The Realization Of Chinese Rhythm In English To Chinese Translation: A Case Study Of Lv Shuxiang's Chinese Translation Of Three English Works

A lot of differences can be found between Chinese and English at the three levels of language, namely, the phonological, grammatical and lexical level. In comparing Chinese and English at the phonological level, we find that one fundamental difference between them is that Chinese morphemes are basically monosyllabic while English morphemes are mostly disyllabic or polysyllabic. The thesis has also compared the sound systems of the two languages with regard to syllabic structure, the pronunciation of syllables, sensitivity to intensity and pitch, and the way in which rhythmical contrasts are made in the two languages. With the above mentioned differences between Chinese and English at the phonological level made clear, the thesis goes on to expound the rhythmic features of Chinese that are either nonexistent or not so conspicuous in English, which can be briefly summed up as follows:1) A tendency towards disyllabicity2) A tendency towards quadrisyllabicity3) Frequent use of four-character phrases4) A tendency towards repetition5) Constant occurrence of uniform phrases or clauses in succession6) Alternate occurrence of uniform and loose phrases or clausesTranslators engaged in interlingual translation between English and Chinese, especially from English into Chinese, have long been directing their attention to the different rhythmic features of the two languages, and in their translation practice, they have made great efforts for the realization of the rhythmic features of the target language. Also some preliminary studies have been made as to how the rhythmic features of Chinese can be realized in English to Chinese translation. Yet, much remains to be explored as to how English and Chinese differ in rhythmic features and how their respective rhythmic features can be best realized in translations between the two languages.In view of this, this thesis, based upon the previous studies on this subject, intends to make a further study of what techniques can be employed for the realization of Chinese rhythmic features in English to Chinese translation. In order to do so, we have decided to make a case study of some translation works from English to Chinese that are generally acknowledged as excellent, excellent in that the translation is notonly faithful to the original in meaning and style but also reads like natural Chinese. The translation works we have chosen for a case study in this thesis is Lit Shuxiang's Chinese Translations of Three English Works ( I & ;M8#iHft? ) (BfiLffl > 1992), for Professor Lu Shuxiang is not only an internationally well-known linguist and Chinese grammarian, but also a distinguished translator with a unique style. In short, this thesis attempts to make a further exploration of what techniques can be employed for the realization of Chinese rhythmic features in English to Chinese translation by means of a case study of Lu Shuxiang's Chinese Translations of Three English Works. It is hoped that the techniques that we have summed up from the data in the case study will be useful in a way to English to Chinese translation, and that our study as a whole will also be of some value to the further contrastive study of the rhythmic features of Chinese and English.