Abstract:

Chinese language convention is a means to create a fluent translation and was once widely used in Chinese history of translation. However, ever since the late 1980s Chinese language convention has been disparaged and sparingly used in translation. In the light of this background the paper is to make a tentative study of Chinese language convention in English-Chinese translation by describing the nature of Chinese language convention, investigating its drawbacks and discussing its use in translation from the perspective of functionalism. The paper aims to argue that there is much room for its application if it is handled properly on condition that the principle of translation is  abided by. The paper mainly consists of four parts. Part one investigates diachronically the state of Chinese language convention in translation and reviews some scholars’ standpoints concerned. In part two we roughly define Chinese language convention based on Qu Qiubai’s classification of Chinese, then closely examine and highlight its nature against English structure. In part three, drawbacks of Chinese convention in translation are fully explained. Part four takes as theoretical base Nida’s functional equivalence and some propositions of foreign scholars concerned and argues for the role of Chinese language convention in translation through illustration of essay style and some other text types.

Key Words:  E-C translation; Chinese language convention; drawbacks; study of its applicability

摘要：

汉语体式是让译文流畅出彩的重要手段，曾在中国翻译史上广泛采用。但自上世纪80年代以来汉语体式一直受到译界的诟病。在这一背景下，本文拟对英汉翻译中的汉语体式进行研究：描述汉语体式的特性；检视它在翻译中缺陷；从功能角度探讨其在翻译中的使用。旨在说明：在遵守翻译准则的前提下，只要运用恰当，汉语体式在英汉翻译中尚有足够的运用空间。本文分主要分为四个部分。第一部分历时地回顾了汉语体式在翻译中的状态和一些学者对于汉语体式的看法；第二部分在瞿秋白对汉语分类的基础上初步定义了汉语体式，以英语结构性语言相对，描述并凸显了汉语体式的特性；第三部分充分检视了汉语体式在翻译中的缺陷；第四部分以奈达的功能对等，西方翻译史上与功能相关的言说为理论基础，通过对散文体和其他某些文体翻译的论证阐释，说明汉语体式在翻译中的地位和作用。

关键词：英汉翻译；汉语体式；缺陷；适应性研究