chinese characteristics, and deal with the discriminative relationship between generality and personality properly.

In the recent years, intercultural communication becomes more and more important, especially language communication. Language is the carrier of culture, but the language in different countries and nations has its own background and thinking mode, so we should know the differences between the different languages. If we do this, we can avoid some mistakes in intercultural communication, and we will learn English better. Contrastive study is the focus of English study, so I believe more and more English learners will pay attention to contrastive study and they will realize the significance of contrastive study. Maybe contrastive study should be applied in teaching and learning. By this way, we can recognize the value of contrastive study. We should combine the theory of contrastive study with practice, thus reveal the value of contrastive study completely.

On the basis of the above research, I want to write a thesis on the significance of contrastive study. In my paper, I analyze the significance of contrastive study from the English learners‟ point view, and also analyze the common mistakes in English expressions, thus help learners know the differences in expressions between English and Chinese to avoid Chinglish and improve translation skills.

西京学院本科毕业论文 CHEPTER Ⅲ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONTRASTIVE STUDY

The purpose of contrastive study is to promot positive transfer by contrasting the characteristics of the two languages. In the process of language study we often find that if the foreign language is familiar with the mother language, it will be easy to study. Take Korean and Chinese for example, there are a lot of words having the same pronunciation, so Chinese people will find it easy to study Korean. On the contrary, if the two languages are different, the study will be difficult. For English learners, it‟s a good way to do contrastive analysis between English and Chinese to help learn English well.

3.1 Helping Learners Find the Focus of Study

English and Chinese have many significant differences which make English learning a serious challenge for Chinese learners of English as they belong to two language families. Chinese uses a logographic system for its written language, while English uses an alphabetic system. Chinese characters are not made up of letters as English words, so it is a great difficulty for Chinese learners to read or spell English words. The differences are not just in words but also in phrases, sentences and paragraphs. To learn English well, English learners must make a comparison between the two languages to find

西京学院本科毕业论文 out their differences.

Every language has its own cultural background which makes it different with others and of course makes it difficult to learn. Chinese and English are different because of the differences in natural environment, mode of thinking, values, history and life style. The different living situations decide their different values and viewpoints.

Therefore English learners should focus on finding the differences in language and culture before they can learn English well.

3.1.1 Focus on Differences in Linguistic Aspect

Most English learners find that when English and Chinese have much in common, it‟s easy to learn. For example, “goldfish” in both languages are constituted by the meaning of “gold” and “fish”. It‟s easy for learners to understand it. But some words or phrases can‟t be constituted like this. Take “important matter” for example. It means a big issue. But some Chinese people may use “big thing” to express it. “Big thing” means some object with big volume.

The negative transfer will influence the study of a language, so we should focus on the differences between them. The differences are not only in words, but also in phrases, sentences, paragraphs, sections and chapters. There are more examples.

“For the latest couple of years the third industry in our country has been developing very fast”. Here “third” is a wrong word. It should be “the tertiary industry” because it is established by usage. “The service industry” is right because it means the industry that offers services.

“It‟s hard to do business in light senses.” Here “light seasons” is a wrong expression. We use “slack seasons” to express the time business is slow.

“I have no English name” is another sentence we heard from many

西京学院本科毕业论文 Chinese people. It should be “I don‟t have an English name.”

Chinese sentences are based on meaning while English sentences are based on grammar. In Chinese the standard of a sentence is whether it expresses a complete meaning. In English, however, the standard is whether the sentence is with a complete structure. For example：

看样子要变天了。

It seems that the weather is changing.

Disregarding the differences between the two languages will result in ill-understanding or misunderstanding. Analyzing language differences is a guide to English learners in learning English.

The differences between two languages are not just in linguistic aspect, but also in cultural aspect.

3.1.2 Focus on Differences in Cultural Aspect

Different cultural backgrounds decide different modes of thinking and different sayings. The thinking mode of Chinese is a typical synthesizing type. They pay attention to image and unity while westerners to abstraction and rationality. Chinese people pay attention to subjective sense while western people to objectivity.

In English there are some words with the same conception as those of Chinese, but for cultural reasons they can‟t be equaled. Those words usually have more than one meaning, and the connotative meanings of them are different from Chinese. Look at the table：

西京学院本科毕业论文 Table 1 Different Meanings of Colors

Red Blue Yellow Chinese Festivity The color Imperil power

English Violence Bad mood Cowardice

Some animal names have different meanings, such as a dog. In Chinese it means snooty while in English it means pathetic. There are so many sentences about dog. “I am a lucky dog.” shows that some one is a lucky person. It isn‟t derogatory.

