The Comparative Study On C-E N+N Structure And Its Translation

Lexical collocation is of great importance in any language and thus it is one of the important topics in Linguistics and Practical Linguistics. As for part of speech, noun and verb are the most essential ones in human language. Close attention has been paid to the study of noun collocation with other part of speech, but comparatively, less attention to noun collocation with noun, whether by means of marked words or unmarked ones. Some important studies on this are focused on the combination within one language, but its comparative study and analysis between different languages is not sufficient at present. We can find such discussions are The Comparative Study of English and Chinese Nouns by Shen Wen-an, The Features of Noun Decategorization by Liu Run-qing,Liu Zheng-guang, The Cognitive Study on N+N Conceptual Combination by Liu Zheng-guang, The Cognitive Mechanism of N+N Conceptual Combination by Liu Zheng-guang,Liu Run-qing, etc. In a broad sense, this thesis tries to go on the non-thorough study on the N+N structure in Chinese and English.In modern Chinese and English, the collocation of noun with noun, whether markedly or unmarkedly, is greatly appreciated. This study of the structure is confined within bilingual context of English and Chinese to reveal the similarities and dissimilarities on syntactical and cognitive attributes between English and Chinese and thus to produce the strategies for E-C and C-E translation of this linguistic structure.Part One is focused on the definition of noun, N+N structure and noun in this structure. The analysis is made of the definition of noun in the perspective of syntactic distribution, inflectional change and semantic reference. And then the redefinition of noun according to categorical theory of Cognitive Linguistics leads to the further understanding of noun's definition. On the basis of the markedness, structuralness and the position of N+N structure head, N+N structure is defined in a broad sense to expose the variety and richness of noun members within this structure. The discussion is also made on the current results of this structure's study and the major items are put forward for the study in this thesis. Part Two is focused on the analysis of the syntactical attributes of the concerned structures in English and Chinese and on the non-thorough study of it, that is, the choice of only such five items of the relationships between the two nouns to go on the comparative analysis as subject-predicate, the modified-the modifier, coordination, apposition and verb-object. In Part Three, on the basis of the former analysis and discussion, the analysis is made on the cognitive habits and laws reflected in this N+N structure among Chinese and English people. This is also a non-thorough study, namely, the choice of only five points to show the similarities and dissimilarities cognitive laws and habits between the Chinese and English. Part Four is centered on the discussion on translation methods of this structure on the basis of the former analyses. Part Five is the concluding one to generalize the main items for and the results of this study. Because of the non-thorough study and discussion, two items not concerned in this study are pointed out for the further study in the future.