Sentence translation drills--Part 2.docxVIP

Lecture 2:Translating a Multi-verbal SentenceA Chinese sentence may contain many verbs, but only one is the main verb or the predicate. The others are sub-verbs serving to describe the main verb. They are usually very difficult to recognize.Words in an English sentence are inflectional. That means forms of words (the endings) are changed to show their relationship to each other. The main verb tells what the subject is, what the subject is like and what it does. It is the focus in a multi-verbal sentence. Other verbs, or variants of a verb, work as adjectives and adverbs. They carry the secondary message related to the main message. They are dependent, not self-sufficient in meaning.In the case of more than one verb in a Chinese sentence, one can tell in which way the verbs are connected to the subject. But in an English sentence, people can only understand it when the words are properly arranged, with one as the main verb and the others are sub-verbs or verbs in secondary or tertiary positions. They must be translated into other forms than a verb, such as prepositional phrases, participles or clauses. Examples:1.我得去银行贷款供我女儿上大学。2.老师冒着大雨上教室给学生辅导去了。In these sentences 贷款and上教室are the main verbs, the other verbs are in the secondary position, and must be translated as prepositions or participles:1)I must ask for a bank loan for my daughter’s higher education.2) The teacher went to the classroom in the heavy rain to tutor her students.Problem 1: Using a prepositionBefore translating, you have to decide if the verb in a Chinese sentence is primary or secondary. The verb in the second position is often translated into a preposition in English. English is a prepositional language, as a lot of prepositions are used. Take Lincoln’s statement for example: “A government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall never perish from the earth.”民有、民治、民享之政府永世长存。‘Of’ means possessing (有), ‘by’ managing (治) and ‘for’ serving (享).为人民所有、由人民管理并为人民服务的政府永远不会从地球上消失。*大厅的墙上挂着三十几幅油画，都是