There are many phrases in both languages with the same literal meaning and formation but with different usage because of the different cultural backgrounds. There are more examples:

1)洗手不干：stop wrong doing

To wash ones hands of: to refuse to take any responsibility for somebody. or something.

2)食言：to go back on one‟s word, to break one‟s word To eat one‟s words: to take back what one had done.

English learners should pay attention to cultural differences, or misunderstanding or stupid mistakes, may occur frequently.

3.2 Helping Learners Avoid Chinglish

“Chinglish is a kind of made-up English with Chinese characteristics. It is a temporary and inevitable linguistic phenomenon in the process of English learning. In the middle of the 20th Century it was called „pidgin‟. The word Chinglish is a fusion of „Chin‟ from Chinese and „glish‟ from English.”4

The cause of Chinglish is the Chinese process of thinking. People of English-speaking countries are not interfered by Chinese when they hear or

西京学院本科毕业论文 read English. Chinese people, when hearing or reading an English word, tend to find a Chinese word to replace it before they get its meaning. This is why Chinglish appear.

Peter Newmark point that whether a person writes or speaks well in a foreign language will be identified not by the grammar or vocabulary he uses but his collocations.5 It shows how important it is for English learners to avoid Chinglish. Then in what aspects should they avoid Chinglish?

3.2.1 Avoiding Linguistic Chinglish

English learners often equalize English words and Chinese Characters as a result of Chinese thinking mode. They often attempt to find a word or phrase to match that of English. This leads to Chinglish.

It is hoped that through learning the real English characteristics and analyzing the language differences between English and Chinese in word formation, word matching and usage, learners can avoid linguistic Chinglish.

3.2.1.1 Avoiding Wrong Word Formation

Learning the differences in word formation will avoid Chinglish in word formation. Here are some Chinglish word formation examples:

Table 2 Contrast Chinglish with Idiomatic English

Chinglish Idiomatic English Decimating path Descent Oil fate. / into Filling station

Complaining tell Customer service telephone

Careful meet Watch you head

Crippled restroom Public toilet for the disabled

西京学院本科毕业论文 There are three methods of English word formation, affixation, conversion and compounding. “Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to stems.”

“

Conversion is the word formation of new words by converting words of one

class to anther class.” The words do not change morphologically but in function. “Compounding, also called composition, is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems.” e.g. prepositions such as without, throughout; conjunctions such as however, moreover; pronouns such as oneself, somebody. According to Pyles and Algeo, words produced through affixation constitute 30% to 40% of all the new words, conversion 8% to 10%, and compounding 28% to 30%. Thus we can see that affixation is the main way to produce new words.

Affixation falls into two subclasses: prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes on roots. Prefixes modify the meaning of the root, e.g. adding a- to moral to make amoral, which means non-moral. Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to roots. It changes part of speech of the root, e.g. adding –eer to profit to form profiteer, which means person who makes large unfair profits. The root is the basis of affixation, adding affixes on which will produce new words with different meanings or in different classes. It is hard for learners to memorize tens of thousands of new words, but easy to memorize the affixes. Affixation is the key for learners to improve the building of words and phrases and get the meaning of them.

In English suffixation can show the part of speech, such as noun, adjective, adverb or verb.

Compounding is the formation of new words by joining two or more roots. Words formed in this way are called compounds. Most compounds consist of two roots but are formed on variety of patens. There are three major classes of compounds. Verb compounds are not as common as the other two

西京学院本科毕业论文 classes. There are some compounds which contain more than two roots, for example, god-knows-what, forget-me-not, under-the-weather felling.

In Chinese, except a few of suffixes, such as “子”, “儿”, “头” as noun suffixes, “地” as adverb suffixes and “的” as adjective suffixes, there are almost no suffixes at all.

The main method of Chinese word formation is compounding. There is also affixation in Chinese but the number of the affixes is small and unstable. Adding different affixes will make the words have the same meaning, so it is not so popular. Thus English learners should pay more attention to contrastive analysis on compounding.

3.2.1.2 Avoiding Wrong Matching of Words

There are some examples of Chinglish word matching.

1) “The price of the vegetables in the dining hall is very expensive.”Here “expensive” means “贵” but it shouldn‟t be matched like this. When expressing something is dear we should use high to match price.

2) “A group of ants, when we want to say living things, we should use colony.” “Group” is related to human.

So many examples show that wrong matching of words will lead to Chinglish.

Word matching is the co-occurrence relationship of words. The same as word formation, word matching in English and Chinese have both similarities and differences.

