定语从句的翻译方法.docVIP

On the Translation of Attributive Clauses from English into Chinese 1. Introduction Attributive clause, a very complicated part of a sentence, often appears in both written and spoken English and causes the difficulty of English learners to understand it, or to put it into Chinese. This is because it is quite different from Chinese in placement, structure and function and hard to be identified. Following is my preliminary study of English attributive clauses and handing of them in terms of translation practice. 2. Types of English attributive clauses The attributive clause in English generally varies in restrictive and non-restrictive ones. The former is usually led by a relative pronoun or relative adverb and closely attached to the antecedent. It is not separated from the head by a break in intonation, or by a comma in writing. It forms an integral part of the noun phrase, without which the head cannot be identified as the specific object. The latter does not restrict the referential meaning of the antecedent, and is separated by a comma from the main clause. If it is taken away, the antecedent still refers to the same person or thing (章振邦，1995：210 ). See the following examples: 1) There were few students that escaped without serious injuries.（逃出来的学生无不受重伤者。） 2) There were few students, who escaped without serious injuries.(没有几个学生，他们都逃出来了，无重伤者。) As shown in the above examples, the that-clause is restrictive while the who-clause is non-restrictive. They mean differently though the words used are the same except the relative pronouns. More examples: 3) Shaoshan, where (=in which) Chairman Mao was born, is visited by thousands of people everyday. 4) The village rich in national flavor and beautiful in environment has become a resort most people like to visit. Apart form those introduced by relative pronouns, an attributive clause can also be headed by a relative adverb (as in example 3), or can have no relative to link with its antecedent (as