语言类型学视域下汉译英转换中关系从句的使用——以大学英语四级考试真题为例

A Language Typological Study of Students' Use of Relative Clause in Chinese—English Translation in CET-4 Tests

关系从句是英语语言中非常普遍的句法现象,反映了语言的递归性。而从语言类型学角度出发,研究大学生在汉英转换过程中关系从句的使用可知:就可及性而言,母语为汉语的英语学习者在大学英语四级翻译中产出的英语关系从句总体上与可及性等级序列一致;就生命度而言,有生命名词倾向于在句中做主语,无生命名词作宾语;就嵌入型概括而言,母语为汉语的英语学习者倾向于使用右置的英语关系从句,内嵌的关系从句中,核心名词在主句中做主语。其关键在于,英语水平高低直接影响翻译质量。

Recursiveness of the English language is seen in the wide and frequent use of relative clauses.Analyzing Chinese students＇ performance in the translation section of CET-4 tests revealed that their use of relative clauses was consistent with the accessibility hierarchy;in terms of animacy,the sentence subjects are dominantly animate nouns,while inanimate nouns tend to be used as the object;in regard to the positioning of the clause,they used the right side more often;in embedded clauses,the core noun was more often used as the subject of the clause.In general,their English level determined the quality of their translations.