Abstract:

Translation activity plays a very important role in international communication. Many translators haven’t realized that translation is a special kind of thinking activity. They view translation just as a linguistic activity which can be achieved by word for word translation. This is the main cause of Chinglish. Chinglish is a kind of English form reflected in speech or writing influenced by Chinese thinking modes. It is mostly correct in grammar but not acceptable by native English speakers. Apart from grammar mistakes, it has become the major problem in Chinese to English translation. This thesis gives several main manifestations of Chinglish in lexical choices, sentence making and idiomatic usages. It also provides examples and analysis between Chinglish version and the correct version to show how Chinglish occurs. By comparing the four main differences in thinking modes, it provides a detailed illustration on how people of the two different thinking modes organize their language. Possible solutions are still discussed in the thesis to help minimize or eliminate Chinglish and improve translation quality.

Keywords：Translation；Chinglish；Thinking Mode

摘要：

翻译在国际交流中起着重要作用。许多翻译人员并没有意识到翻译是一种特殊的思维活动。他们认为翻译仅仅是一种逐字逐词翻译的语言活动。这是中式英语的主要成因。中式英语是一种在表达或者书写上受中式思维影响的英语形式。虽然中式英语语法大都正确，但却难以被英语母语使用者所接受。它已经成了除语法问题外汉英翻译的主要问题。本片文章列举了中式英语在词汇选择，句子组成以及习惯用语等方面的表现，并且提供了例句及分析来对比中式英语和正确译文的区别，探究中式英语如何发生。通过对比两种不同思维模式来具体解释处于不同思维模式的人如何组织语言。本文也讨论了一些可行的解决办法来减少或消除中式英语，提高翻译质量。

关键词：翻译;中式英语;思维模式

1 Introduction
For a long time, people thought translation was simply a linguistic undertaking. J. C. Catford  gave a definition on it: “replacement of source language grammar and lexis with consequential replacement of source language phonology/ graphology by (non-equivalent) target language phonology/graphology.” If this definition is right, then translation will be an activity of decoding from the source language and encoding into target languages without any complexity. However, it proves that translation is more than that. If translation is done in this way, then Chinglish occurs. Chinglish is a kind of incomplete translation from Chinese to English according to Chinese thinking modes. It’s neither Chinese nor English. The differences between Chinese and Western thinking are the main cause of Chinglish. “Translation is a special kind of thinking activity, which is reflected in realistic translation thinking with a certain structure pattern and activity form. It restricts and affects the quality of translation activity.” This study discusses how the different thinking modes of Chinese and westerners affect translation. And it provides some suggestions for translators to make better performance in translation.