There are three main similarities between them. First, there is the word collocation. Take “cut” for example, to cut wheat (割麦子), to cut cake (切蛋糕), to cut finger-nail (剪指甲). In English “to cut” can match wheat, cake and finger-nail while in Chinese there should be “割”, “切”, and “剪”. Similarly, in Chinese there are also some words with strong collocation. For example, 打毛衣 (knit a sweater), 打文件 (type a document), 打瞌睡 (nod). Second,

西京学院本科毕业论文 the word matching happens in the same way. We take “heart” for example. 倾心 (to give one‟s heart to), 放心 (to set one‟s heart at ease), 关心 (to take to heart).Third, word matching is without theory. In other words, they are established by usage.

The main difference in word matching of the two languages is that in Chinese word collocation is stronger than in English. There are two reasons, one is that there are more matching characters in Chinese than in English, and the other is that the adjectives in Chinese are more than those in English.

Paying attention to word matching can help learners to achieve accuracy. It can help learners to achieve fluency which is one of the goals of English learning. In the communication of English learners, they can do it well if there are a lot of formulas in their mind. It can help English learners express ideas concisely, naturally and perfectly.

3.2.1.3 Avoiding Wrong Use of Idiom

“An idiom is a fixing group of words with a special meaning which is different from the meaning of the words that form it.” Idioms are colorful, forcible and thought-provoking, which consist of set phrases and short sentences, because they are loaded with the native cultures and ideas.

Here are some Chinglish idioms: one in a hundred (百里挑一), cotton clothes and vegetables (布衣蔬食). “One in a hundred” should be “one in a thousand”, because in English the expression of a large number of something is “thousand” while in Chinese it is “百”. “Cotton clothes and vegetables” should be “coarse clothes and simple fare” because when using this idiom Chinese people mean leading a simple life, but English people mean the favor of the rich.

The examples show that it is necessary for English leaner to learn the differences in idioms between English and Chinese.

First, differences in manners and customs. Dragon was a symbol of

西京学院本科毕业论文 power in feudal China. But in western countries, it was as a kind of fierce and cruel beast. There are some Chinese idioms like “乘龙快婿”, “望子成龙”，while in British people‟s mind “a dragon” means someone who is arrogant and domineering, and they usually use “ a tiger ” to replace it.

Second, there are differences in geographical features. China is an agricultural country, so there are a great many of idioms about agriculture, for instant, “斩草除根”, “面如土色”, “风调雨顺”, and so on. However, Britain is a number of islands, so there are a lot of idioms about water, fishing and sailing, such as. as weak as water, to miss a boat, and so on. The expression of the geographical direction of the two countries is different. Chinese people normally express directions of place with east and west before north and south, and put south before north, while English people are on the contrary, e. g. “转战南北”, “fight north and south ”.

Third, there are differences in allusion. Many Chinese idioms come from fables and mythology, e.g. “刻舟求剑”, “愚公移山”, “守株待兔”, and so on. Most of the English idioms are from Bible, Aesop‟s Fables and Greek-Roman mythology, such as. Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. Blot hot and cold, the apple of one‟s eye (apple in The Old Testament means pupil ).

Forth, there are differences in religious belief. Every nation has its own religious belief and culture. In English there are many idioms about God for he has the supreme power, e.g. Man proposes, and God disposes. But in China Buddhism is the most popular religion. The idiom “放下屠刀，立地成佛” shows the importance of Buddhism.

The two languages have the characteristics of idioms of semantic and structural stability. The words which make up idioms have their own meanings but are not often recognizable in meaning. For instance, none of the words in the idiom “till the cows come home” have the same meaning of the whole idiom. The structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable. There are three reasons. First, the constitution of idioms cannot be replaced.

西京学院本科毕业论文 Second, the word order cannot be inverted or changed. Third, many idioms are not grammatically analyzable, e.g. diamond cut diamond ( two parties are equally ) is incorrect in grammar, for normally the verb “cut” should take the third person singular –s as the subject diamond is singular.

All the differences of the idioms show that avoiding their wrong use deserves our attention in both linguistic and cultural aspects.

3.2.2 Avoiding Cultural Chinglish

Language is a product of social and cultural development. Thus no language can be separated from its social and cultural environment. Language and culture have a close relationship English. Culture is important to English learners, so they should enrich their knowledge of the humanities in a broad sense and thus improve their cultural competence. Both China and English are long-history countries. To learn English well, learners should learn the culture and analyze the differences between the two languages.

Not knowing English culture, English learners will produce some cultural Chinglish. There are a lot of cultural Chinglish examples:

1) “With a comet like him, nothing can be accomplished.”

