汉语话题结构在英译时的主语选择

On Subject-option in C-E Translation of Chinese Topic Structures

汉语与英语属于不同语言类型的事实决定了这两种语言有很多的不同之处,汉英语中的主语(英语中形式主语除外)都是天然的话题(主位)。英语的主语只有名词或名词性的词语才能担当,而汉语除了名词外,动词、形容词、副词、介词短语、主谓结构(小句)都能做主语,这就在翻译的时候产生了转换的问题。而汉语无主句的存在又直接导致了翻译时需要运用补充的手段来弥补主语的缺失。因此,翻译的前提应该是对源语和目的语的特点有充分的了解,这样才能得到符合目的语规范的译文。

The subject in both English and Chinese is the natural topic.In English only noun or noun phrase can be the subject,while in Chinese,in addition to noun and noun phrases,verbs,adjectives,adverbs,prepositional phrase and subject-verb clause structure can also function as the subject of a sentence,which must be replaced in C-E translation.Another challenge in translation comes from the subject-absent sentences that are common in Chinese.Therefore,an adequate knowledge of the features of both the source and target language is essential before proper to the target language translation can be rendered.