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Logic In Chinese English Translation English Language Essay

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: English Language
Wordcount: 5649 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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Translation is not only about language, but also it is associated with many non-language factors. Logic is the most active and important factor. A translator in Hungary said that translation is a logic activity; Translation work is the product of logical events. Qian Gechuan said that logic is the basic factor of the translator, all the translation should conform to logic and reason, and otherwise, the translation would be wrong. As we all know, language is the material form of thinking existence. The translation process is not a simple, straight line from one language to another language, but thinking as an intermediary between two languages which is the end of translation. The Soviet linguist, Barl HuDaLuoFu once gave an example, “John is in the pen”. Nobody will translate “pen” into”笔”, but only translate it into “牲口圈”, because”人在钢笔里” is not reasonable. This shows that in translation there always some illogical language problems which need to use logical thinking to judge and solve. It is obvious that there is a close relation between the translation and logic. Therefore, the original translator should fully understand the logic of the source text and make the target text smooth and consistent. To study logic in translation can help us correctly understand the nature of translation. The article from the differences of way of logical thinking between Chinese and English, the explicitation of logical relation in Chinese-English translation and logic conversion three sections to study the logic of Chinese-English translation with a purpose of revealing some translation laws.

【Key words】 Logic; Translation; Logic conversion; Logical thinking; The explicitation of logical relation

汉英翻译的逻辑研究

【摘要】 翻译不仅仅是个语言é-®é¢˜¼ˆè¯æ±‡ã€è¯­æ³•ã€ä¿®è¾žç­‰¼‰å®ƒæ˜¯ç‰µæ¶‰åˆ°è®¸å¤šéžè¯­è¨€æ-¹é¢å› ç´ ¼Œé€»è¾‘便是其中最活跃、最重要的因素。匈牙利的一位翻译家说过翻译是一çé€»è¾‘活动¼›ç¿»è¯‘作品是逻辑活动的äºç‰©ã€‚钱歌川说¼šé€»è¾‘是翻译者必须具有的基本要素¼Œå‡¡æ˜¯ç¿»è¯‘出来的一å­-一句都必须合乎逻辑、合乎情理¼Œå¦åˆ™å¿…然有误。ä¼-所周知¼Œè¯­è¨€æ˜¯æ€ç»´å­˜åœ¨çš„物质形式。而翻译的过程并非简单的、直线式的由一çè¯­è¨€è¿‡æ¸¡åˆ°å¦ä¸€çè¯­è¨€¼Œåœ¨ä¸¤çè¯­è¨€ä¸­é-´è¿˜æœ‰ä¸€ä¸ªæ€ç»´ä½œä¸ºä¸­ä»‹¼Œå¹¶ä¸”又是翻译的落脚点。苏联语言学家巴尔胡达ç½-夫曾举过这样一个例子¼š “John is in the pen”. 任何人也不会把句中的 “pen” 译成”笔”¼Œè€Œåªèƒ½è¯‘成”牲口圈”¼Œå› ä¸º”人在钢笔里”不合事理。这说明在翻译中常会碰到需要用逻辑思维来判æ-­å’Œè£å†³ä¸€äº›ä¼¼ä¹Žä¸åˆé€»è¾‘语言现象的é-®é¢˜ã€‚由此可聼Œç¿»è¯‘与逻辑休戚与共的关系。因此翻译者应该全面地理è£åŽŸæ-‡çš„逻辑从而使译æ-‡é€šé¡ºã€è¿žè´¯ã€‚研究翻译中的逻辑可以帮助我们正确地理è£ç¿»è¯‘çš„æ€è´¨ã€‚本æ-‡ä»Žæ±‰è‹±ç¿»è¯‘逻辑思维æ-¹å¼çš„不同¼Œæ±‰è‹±ç¿»è¯‘逻辑关系的显åŒ-和逻辑转换这三个æ-¹é¢å¯¹æ±‰è‹±ç¿»è¯‘逻辑做了研究æ-¨åœ¨æ­ç¤ºæ±‰ç¿»è¯‘的一些è„律。

