第十讲：句子翻译中的语序问题
Translation skill ---- Restructuring within the sentence
句内语序的调整
I. Different word order in English and Chinese
In the practice of English Chinese translation, we often have to adjust or rearrange the word order on account of the different syntax of these two languages. For instance, in English attributive phrases and clauses usually follow the words being modified (antecedents), whereas in Chinese such phrases and clauses always precedes the words being modified.
Most of the information we have got is through that channel.
The sequence of events is also different.
His address is 3612 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19104, USA.
The sequence of the adverbials of time and place is different. Adverbial of manners My uncle passed away in hospital at 2:30 a.m. on September 12, 2003.
Possessive pronouns and personal pronouns can precede the person in English. Chinese is different.
The fear that their port would lose its importance also worried the people of Baltimore.
Young as he is, the little boy has learned a lot.
Besides, there are nine types of inversion so far as grammatical relations are concerned according to some linguists.
Interrogative, imperative and exclamatory inversions
Hypothetical inversion: 假设倒装
Had you come yesterday, you could have seen him here.
Balance inversion: 平衡倒装
Through a gap came an elaborately described ray.
Link inversion: 衔接倒装
On this depends the whole argument.
Signpost inversion：点题倒装
By strategy is meant something wider. 战略（策略）的意义比较广
Negative inversion：否定倒装
Not a word did he say.
Metrical inversion: 韵律倒装
As pants the hart(雄鹿) for cooling streams. Pant for: long for
2. Restructuring in English-Chinese translation
1) the order of clauses in English and Chinese
English sentences are generally bound by syntactical rules, and they are often arranged in order of importance; while Chinese sentences are more flexible, and usually arranged according to the sequence of time. And when English is head-focus, Chinese tends to be end-focus.
1. We had been dismayed at home while reading of the natural calamities that followed one after another fro three years after we left China in 1959.
2. Rocket research has confirmed a strange fact which had already been suspected that there is a “high-temperature belt” in the atmosphere, with its center roughly thirty miles above the ground.
2) the order of subordinate clauses in a complex sentence
Adverbial clauses of condition, purpose, concession or cause, etc normally have a preceding position in Chinese.
3．With all his efforts he failed at last.
4．The government is determined to keep up the pressure whatever the cost it will pay in the end.
3）the position of expressions expressing judgment or conclusion
When a “that” clause, expressing a judgment or conclusion, is used together with the formal subject “it”, restructuring is often called for in Chinese translation. Besides, the adverbial expressing judgment in English is usually end-positioned in Chinese translation.
5．It was a keen disappointment that I had to postpone the visit I had intended to pay to China in January.
6. I believe equally that it is in the interests of the world as a whole that Europe should increasingly unite and speak with a common voice.
7．It was really a mystery to the neighbors that Mary, the ugly woman, could succeed in ordering about her husband, the strong-armed blacksmith, well-known far and wide, and having him where she wanted him.
Adverbial expressing judgment
8．They, not unexpectedly, did not respond.
9. Illogically, she had expected some kind of miracle solution.
10. With the fear of largely imaginary plots against his leadership, his self-confidence seemed totally to desert him.
3. Restructuring in Chinese-English translation
A. 句中成分的大小、距离，汉语的语序与英语语序正好相反。
1.他在武汉工程大学外语学院办公室工作。
He works at the office of the Foreign Language School of Wuhan Institute of Technology.
2.中国湖北武汉江夏区流芳街特一号
武汉市工艺品美术总公司出口大楼
B. 有些并列成分的组合，隐含着逻辑事理的制约，并列的概念之间有轻重、主次、高低、强弱、大小的差别。例如：
大小：big and small
左右：right and left
明辨是非：tell right from the wrong
东南西北north and south, east and west
衣食住行：food, clothing, shelter and transportation
你、我、他you, he and I
社会主义现代化强国 a modern, powerful socialist country
一位美国现代优秀作家an outstanding contemporary American writer
分清敌我draw a clear distinction between ourselves and the enemies
1.救死扶伤、实行革命的人道主义。
\英语的排列法进行调整，语气较轻的部分放到前面。
2．安顺是一座有悠久历史的文化名城，在三千多年前，这里已有人类繁衍生息。
Anshun city has a long history as a famous cultural city. Our ancestors lived and multiplied in this area as long as 3,000 years ago.