“Comet” here in Chinese means person or thing that is thought to bring bad luck to somebody or something or means curse, but in English it doesn‟t mean that. There is another word, “jinx”, which has the same meaning as “comet”. For example, “There is a jinx on this car: it always gives me trouble.”

2) “This department store has set up a resting-place, much to the customers‟ appreciation.”

In English, “resting-place” means tomb. This sentence needs a word with the meaning of some place for a rest, so we use “lounge” instead of “resting-place”. Some people use “rest room” but it is also wrong because it‟s the euphemism of toilet.

西京学院本科毕业论文 3) “There aren‟t 300 Liang of silver buried here.”

There is a folk tale. A man buried his silver in the ground and put up a note, saying, “Three hundred ounces of silver is not buried here.” His neighbor stole the silver and live him a notes, “Your neighbor didn‟t steal it.” With the background of the story, it should be expressed like this, “A metaphor for one‟s being exposed by one‟s own vindication.”

The examples above show that culture comparison is an effective way to avoid Chinglish.

To avoiding Chinglish English, learners should memorize expressions of real English. Besides, they should know the culture of Britain and use the right diction in specific situations. At last they should think as English people do when they use English. All of those depend on learners‟ contrastive analysis of the two languages.

3.3 Helping Learners Improve Their Translation Skills

Translation is a bridge of communication. Different countries and nations have different language and culture. Translation is not only a kind of language activity, but also a kind of thinking activity. Because of the differences of history, region, custom, languages and cultures are different. Thus in the process of translation, the expression should follow the people‟s mind of the target language countries. English learners should learn how to express meaning by adjusting word order, sentence structure and paragraph structure. Besides, they should know the cultures of both countries.

3.3.1 Linguistic Skills

All the theories, methods and skills of translation are based on contrastive study. Through the contrast they can master the characteristics of the two languages and use them naturally. as we have analyzed, English and

西京学院本科毕业论文 Chinese are different in morphology, sentence, sentence structure, and paragraph structure and information distribution.

3.3.1.1 Differences in Word Order

There is a marked difference in the order of information in a sentence. In an English sentence, according to the speaker‟s point and interest the important information is always put at the beginning of the sentence. There are three methods to produce an English sentence:

1) Show the opinion at the beginning of the sentence and then tell the story. When there are both opinion and story in a sentence, we should give the opinion first and then tell the story.

2) Put the result at the beginning of the sentence and then give the reason. When there is cause-and-effect relationship in the sentence, most of the English people like to tell the result first, maybe because they think the result is more important than the reason.

3) Put the focus and important information at the beginning of the sentence and then give the secondary information. English people like to show the important information first and then give the secondary information such as time and places where the story happens.

In Chinese the word order in a sentence is on the contrary. That is to say, in a Chinese sentence, the story, reason and secondary information are put at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the opinion, result and focus. In a Chinese sentence, the order follows the process of the story, such as time and logic. In narration, we tell the story first and then give the opinion. In argument and description, we give the reason, purpose, condition first as, followed by the action or result. There are some examples:

1) Telling the story at the beginning of the sentence and then showing the opinion. For example:

能够在有生之年为国家做些事，是我最大的愿望和追求。(The wish

西京学院本科毕业论文 and pursuit of my life is to do something for my country.)

2) Giving the reason at the beginning of the sentence and then showing the result. For example:

由于身体各部分的功能不同，所以组成它们的细胞结构也必不相同。(Since the various parts of the body have different functions to perform the structure of their constitution cell must differ.)

3) Telling the secondary information first and then showing the focus and important information. For example:

很多老人都喜欢每天上午在公园清新的空气中钓鱼，下象棋。(Many elderly men like to fish or play Chinese chess in the fresh morning air in the park everyday.)

Analyzing the differences of word order between English and Chinese is an important translation skill for English learners.

3.3.1.2 Differences in Sentence Structure

The modes of thinking decide the sentence structure. Different modes of thinking between English and Chinese decide different sentence structures.

English people are concerned with the subject while the Chinese are concerned with the theme. The subject and the verb in English are the important parts of the sentence, which shouldn‟t be removed, but in Chinese they can be omitted. There are a lot of zero-subject construction sentence in Chinese. Look at the following sentences:

“Nowadays, the public is clapping their hands in applause for the great achievement we have made in placing cases on file for investigation and prosecution concerning the serious economic cases.”

“当今一些经济大案，立案查处，成绩卓然，群众拍手称快。”22 The way to produce a sentence in English is hypotaxis, while in Chinese it is parataxis. English is an additive language and Chinese is a synthetic language. An English sentence is like a tree with the subject and verb structure

西京学院本科毕业论文 as its truck and other parts as the branches. A Chinese sentence is like a piece of bamboo, all parts are paratactic. The parts of the sentence are connected by words in English but in Chinese all parts are logically connected. There are a great many of conjunctions and relative in English. There are a lot of clauses in a sentence to modify the object, while in Chinese there are a lot of short sentences.

