Logicality In Chinese And English Text Translation

Similarities and distinctions on logical structures of the Chinese and English languages are due to different but interrelated logical systems of China and the West. The Western Logics, since its creation, is an independent discipline. Contrarily, traditional Chinese Logics was closely related to politics and taken as a tool to govern the country. It did not become an independent discipline until the movement of "learning from the West". The relation between Logics and language is dialectical: language serves as the tool, basis and starting point of Logics, while Logics restricts the development of language. Besides, Chinese focusing on synthetic thinking and English on analytic thinking lead to the differences on logical structures of Chinese and English languages. Consequently, we may well say logic influences translation and monitors the whole process of translation.The most important linguistic distinction between English and Chinese, just as the famous linguist Nida mentioned, is the contrast between the hypotaxis and parataxis: English tends to use overt modes such as inflections and formal markers to signal the logical structures of a sentence or text;whereas, Chinese mainly relies on covert methods such as word order. Cohesion and coherence are two major elements in analyzing texts. In discussing cohesion, Halliday categorizes the logical relations on text level into elaboration, extension and enhancement, which provide a good reference to the contrastive study on Chinese and English texts.In order to make translation more adaptable to the target language's logical system, the thesis viewed from the aspect of logic, analyzed the similarities and distinctions between Chinese and English texts, and discussed some practical and feasible logical translation methods through analyzing examples. The thesis puts forward some suggestions on logical text translation: In translating, translators should notice the three universal laws of Logics, i.e., the law of identity, the law of non-contradiction and the law of excluded middle. When translating texts showingthe law of space, translators should translate according to the logical sequence of the source language. Chinese and English are different in leading inferential modes, so translators should reorganize the logical sequence according to the phenomenon that Chinese focuses on "induction" and English "deduction". When translating texts showing the law of time and the law of cause and effect, translators should also reorganize the logical sequence according to the target language's features.The combination of Logics and Text Linguistics to analyze translation is one of the newly developed subjects in translation field. It will stimulate the development of translation theory and practice if we can translate under the guidance of logic. Meanwhile, we will improve the quality of translation under successful utility of logic on translation. Viewing from a microaspect, the thesis mainly focuses on logical translation on sentence and text level and proposes detailed methods on logical translation which are hoped to solve the problem of illogical translation.