【关键词】 逻辑¼›ç¿»è¯‘¼›é€»è¾‘转换¼›é€»è¾‘思维¼›é€»è¾‘关系的显åŒ-

A Study of Logic in Chinese-English Translation

1. Introduction

Logic is a kind of abstract thinking, and it is also a process of thinking which through conception, judgment, inference and demonstration to understand and distinguish the objective world. One of the basic differences between Chinese and western way of thinking is that the former focuses on intuition, while the latter focuses on logic. Therefore, in the course of Chinese-English translation, what matters much for the translator is to analyze the implicit and logical relations between the sentences in the source text by employing Chinese grammatical knowledge and logical thinking. And then, the translator should transform the relations and rearrange the sentences according to the way of thinking of English and syntactic structures. In doing so, the target text could be more idiomatic.

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Logical thinking is also known as theoretical thinking and it arises as thinking and the understanding of the structure and functioning of law. It is recognized that things can be achieved only through logical thinking, then grasp the law of its nature. There is no exception as a bilingual translation transformation, and its whole process of logical thinking are all subject to the logical thinking. In translation, if the translator is not familiar with the thinking differences of the English and Chinese, there will be “hard-translation”, and “mistranslation”.

Differences way of logical thinking between Chinese and English

2.1 The source of “logic”

From the etymological point of view, the “logic” comes from the Ancient Greek “Logos” (Transliteration: logos.) Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus introduces the “logos” to philosophy, and then it becomes one of the central subjects of Western philosophy. The meaning of the word is wide, and it covers the talk, write, think, reason, formulas and principles. It is through the “Logos” that we can get a glimpse of “the identity of language and thought, unity of language and philosophy”.[1]

Differences of way of thinking between English and Chinese

As we all know, language is the carrier of culture and thinking, logical thinking is reflected in language. “Way of thinking is the integration and unification of the form, way and process of thinking which the main object is reflected in the process of thinking”.[4] Due to the geographical structure, and natural climatic and environmental factors such as long exposure to the religion and ethnic which

gradually forms an unique cultural tradition and way of thinking. The way of thinking reflects in the language, it makes each language has its own unique internal logic. In essence, differences in the way of thinking are the performance of cultural differences.

East and West belong to two different cultural systems; ways of thinking will be different. Fu Lei¼Œa translator once said: “The ways of thinking of Asians and Westerners have basic differences. Our people focus on synthesis, induction, suggestion and implicitation; Westerners focus on analysis, subtle twists and turns”. [3]

In other words, the basic characteristics of different ways of thinking between English and Chinese are intuition and logic. Generally speaking, the traditional Chinese thinking through contemplation realization, inspiration, insight, but without strict logical procedures and access to the overall feeling and general understanding.Western traditional thinking focuses on science and reason, through logic it gains the nature and laws of things in demonstration. [2] This different ways of thinking reflect in the language, that is, different language forms. Interlingua translation is not only an activity between Interlingua transitions, but also an activity of thinking; the logic must play an important role. Newmark, the British scholar in translation theory and translation skills, wrote, “If we have studied logic, the translator would be able to assess which parts are clear, which parts have the implied meaning; in choice of words, the logic is also a direction of specified compass needle.” In the process of translation, the translator should strive to grasp the logic of the original sentence (which has explicit relation and implicit relation, the translator should pay more attention to implicit relation), and determine the level and structure arrangement of the translation. From different point of view, the author superficially discusses the logic of the translation. Chinese and English belong to different languages; there are many differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

The hypotaxis and parataxis between English and Chinese

Nida had thought that the most important difference of English and Chinese in linguistics may be the difference between hypotaxis and parataxis. In English and most Indo-European, a large number of affiliations are stated by the connected words if, although, because, when, in order to, so and so that. [5] The so-called parataxis refers to the arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them. The hypotaxis refers to the dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses with connectives. In short, Chinese mainly based on word order changes, the linguistic context and logical implication to achieve the purpose of clear ideas. Such as, “the road is slippery, he cannot walk fast” (the clauses are cause relation); If you add the implicit logical words, it will appear some of procrastination. And English pays attention to tenses, inflections, and use more logical connectives to explain the syntax within a sentence, between sentences, and paragraphs. Such as: While I admit that here are problems, I don’t agree that they

cannot be solved. If the “while” were deleted, it would be a wrong sentence. Language differences in this respect are the differences of way of thinking. In translation, to gain flexible conversion the translators not only needs solid bilingual skills, but also they should attach great importance to the deep-rooted unique way of logical thinking which caused by cultural accumulation. This means that translation is the transformation, deformation and re-creation of a culture, philosophy, and ideology in another culture, thought and ideology. [6]

