An Empirical Study Of Difference Between Experienced And Inexperienced Translators In The Choice Of Subjects In C-E Translation

There is great difference between Chinese and English languages in terms of many aspects, including subjects. And it is important to choose an appropriate subject in the target language when translating Chinese to English. Based on the definition of subject given by Wang Li and an adapted classification of subject derived from the theory put forward by Zhao Yuanren, the current study aims to find out if there is difference between experienced and inexperienced translators in the choice of subjects in C-E translation by conducting an experiment. If the difference does exist, the author will further probe into the aspects in which it presents.In the experiment,25 inexperienced translators are required to translate 8 short texts(including sentences and paragraphs consisting of no more than 4 sentences)selected from the Chinese novel Ah Q Zheng Zhuan(《阿Q正传》)written by Lu Xun.And the translations of the experienced translators are from their published English versions of the novel.Then the author analyzes the data collected form the experiment with the help of the analysis software Excel and SPSS.According to the results and findings obtained through the analysis,it turns out that there is difference between these two groups of translators while choosing subjects in C-E translation,which conforms with what is expected before the experiment.The results of the experiment shows that experienced translators tend to use less subjects in their translations and they are more used to employing impersonal subjects while the inexperienced ones are inclined to adopt personal subjects. Besides, the inexperienced translators usually cling to the original subjects in the source text due to the lack of rich experience in translating and full realization of the difference between Chinese and English. On the contrary, the experienced translators often use other components of the sentence to be subjects or add a new one based on their understanding of the context. Moreover, it is indicated that experience to some extent can have a great impact on the quality of one’s translation.