Introduction

This book has been prepared for foreign students as a part of their degree course of English-Chinese translation which examines the theory and techniques based on contrastive linguistics and comparative exercises.In the process of such a translation problems often occur at phonological, lexical, syntactic, textual and cultural levels when the two languages with two different cultures function as the source and target languages.What is the yardstick to go by in the translation of a text from one language into the other? What is exactly meant by“equivalent value”in translation? Why is it necessary to change the part of speech of the corresponding word which is available in both languages? Which is correct:“I want some pain killers for my headache”or“I want some pain killers against my headache”? Is it right to say that“你吃了吗？”is almost equal to“The weather is nice today”in the British English? Does“What animals do you belong to? ”wrongly translated from Chinese“你属什么？”make any sense? How much should a translator care about the genre conventions and register ranges? Are social values, political bias, religious beliefs, customs and institutions important enough as to aid personal interpretation and understanding of a translated text? Problems as such constantly worry student translators.

Contrastive analysis, in one way or another, began when bilingual translation was first done, but it was not regarded as an academic subject until Robert Lado proposed it in the late 1950s' as a means of identifying similarities and differences between two languages in their teaching and translation.Since then contrastive linguistic issues have been widely discussed and written about, many translators and professionals have contributed to and greatly benefited from symposiums on the subject, and many university courses made full use of the achievements therefrom.

However contrastive linguistic theory may not be considered as the only tool serving one's translation.Students are advised to familiarize themselvs with necessary knowledge of the phonology, vocabulary, grammar and culture related to English-Chinese translation.They should be aware of the linguistic differences between the two languages, understand their lexical and syntactic features, bear in mind the cultural factors that may affect any translation.

Students need not feel disheartened at their first thrust into the world of ideas and concepts.It must be clearly understood that theory is not regarded as an end by itself. Therefore, together with the explanation and discussion of basic concepts and methodology, critical analysis of chosen translations and textual samples are provided.Students are expected to translate the cross-purpose texts, and step by step, they will feel confident in dealing with different styles of writing.

For most of the students taking translation as a subject their first experience of the English language occurs at school.It seems to them that translation means nothing but giving the meaning of what is written in the form of another language, including random repetition, casual summary, personal comments, ungrammatical abridgment or even a newly made story.To help them out, the aim of college trainslation training is, therefore, set to combine necessary theory teaching with a disciplined application of language skills, and this is what the present course book exactly offers.Patient teachers will be happy to see how potential translators are brought up one after another thereby.After al l, translators are made rather than born.

This book may be used with translation-oriented college students.Ideally two classroom hours per week are necessary in a 20-week semester.Every chapter may be elaborated or re-proportionated as the case may be, with the multi-purpose texts to round off. As for MA candidates, general discussions and seminars on the translation theory and its application can be arranged prior to assignments to be tackled on separate occasions.