1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Babel
  4. Volume 65, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 65, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0521-9744
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9668
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

The topic-chain is a typical characteristic used to distinguish Chinese discourse from other languages, such as English. By studying how to make use of the topic-chain, one learns how to decipher English into natural and idiomatic Chinese translation. The idea of using topic-chains to explore English-Chinese (E-C) textual translation is relatively new to translation studies. As such, this paper provides a detailed account of cross-linguistic differences between English and Chinese, with regard to the topic-chain, as well as the differences between the topic-chain model and the approach of thematic progression theory. This study, based on contrastive analysis, constructs a model consisting of specific procedures that are simple and easy to use, thereby making English-Chinese textual translation a more manageable process. Use of topic-chain strategies will promote the efficiency and quality of E-C translation, and allow for Chinese translated text to be more idiomatic. This paper provides an overview of effective textual translation strategies that are useful both for translators and the field of translation studies as a whole. It addresses how to teach translation effectively to students, providing practical theory and practice for pedagogical instruction. Meanwhile, an experiment conducted provides the evidence that topic-chain for pedagogical instruction is significantly valid. The pedagogical design of these strategies emphasizes the training of students’ textual awareness and targets language-sensitive awareness. It is assumed that didactics can help students gain bilingual competence and strengthen their core transfer competence. This study, therefore, is significant not only in exploring the benefits and uses of textual translation studies, but has practical value when applied directly to translation learning and teaching.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
2019-06-21
2023-05-30