3.3.1.3 Differences in Paragraph Structure

Paragraph is a part of an article, consisting one sentence or many sentences and expressing a relatively complete meaning. The paragraph structures are different in English and Chinese because of different modes of thinking.

There are two types of English paragraph. The first is “topic sentence—supportive sentence—conclusion sentence” structure. Most of English paragraphs have a topic sentence as the first sentence and several sentences to explain the opinion, then with a conclusion sentence as the ending. Second, there is no topic sentence but still a main idea in the paragraph. Unlike Chinese paragraph, there are a lot of linking words. In Chinese, however, there is a main idea, and the whole paragraph is centered on the main idea which looks incoherent in form. In fact, there is a logic relationship in the sentences of the paragraph. There are two kinds of paragraphs as follows:

Americans are people obsessed with child-rearing. In their books, magazines, talk shows, parents training courses, White House conferences and chats over the back fence, they endlessly debate the best way to raise children. Moreover, Americans do more than debating their theories; they translate them into action. They build playgrounds for the youngsters‟ pleasure, equip large schools for their education, and train skilled specialists for their welfare. The whole

西京学院本科毕业论文 industries in America are devoted to making children happy, healthy and wise

在非洲，每天早晨羚羊睁开眼睛，所想的第一件事就是：我要比跑得最快的狮子跑得快，否则，我就会被狮子吃掉。而就在同一时刻，狮子从睡梦中醒来，首先闪现在脑海里的一个念头就是：我必须能追上跑得最慢的羚羊，要不我就会被饿死。于是，几乎是同时，羚羊和狮子一跃而起，迎着朝阳跑去。生活就是这样，不论你是狮子还是羚羊，每当太阳升起的时候，都毫不迟疑地向前奔跑。

The difference in paragraph structure between English and Chinese is embodied in the mode of thinking. Understanding the difference, English learners will pay much attention to it and improve their translation skills.

3.3.2 Cultural Skills

It is hard for English learners to translate in the right way if they don‟t know the culture of Britain and China. There are too many reasons for why we should pay attention to culture difference, so we will explain it through examples as a supplement.

For example, in English, the formation of name is “given name + family name”, while in China it is “family name + given name”. Where do the differences come from? Because Britain is a country which worships individualism while China is a country which values the family tradition.

Translation is a tool of communication. It is more important to know the culture of both languages than the knowledge of the languages, because it will be used in all situations. So the effect of the culture on translation is important. To improve translation skills, English learners should have cultural awareness. Translation is a science as well as an art at the high level of language study. The disturbance of mother language in translation is much more than other factors.

西京学院本科毕业论文 CHEPTER Ⅳ CONCLUSION

To learn English well, English learners should make a contrast between English and Chinese, find their characteristics, which will help English learners to find the focus of study in improving their learning efficiency. After a long time of English study and contrastive study, learners can avoid the disturbance of the mother language.

Contrastive study can help English learners pay attention to word formation, word matching and idioms, through which they will avoid Chinglish. To learn and use idiomatic English, learners should know what the right one is. So they must know the characteristics of the two languages. Contrastive study will improve translation skills of English learners through contrast of word order, sentence structure and paragraph structure. Translation is the way to show the background in the two languages, so contrastive study can help learners improve their language ability. There is another important thing for English learners, to bear immind that is, culture is the basis of the language. Whatever you say should match the listeners‟ culture background, or your communication will fail. The purpose of using language is to get communication go on smoothly, so make the speaker understood is important.

English learners should use the mother language recourses of the language study. Through the contrast of the two languages they have learned, English learners can find regulations of English. Meanwhile, they should learn English thinking mode for the improvement of their language study.

In this paper, maybe I can not solve all the problems completely, and my paper is not perfect, but I believe there will be more English learners paying more attention to contrastive study, and they will learn English well.

西京学院本科毕业论文 REFERENCES

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西京学院本科毕业论文 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis in its present form is the result of much help and support from the following persons, to whom I would like to express my gratitude.

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis tutor Mr.Yin Hongbin. During the process of my thesis, he guides me to collect the materials and make clear the related questions. In addition, what impressed me most is not only his enlightening comments and careful corrections on the draft thesis but also his love, care and serious and responsible attitude. That is to say that without his help, the completion of this thesis would have been impossible.

Meanwhile, my hearty thanks would particularly go to my roommates, for their consideration and support during my tedious writing process.

Thank you very much!

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