The explicitation of logical relation in Chinese-English translation

Based on the above understanding, Chinese-English translation process can be summarized as follows: logic analysis – English thinking- comprehensive expression.

In Chinese to English translation, it is critical for the translator to use the Chinese grammar and logical thinking to dialysis the implicit relation, level relation and modified relation between sentences, and then use English logical thinking and sentence structure, complemented by appropriate translation skills to correctly express the original “flavor”. As Joan • Ms. Pinkham said in “Identify Chinglish”, “Most often, when logical relations between ideas have only to be suggested in Chinese, they must be plainly stated in English”. [7]

3.1 The definition of explicitation

The explicitation in translation refers to the translator’s efforts to make explicit the implicit relationship between sentences in the source language.

Theory supposition

Qian Zhongshu said I first find myself prefer to read Linshu’s translation, but rather than read Hague’s original text. Linshu’s writing is bright, but Hague’s dialogue is boring and rough.

Germany functionalism, Justa Helz Mantari divided translation to implicit translation and explicit translation, he pointed out that the implicit translation tries to completely maintain the original text’s function and makes the target text seems to be the same as the original work; the explicit translation is to make the reader realize the article is target text.

In Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation, Blum Kulka pointed out a successful translation needs to deal with the text and discourse. The process of the translator explains the original text may lead to the target text tediously longer than the source text. This redundant phenomenon may be caused by the improved explicit degree of the cohesion. She believes that the explicit cohesive relation in every part of the text and one language’s grammatical system are connected with each other. The two languages’ grammatical systems are different, so their ways of cohesion are different. When one language is translated into another language and needs to make

cohesive conversion, this kind of cohesive conversion often results in explicitation or implicitation of the text’s cohesive relation.

3.3 Adding connective words to make the sentence explicit

Some Chinese sentences don’t use logical relation’s connective words, but the internal logical relation can be inferred from the context. The translator uses some connective words to state the logical relation within sentence, so the source text’s implicit cohesion transformed to explicit cohesion. For example:

(1). 我们应该互相尊重¼Œäº’相学习¼Œå-长补短¼Œå…±åŒè¿›æ­¥ã€‚We should respect and learn from each other and draw upon other’s strong points to offset one’s deficiencies for achieving common progress.

(2). 道路是曲折的, 前途是光明的. The future is bright while the road ahead is tortuous. [Analysis] We are familiar with this statement, the implicit concession relations are clear, and the corresponding translation manifested “while”, otherwise it would not comply with the expressions in English.

(3). ä»-是广东人, 我们能从ä»-的口音中听出来. [Analysis] The two clauses are causal relation, a conjunctive word should be added in English translation, and we try to translate it as follows: He is a Cantonese, as we can perceive from his accent. The translation (1) (2) (3) not only manifests the internal logical relation, but also is very loyal.

However, our practical translation is by no means confined to this simple correspondence. For example:

(4). 最近二三十年来, ä¸-ç•Œç‘学技术的发展æ-¥æ-°æœˆå¼‚, 专业åŒ-分工更细, 协作è„模更å¤ã€‚[Analysis] “最近二三十年来”is a time adverbial, and is easy to handle. Carefully read the following clauses, we can see that the latter parallel clauses are the “results” of the previous clause. Try to translate it as follows: Over the last two or three decades, the world science and technology have advanced day by day, resulting in a more minute division of labor on the basis of specification and in more extensive cooperation. Though the translation not directly uses obvious conjunctive word, it cleverly uses present participle phrase “resulting in” shows the causal relation between the sentences.

