The following experts will summarize several major differences between English and Chinese for the majority of students taking the postgraduate entrance examination in 2012. They hope that students will understand and pay attention to it and reduce their fear of English translation for the postgraduate entrance examination, so as to Improve translation ability and level.

1 English forms and Chinese meanings

2 English has many long sentences, Chinese has many short sentences

3 English has many passives, Chinese has many actives

4 English is more about substitutions, Chinese is more about repetitions

5 English is more about omissions, Chinese is more about supplements

6 English is more focused in the front, Chinese is more focused in the back

1. Form and Meaning

In different languages, sentences are almost always connected internally or externally using three means: syntax, vocabulary, and word meaning. The connection using the first two means is called form combination, and the connection using the latter means is called meaning combination. As far as English and Chinese are concerned, English emphasizes the close combination in form, and Chinese emphasizes the close combination in meaning. Specifically, English sentences combine words and phrases through a complete set of systematic grammatical structures and connectives, emphasizing structural correctness, logical rigor, and rigorous thinking. This is not the case in Chinese, that is to say, there is a connection in meaning between clauses in a Chinese sentence, or between phrases, but correlative words are rarely used. Use the meaning of each clause or phrase to form a complete sentence. When you were taking the college entrance examination from high school, you must have done a question in Chinese language that asked us to segment sentences in a classical Chinese article based on its meaning. So what is the basis of sentence segmentation? Is the sentence segmented based on the meaning of each character and the meaning of the entire article? In other words, the Chinese language is closely combined through meaning. On the surface, they may seem to be unrelated people, but when combined together, they have profound meaning. .

For example, let’s look at the following sentence. This sentence is the end of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

We here highly resolve that these dead should not die in vain-that this nation, under god, shall have new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the world. The government will not disappear from the earth)

In this sentence, "We here highly resolve..." is the main clause of the entire sentence, and the author introduces "that these dead should" through "that". "not die in vain", "that this nation, under god, shall have new birth of freedom", "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the world." and other three clauses, Then the connective word "and" is used before the last clause to connect several clauses. Without the connectives "that" and "and", this sentence cannot express the existing meaning in English, and it also does not conform to English grammar.

As for Chinese meaning, it means that Chinese sentences use less or no formal connection means, and focus on implicit coherence, order of events, functional meaning, and the unification of form by spirit. That is, Chinese sentences have meanings but not shapes.

For example, in Chinese we say "If he doesn't come, I won't leave." This sentence contains two levels of meaning, which are completely connected through meaning. There is no conjunction between the two clauses.

If translated into English, connecting words must be used, that is: I won't go unless he comes. Or we say: I will stay until he comes.

Let's take a question from the 2003 postgraduate entrance examination. Take a look.

Furthermore, humans have the ability to modify the environment in which they live, thus subjecting all other life forms to their own peculiar ideas and fancies. Living environment, thus making all other forms of life subject to human beings' own unique ideas and imagination)

Comparing this sentence and the translation carefully, we will find that there is no corresponding word for "which" in Chinese. In other words, if we want to see a word translated into another word, we will have difficulty when encountering which. The reason is caused by this difference between English and Chinese. English requires a conjunction to realize this logical relationship, while Chinese expresses it through semantics. This difference between English and Chinese requires us that when we get the English translation questions for the postgraduate entrance examination, we must first analyze the structure of the entire sentence, rationally organize the Chinese language and adjust the word order based on the grammatical structure of the original English text and the information carried by the connection means. Try to avoid translating word for word.

2. English has many long sentences, while Chinese has many short sentences

Precisely because English is put together through a complete set of systematic grammatical structures, then an English sentence only needs the structure Complete, the author can make a sentence very long by adding restrictive elements, modifiers, and supplementary elements. For example, in previous years' postgraduate entrance examination English translation questions, the longest sentence actually reached 58 words. And precisely because Chinese emphasizes completeness in meaning, a Chinese sentence can be short yet profound, concise yet concise. I would like to remind all candidates in 2012 to pay attention when translating. You can break and reorganize sentences, and turn long and complicated English sentences into multiple short Chinese sentences with closely connected meanings, without sticking to the hierarchical structure of the original text. For example: an exam question in 1999.

Interest in historical methods had arisen less through external challenge to the validity of history as an intellectual discipline and more from internal quarrels among historians themselves (Reference translation: People have become interested in historical research methods, which is not so much It is because of external challenges to the validity of history as a discipline, or rather because of internal quarrels among historians.)

The original English sentence is a typical long sentence, consisting of 27 words. It is composed without any punctuation marks in the middle. It relies entirely on grammatical structure to make the meaning of the entire sentence into a whole: less through...and more from form a complex adverbial modifying verb arisen. In the Chinese translation, the important content of "generating interest" is expressed by an independent sentence, and the two different reasons are expressed by different sentences respectively. The whole sentence is broken into parts "... generates interest..., which is not so much Because..., it is better to say because..."