在翻译过程中为了清晰表达意见，要进行语序的调整。如在列举一系列名城或现象时，汉语通常习惯把概括性、总结性、总数的词语放在列举名词之后，而英语习惯放在列举名词之前。
1．这所大学现有电子计算机、地球物理、遗传工程等三个新建的专业。
2. 这家商店卖香烟、帽子、糖果、罐头等杂货物品。
2. 句中多个动词分句成分的处理
汉语句中的事件与行为均按其发生的先后顺序排列，它反映了人们逻辑思维的过程及中国人对事件发展的客观规律的认识。而英美人的逻辑思维过程与我们不同。例如：
1．他起身拿了雨伞就走了。
2．没有票怎么去看电影呢？
3．我吃了午饭就出去给你买药。
句中修饰成分的处理
2.1．多个状语时，状语语序的调整与安排
汉语中有时会出现多个状语或修饰语，而且状语一般都挤在被修饰的动词前。而在英语中状语的位置比较灵活，可在句首、中或末尾。在英译时要充分利用这种灵活性。
例如：将两个状语分别置于句首、句末，可以使句子显得平衡。或者，把一些状语转成句子的其它成分，以减少状语的数量。
3. 1.1 分置状语以求结构平衡
1．民族地区在国家的扶持和其它地区的支援下，团结一致，进行着经济建设。
民族地区：ethnic minority areas ；
Assisted by the State and supported by other regions,ethnic minority areas，united as one, are engaged in the economic construction.
2．具有浓郁的东方气息的中国地毯交易会自1975年起已先后在天津、北京、上海举办过19届。
中国地毯交易会：China Carpet Fair ；东方气息：Oriental flavor
3.2. 定语语序的调整, 前置定语与后置定语的选择
在现代英语中，为了追求语言简洁，其定语发生了一些变化：
（1）前置定语形容词常被名词替代
（2）后置定语可转为前置定语。如后置定语结构较简单，仅是介词加名词，常可转为前置定语。（3）前置定语也要受一定限制：不能过于复杂，名词不能过多重叠等。
由于英语往往要比原中文长，翻译时应尽量用词简洁，使译文变短。而前置定语往往能使语言简练，但有时定语过长，也不要勉强使用。
3.2.1 前置定语的使用
我在耶鲁（Yale）上大一时，有7个从中国大陆来的本科生，如今有两人受聘于大名鼎鼎的华尔街投资银行。
In my freshman year at Yale, there were seven undergraduates from the Chinese mainland, and now two are employed by big-name Wall Street investment banks.
3.2. 2 后置定语的使用
如果前置结构过于复杂，也可考虑改用后置定语。
上海将建成国际经济、金融、贸易和航运中心。
Shanghai will turn into an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center.
Shanghai will turn into an international center of/for economy, finance, trade and shipping.
3.2.3 多定语与长定语的处理
平衡前置定语与后置定语
1．我国进行了卓有成效的双边和多边外交活动。
China has conducted fruitful diplomatic activities in both bilateral and multilateral contexts.
2.中国以崭新的面貌向全世界宣布旧中国积贫积弱、受尽屈辱、没有外交尊严的时代一去不复返了。
Put the following Chinese into English:
1. 我们相信，在新的一年里，通过双方的努力，我们的业务和友好合作关系会得到发展。
We
2. 然而，太极拳(shadowboxing)适合任何人学习，不受年龄、性别或体质的限制，所以在许多看重健康的年轻人中也流行起来。