(5). 在20 ä¸-纪的百年历程中, 亚洲人民为争å-国家独立和民æ-è£æ”¾, 为摆脱贫穷落后, 实现发展繁荣, 进行了不屈不挠的æ–争, å-å¾-了举ä¸-瞩目的成就, 为亚洲和ä¸-界的和平做出了重å¤è´¡çŒ®ã€‚[Analysis] “为争å-“⋯, “为摆脱⋯” is the purpose of “进行了不屈不挠的æ–争”and as a purpose adverbial. “进行了⋯⋯”, “å-å¾-了⋯⋯” are two parallel verb phrases. “为亚洲⋯⋯” is the results adverbial, which means “为亚洲和ä¸-界的和平做出了重å¤è´¡çŒ®”。 In the course

of the 20th century, the Asian people waged an unyielding struggle to win national independence and liberation, get rid of poverty and backwardness, and bring about development and prosperity, and scored remarkable achievements. All this has contributed significantly to peace and development in Asia and the world at large.

In addition to the above analysis, when the long sentence is translated into English, it uses “All this” as the subject, and translates”为亚洲⋯⋯”into a single sentence, the purpose of this translation is to avoid the previous sentence being too long, more importantly, it stresses the”贡献”.

In summary, in English translation we should pay attention to the explicit of the implicit logic relation and according to the logic analysis – English thinking – comprehensive expression to flexibly adjust the original structure to meet the English expression and reproduce the original form. Of course, English learners not only should pay attention to the macro differences between parataxis and hypotaxis, but also should practice, review and accumulate a lot in translation to make their own translation level improved.

4. The logic conversion in translation

Logic differences between the English and Chinese cause great difficulties in translation, so translators convert the logic. This logic conversion is mainly reflected in the words, sentences, and chapter levels. Levels of words, in the choice of meaning and analysis of the implicit relation of the words, logic conversion is needed. Sentence level, it is necessary to converse logic in the analysis of English subject omission or predicate structure, deal with affirmation and negation, the relationship between explicit and implicit, active and passive voice and the overall logic of sentence structure. Chapter level, the translation should be based on a variety ofcohesive devices in English to achieve the conversion between explicit and implicit

relation, “bamboo-based” and “water-based” text.

Logic conversion should be based on correctly understand the logic of the source texts. If the logic of the source text is abnormal, we should use the original language’s logical thinking to analyze, do not “forced reasoning”. Logical thinking can focus on the words, sentences, and chapter three levels.

4.1 The logic conversion in words level

Words are an essential part of the language; they are composed by surface meaning and deeper meaning. The translator must choose the correct meaning in the translation. In addition to relying on the books, the choice and extending of the words meaning depends on the context logic to a large extent, especially translation is influenced by the thinking habit and cultural tradition, and the words with an extending meaning and strong cultural color, the translator should depend on the original logical thinking habits to analyze and determine, through the logical relations

of the context, digging deeper meaning with context, choosing the right meaning, then based on the target language to make logical choice. Finally, restructure the words expressions to make the translation consistent.

In addition to the choice of word meaning needs to consider the logical relationship, the translation process should also notice the implied logical relation of the words. This relationship is easy to escape the translator’s attention, thus affecting the quality of the translation.

4.1.1 Subtle negative words

For example, the English and Chinese have a lot of subtle negative words, but there is a big difference in logic expression between them. There are many English words, their forms are affirmative, and logic is negative. If the translator is not based on the original language’s logical thinking, but use the target language to analyze problems, the translation logic often contrary to the original’s real deep logic. Such as the “next”:

The next best thing for her is to marry George Green, a handsome yet poor man. In fact, she always dreams of marrying Peter Brown who is handsome and rich, but doesn’t love her.

译æ-‡¼šå¯¹å¥¹è€Œè¨€¼Œç¬¬äºŒå¥½çš„事就是嫁给帅气但没什么钱的乔治格æž-。实际上她一直梦想着嫁给又帅又有钱的彼å¾-布æœ-。

This example translates “the next best thing” into “第二好的事” is not proper. It seems the words too literally, but shows that the English translator does not take the different logical expression ways between Chinese and English into account not sort out the logic of the original relationship between the components, but also reflects the

thinking interference in English and Chinese. Chinese emphasis on parataxis and its logical meaning often hides in semantics. Therefore, “第二好的” å’Œ”下一个最好

çš„” express the same meaning in Chinese, and have the positive affirmative meaning.

