Abstract：
According to Li and Thompson, English is a subject-prominent language and Chinese a topic-prominent language. A subject-prominent language is the language in which the grammatical units of subject and predicate are basic to the structure of sentences. A topic-prominent language is the language in which the information units of topic and comment are basic to the structure of sentences. Subject and topic is a pair of notions which are often mentioned in the comparison and analysis of English and Chinese. Subject is the noun or noun phrase that has a “doing” or “being” relationship with the verb in a sentence. It assumes an indispensable status in the sentence structure of English. Whereas topic is typically a noun phrase (or a verb phrase) that tells what the sentence is about. It occurs in sentence-initial position and may be followed by a pause or a pause article. It takes the lead in the organization of a Chinese sentence. Analysis and comparison of subject-prominent language and topic-prominent language not only help people to deepen the understanding of these two languages but are especially valuable to the research of English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation, since many translation theories, methods and techniques are based on comparison and contrast. Based on the differences between subject-prominent language and topic-prominent language, subject and topic, the paper puts forward some methods as to English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation. Because English is a subject-prominent language and Chinese is a topic-prominent language, it is an important task for the translators to determine the topics when doing English-Chinese translation. The objects, predicates, adverbials and predicatives in English can be shifted into topics in Chinese. Dealing with the topics properly is also essential during the Chinese-English translation. The three major translation methods are corresponding method, adding method and adjustment method.

Key words：English; subject-prominent language; Chinese; topic-prominent language; translation

摘  要：
李纳和汤姆森认为英语是主语显著的语言，而汉语是主题显著的语言。主语显著语言中主谓语法单位是句子的基本结构。话题显著语言中话题与评述这一信息单位是句子的基本结构。在英汉对比分析中，主语和话题是一对经常涉及的概念。主语必须是名词或名词性短语，在句子中与谓语动词有一种“做什么”或者“是什么”的关系。在英语句子结构中起到举足轻重的作用。然而话题可以是名词短语或者动词短语，它讲述句子是有关什么内容的。它居于句首，其后可能会跟有语气词。话题在汉语句子构成中起主导作用。对主语显著语言和话题显著语言进行对比分析，不但有助于加深人们对两种语言的理解，而且对英汉及汉英翻译研究有很大帮助，因为许多翻译理论、方法和技巧都是以对两种语言对比分析为基础的。本文基于主语显著语言和话题显著语言以及主语和话题的差异提出了一些英汉和汉英翻译方法。因为英语是主语显著语言而汉语是话题显著语言，所以翻译者在进行英汉翻译时的一个重要任务就是确定话题。英语中的宾语，谓语，状语及表语都可以转换成汉语中的话题。而在汉英翻译中，处理好汉语中的话题也同样重要。三种主要的翻译方法为对应法，增添法和调整法。

关键词：英语；主语显著语言；汉语；话题显著语言；翻译