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Baker, Mona
    1992 In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203327579
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203327579 [Google Scholar]
  2. Beeby, Allison
    2000 “Evaluating the development of translation competence”. InDeveloping Translation Competence, ed. byChristina Schäffner; and Adab Beverly, 185–198. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.38.18bee
     https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.38.18bee [Google Scholar]
  3. Chu, Chauncey
    1998 A Discourse Grammar of Mandarin. Bern: Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Comrie, Bernard
    1989 Language Universals and Typology Chicago (the 2nd edition). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Croft, William
    1990 Typology and Universals. Cambridge: CUP.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Cruse, D. Alan
    1986 Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Danes, Frantisek
    1974 “Functional sentence perspective and the organization of the text”. InPapers in Functional Sentence Perspective, ed. byFrantisek Danes, 106–127. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. De Beaugrande, Robert-Alain; and Wolfgang Ullrich Dressler
    1981 Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman. 10.4324/9781315835839
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315835839 [Google Scholar]
  9. Feng, Guohua (冯国华)
    2002 “确立主语,把握话题——把握“主谓句”和“话题句”的转 换”, “què lì zhǔ yǔ, bǎ wò huà tí ——bǎ wò “zhǔ wèi jù ”hé “huà tí jù ”de zhuǎn huàn” [“Thematization and Topicalization – on translating subject-predicate and topic-comment sentences”]. 中国翻译zhōng guó fān yì [Chinese Translators Journal] 5: 65–71.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Givon, Talmy
    1987 “Beyond foreground and background”. InCoherence and Grounding in Discourse, ed. byRussell S. Tomlin, 175–188. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.11.10giv
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.11.10giv [Google Scholar]
  11. Gómez-González, María Ángeles
    2001 The Theme-Topic Interface: Evidence from English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.71
     https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.71 [Google Scholar]
  12. Halliday, Michael A. K.
    1964 “Descriptive linguistics in literary studies”. InEnglish Studies Today (third series), ed. byAlan Dithie, 26–39. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Halliday, Michael A. K.; and Ruqaiya, Hasan
    1978 Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Halliday, Michael A. K.; and McDonald, Edward
    2004 “Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese”. InLanguage Typology: a Functional Perspective, ed. byAlice Caffarel, , 305–396. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cilt.253.08hal
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.253.08hal [Google Scholar]
  15. Hasan, Ruqaiya
    1984 “Coherence and cohesive harmony”. InUnderstanding Reading Comprehension: Cognition, Language and the Structure of Prose, ed. byJames Flood, 181–219. Newark (DE): International Reading Association.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Hatim, Basil; and Ian Mason
    1990 Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Hopper, Paul J.; and Thompson, Sandra A.
    1980 “Transitivity in grammar and discourse”. Language56 (2): 251–299. 10.1353/lan.1980.0017
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1980.0017 [Google Scholar]
  18. House, Juliane
    1997 Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Li, Charles N.; and Thompson, Sandra A.
    1976 “Subject and Topic : A New Typology of Language”. InSubject and Topic, ed. byLi, C. N., 457–61. New York: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Li, Wendan
    2005 Topic Chains in Chinese: A Discourse Analysis and Applications in Language Teaching. München: Lincom Europa.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Liu, Fuli (刘富丽)
    2006 “英汉翻译中的主位推进模式”. “yīng hàn fān yì zhōng de zhǔ wèi tuī jìn mó shì” [“The thematic progression model of English-Chinese translation”]. 外语教学与研究wài yǔ jiào xué yǔ yán jiū［Foreign Language Teaching and Research］5: 309–313.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Lyons, John
    1995 Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP. 10.1017/CBO9780511810213
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511810213 [Google Scholar]
  23. Nord, Christiane
    2005 Text Analysis in Translation: theory, methodology and didactic application of a model for translation-orientated text analysis. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. PACTE GROUP
    PACTE GROUP 2003 “Building a translation competence model”. InTriangulating Translation, ed. byAlves, Fabio, 43–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.45
     https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.45 [Google Scholar]
  25. Šeböková, Stanislava
    2010 Comparing Translation Competence. Master’s thesis. Brno: Masaryk University.
  26. Sun, Kun
    2019 “The integration functions of topic chains in Chinese discourse”. Acta Linguistica Asiatica9 (1): 29–57.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Tai, James H-Y.
    1989 “Toward a cognition-based functional grammar of Chinese”. InFunctionalism and Chinese Grammar, ed. byJames, H-Y. Tai; and Frank, S. Hsueh, 187–226. Pittsburgh (PA): Carnegie Mellon University (CLTA Monographs No. 1).
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Thompson, Sandra. A.
    1987 “Subordination and narrative event structure”. InCoherence and Grounding in Discourse, ed. ByRussell S. Tomlin, 435–454. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.11.19tho
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.11.19tho [Google Scholar]
  29. Tsao, Feng-fu
    1979 A Functional Study of Topic in Chinese: The First Step toward Discourse Analysis. Taipei: Student Book Co.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. 1990 Sentence and Clause Structure in Chinese: A Functional Perspective. Taipei: Student Book Co.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Ventola, Eija
    1995 “Thematic development and translation”. InThematic Development in English Text, ed. byGhadessy, Mohsen, 85–104. London: Pinter.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Wang, Bin (王斌)
    2000 “主位推进的翻译解构与结构功能”. “zhǔ wèi tuī jìn de fān yì jiě gòu yǔ jié gòu gōng néng” [“Translation deconstruction and constructional functions of thematic progress”]. 中国翻译 zhōng guó fān yì [Chinese Translators Journal] 1: 35–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Xu, Liujiong; and Liu, Danqing (徐烈炯，刘丹青)
    2007 话题结构与功能huà tí jié gòu yǔ gōng néng [Topic: Structural and Functional Analysis]. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Xu, Lina (徐丽娜)
    2009 “主题句和主谓句的比较与翻译”. “zhǔ tí jù hé zhǔ wèi jù de bǐ jiào yǔ fān yì” [“The comparison and translation for topic sentence and subject-predicate sentence”]. 外国语wài guó yǔ [the Journal of Foreign Languages] 5: 75–83.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. 2010 英译汉话题句取向翻译模式研究yīng yì hàn huà tí jù qǔ xiàng fān yì mó shì yán jiūThe topic-prominence of Chinese sentences and its implications for E-C translation[in Chinese]. 中国翻译zhōng guó fān yì [The Journal of Chinese Translators] (3): 63–71.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
Loading
Teaching English-Chinese textual translation strategies
Babel 65, 286 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
/content/journals/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
/content/journals/10.1075/babel.00097.sun
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): chaîne thématique; cognitive order; effective textual translation strategies; enseignement pédagogique; optimisation de thème; optimisation of topic; ordre cognitif; pedagogical instructions; stratégies efficaces de traduction de textes; the topic chain

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error