English emphasis on hypotaxis, the language’s logic form is very strict; the form’s mini difference often reflects logical difference. In English”第二好的事” expressed with “the second best thing” and “the next best thing” has implied negative meaning. Therefore, “第二好的事” and “the next best thing” their deeper meaning and tone of expression is different. The translator is influenced by Chinese thinking to understand this sentence, not taking strict form logic of English into account, and making the

implied negative tone of the original into a positive affirmative tone.

改译¼šäº‹å®žä¸Šå¥¹ä¸€ç›´æ¢¦æƒ³å«ç»™åˆå¸…又有钱的彼å¾-布æœ-¼Œæ- å¥ˆ¼Œä»-并不爱她。

现在她只能退而求其次¼Œå«ç»™å¸…气但没什么钱的乔治格æž-。

4.1.2 Recognize genus and species

For example: Automobiles and trucks would be powered by quickly replaceable electric batteries.

译æ-‡ 汽车和卡车则用可以迅速替换的电池组作为动力。¼ˆä¸Šæµ·äº¤å¤ã€Šè‹±è¯­ã€‹å¼Ÿä¸‰å†Œã€Šæ•™å‚》p.86¼‰

As far as the logical concept concerned, “automobiles” is genus, and “trucks” is species. Based on the logic principle, these two concepts cannot in parallel. In Webster’s New World Dictionary (p.93), automobile: a passenger car, usually four wheeled…meant for travelling on streets on roads. The first word is (载人)轿车, the latter is (è½½è´)卡车, so they are translated into “轿车¼Œå¡è½¦”.

4.1.3 Pronouns

Tom Mann said he must speak to him, and advanced as Lenin came towards us. How glad he was to greet Ton Mann. His face lit up with pleasure as he told Tom how closely he had followed his activities all over the world.

The sentence includes seven personal pronouns. In “His face lit up with pleasure…” “His face” refers to whose face, Lenin’s or Tom’s? Some translators believe that it is the latter.

译æ-‡ ……当ä»-告诉汤å†æ›¼ä»-随æ-¶å¯†åˆ‡æ³¨æ„æ±¤å†æ›¼åœ¨ä¸-界各地的ççæ´»åŠ¨çš„æ-¶å€™¼Œæ±¤å†æ›¼çŽ°å‡ºä¸€è„¸ç¬‘容。

In fact, “his face”中的”his” is consistent with the clause’s subject “he”, it refers to Lenin . In the sentence “His face lit up with pleasure as he told Tom how closely he had followed his activities all over the world”. Its four pronouns represent the same

meaning.

改译 ……ä»-笑容满面地告诉汤å†è¯´¼Œä»-随æ-¶éƒ½å¯†åˆ‡æ³¨æ„æ±¤å†åœ¨ä¸-界各地的

ççæ´»åŠ¨ã€‚

4.1.4 Eliminate the ambiguous word

Lint is then blown into the press and compressed into bales-Aimer.《英汉辞

海》

译æ-‡ 然后绷带布被吹送入压榨机打压成包。

In the sentence lint’s meaning is ambiguous: a) scraped and softened linen formerly used as a dressing for wounds; b) cotton fiber used to make yarn. If we analyze the sentence’s logic, the ambiguous meaning can be eliminated.

改译 然后皮棉被送入打包机压装成包。

4.2 The logic conversion in sentences level

Comprehensive thinking of Chinese emphasis on parataxis, relaxed syntactic structure, and it uses more meaning connected and accumulated clause or independent clauses. It adopts “topic-comment”. So Chinese sentence does not require the presence of the subject, as long as the semantics and the topic is clear, it can be no subject or no main clause. The Chinese sentence can have several predicates in one sentence and the sentence is short, it always narrative one by one short phrase, so it is often referred to as “pole-type” structure. English nation’s analyzed thinking focuses on reason. Its syntax manifested as a hypotaxis, emphasis the strict form logic, and

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uses more “subject-predicate” structure to constitute the whole sentence center, and focus on the verb, the verb generally has subject or logical subject. No subject-sentence is few, and it only has one predicate in a sentence, other verbs can only be used as participles or clauses, and English sentences focus on the “subject-predicate” structure, giving the feeling of well-structured, hierarchical clear. Therefore, some linguists call English sentence as the “grape type” structure. The grape trunk is very short, and attached rich fruit, the connection of the grape trunk and fruit is the essential English conjunctions.

