汉语句尾助词“了”英译中的“时”的问题——以《骆驼祥子》两种英文译本为例

Choice of Tense in the English Translation of Chinese Sentence Final Particle le A Study Based on Two English Versions of Luo Tuo Xiang Zi

"界"是句尾助词"了"的核心意义,其功能是表示"状态的变化"。对《骆驼祥子》两种英文译本的有关数据统计和比较分析表明,句尾助词"了"可以翻译成目的语中的过去、现在和将来三种时态,这进一步证明了句尾助词"了"并非"时"的标志,翻译中"时"的选择主要依赖于时间词语和其他语境信息。

'Boundary' is the key feature of sentence final particle le, whose function is to manifest a 'change of state'. Contrastive studies and statistical analysis of the two English versions of Luo Tuo Xiang Zi reveal that sentences ended with sentence final particle le have been translated with different tenses in the target English language, which affirms that sentence final particle le is not a tense marker and the choice of tense in the translation is made according to the temporal adverbials or expressions and, in the absence of them other contextual factors.