The sentence level, the logic differences between the languages cause the translator to confuse logic in analyzing the English subject omission or non-predicate structure, and can not easy to achieve conversion between the “grape-type” and “bamboo-type” structures.

4.2.1 Analysis of the subject in the sentence

“After all, all living creatures live by feeding on something else whether it be plant or animal dead or alive”.

译æ-‡¼šå› ä¸º¼Œæ¯•ç«Ÿæ‰€æœ‰çš„生物¼Œä¸è®ºæ˜¯æ¤ç‰©è¿˜æ˜¯åŠ¨ç‰©¼Œæ­»çš„还是活的¼Œéƒ½é 

吃某çåˆ«çš„东西生存。

In the translation, the translator mistaken analyzes the subject “it”, so the sentence becomes very confused. There is also a serious problem about the logic of

the translation. “Dead creatures” how could “eat it”. If test the logic of the source text,

we can find what “it” really refers to. “Living creatures” or “something else” may be

the clause’s subject, with “it” and the strict English logic form; we can determine the

“Something else” is the real subject, as “living creatures” is plural.

改译¼šæ‰€æœ‰æ´»ç€çš„生物毕竟都需要靠吃别的东西生存¼Œè€Œä¸ç®¡è¿™äº›ä¸œè¥¿æ˜¯æ¤ç‰©è¿˜æ˜¯åŠ¨ç‰©¼Œæ˜¯æ­»çš„还是活的。

4.2.2 Analysis of logical subject in the sentene

“Logic” is often directly used in the language study. Gerund usually has its own “logical subject”. If the “logical subject” were wrong, the tranlation would not be correct. For example,

Some of these causes are completely reasonable results of social needs. Others are reasonable consequences of particular advances in science being to some extent self -accelerating.

“in science” is a part of the gerund composite structure, as we know, if the logical subject of the gerund is an abiotic noun, we should use common case but not use possessive case. The logical subject of “in science being to some extent self accelerating” is “science” or “particular advances”? Someone believes that it is “science”.

译æ-‡ 在这些原因中¼Œæœ‰äº›å®Œå…¨æ˜¯è‡ªç„¶è€Œç„¶åœ°æ¥è‡ªç¤¾ä¼šéœ€æ±‚。另一些则是由于ç‘学在一定程度上自我加速而äºç”Ÿçš„必然结果。

In fact, this translation lack of logic when to analyze the logical subject of the

sentence. If the preposition before “science” is “of” not “in”, the translation”而äºç”Ÿ” may be reasonable. However, “in” and “science” is an inseparable phrase and modifies “particular advances”. So the logical subject of “being to some extent self -accelerating” is not “science” but is “particular advances”.

改译 ……另一些则是ç‘学的某些特定发展在一定程度上自我加速的必然结果。

4.2.3 Logic confusion in the setence

She could get away with anything, because she looked such a baby.

译æ-‡ 她能渡过任何风险¼Œå› ä¸ºå¥¹çœ‹ä¸ŠåŽ»ç®€ç›´è¿˜åƒæ˜¯ä¸ªå¨ƒå¨ƒæ¨¡æ ·ã€‚¼ˆA Course Book on English-Chinese Translation¼‰

The words of this sentence are simple, but it is mistranslated. If we analyze the logical relation, it will be easily corrected. It is impossible for the “she looked such a

baby” to become the reason of “get away with anything”.

改译 因她看上去简直是个娃娃¼Œæ‰€ä»¥ä»€ä¹ˆéº»çƒ¦ä¹Ÿè½ä¸åˆ°å¥¹èº«ä¸Šã€‚

4.3 The logic conversion in texts level

The internal logic of the text is always logical and coherent implementation of the discourse, this logical relation basically exists in two adjacent sentences. In addition, it may be exist in the context of a sentence and between sentences, even whole sentences, text, topic, and the author’s intentions. There are many methods to achieve coherence of the text, although these means are used for each language, and each language has different emphases on these means. English stresses form logic, so it often uses logic convergence, and grammar means to express the logical relationship between sentences, it is a typical “bamboo-type”, while Chinese emphasis on “self-evident” and the internal logic of the sentence. It embodies in the relationship between the Chinese text was “permutation.” To make the translation consistent with the target language’s logical expression, the translator should convert logic in the “bamboo-type” and “water type” texts. For example:

By comparison with the narrow, ironclad days of fathers, there was expansiveness, I thought, in the days of mothers. They went to see neighbors, to shop in town, to run errands at school, at the library, at church. (S.R.Sanders: “Women and Men”)

译æ-‡ 跟父亲的那çç‹­çª„的、一成不变的æ-¥å­ç›¸æ¯”¼Œæˆ‘è‰å¾-母亲的æ-¥å­è¿‡å¾-比较阔绰。她们去看望邻居¼Œä¸ŠåŸŽé‡Œä¹°ä¸œè¥¿¼Œåˆ°å­¦æ ¡ã€å›¾ä¹¦é¦†ã€æ•™å ‚办事情。

In the text, “expansiveness” is difficult to understand. “Expansive” has the

meaning of “rich” and “wide”, so someone translated it into “母亲的æ-¥å­è¿‡å¾-比较阔”. Obviously, it doesn’t conform to the context; the life of the labor woman is impossible rich. In the sentence the man’s life is narrow and ironclad, woman’s life is

contrasted to it. So “expansive” should be the antonym of “narrow” and “ironclad”. “Narrow” refers to the man makes money to raise a family day and night, and the

activity space is narrow. “Ironclad” is translated into “一成不变” which makes a

mistake. Its meaning is “exacting”(ç´å¼ ) in the dictionary. Based on the analyses, we

can conclude that the meaning of “expansiveness” is “宽松自在”.

改译 跟做父亲的那çç‹­çª„、ç´å¼ çš„生活相比¼Œæˆ‘è‰å¾-做母亲的æ-¥å­è¿‡å¾-比较宽松自在。她们上邻居家串é-¨¼ŒåŽ»åŸŽé‡Œä¹°ä¸œè¥¿¼Œåˆ°å­¦æ ¡ã€å›¾ä¹¦é¦†ã€æ•™å ‚è·‘è·‘è…¿

儿。

5. Conclusion

Logical thinking is the advanced form of human consciousness and is the objective things and phenomena indirectly reflected which summarized in people’s minds. The logic of language is one of three major factors to determine the language to use good or bad, so logic is often used as a standard to test language application quality, identify and solve problems in language applications. Translation embodies the translator’s ability to use two languages. To make translation accurate, fluent and image reproduction, logic is inseparable. Translation should properly use logical thinking form and ways to make the translation accurate, clear and reasoning appropriate.

Due to the geographical environment and cultural traditions, there are many differences in the expression of logical thinking between ethnic Chinese and British peoples. English nation advocates against Heaven, conquering nature, focusing on seeking out, emphases one to more, part priority, focus on the relationship between persons and things, form the analytical thinking. This kind of thinking makes Chinese

become a “fuzzy, intuitive, beautiful” language. It embodied as: English pays attention to hypotaxis, and uses more “non-personal subject”; Chinese focuses on parataxis and uses more “personal subject”. Chinese use more active voice, English use more passive voice. Chinese sentences and text, through the expressed significance’s internal logic to link, which belongs to implicit relation; English sentences and texts’ logic is clear, it is explicit relation. English logical relationship between expression forms caused certain difficulties to the translator; the translator must shuttle in two logical thinking, and constantly to converse.

References

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[ 2 ] 连淑能. 论中西思维æ-¹å¼[J ] . å¤-语与å¤-语教学, 2002 (2) .

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