Comp Stud Trans EN 6
A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Translation——Stative vs. Dynamic
牟一心 Mou Yixin, Hunan Normal University, China
Abstract
as we all know, translation refers to transformation of different languages. Cultures underlie languages and different languages are manifestations of distinct cultural backgrounds. The comparative study of English and Chinese and translation has always been a hot field. Based on language and culture, this paper is devoted to studying on the English-Chinese translation in terms of the dynamic nature and stative nature of the two languages.
Keywords
translation; comparative study of English and Chinese; dynamic and stative
摘要
众所周知，翻译是指不同语言之间的转换。而语言的背后是文化，两种不同的语言必然有着差异的文化背景。英汉对比研究与翻译一直是一个热门的研究领域。本文基于语言与文化，致力于研究英汉翻译中的语言动态与静态的问题。
关键词
翻译；英汉对比；静态与动态
Introduction
With the rapid development of globalization, translation plays a more and more important role in international communication. However, translation is never a single issue regarding languages but a very comprehensive one. From a macroscopic view, translation indicates the exchange of two cultures. Therefore, cultural elements are of great significance in translation and the comparative study of different languages should always be taken into consideration. Basically, English tends to be stative while Chinese is a very dynamic language. How this difference of the two languages comes into being? How this divergence influences the translation practice of the two languages? And how can we deal with this issue when translating? This paper aims to discuss and analyze these questions under the background of culture and language.
Differences between English and Chinese languages in terms of dynamism
In this paper, generally, dynamism refers to the frequency of use of verbs in a language. English tends to use more nouns than Chinese does while Chinese prefers verbs to nouns. In this term, the difference between English and Chinese is conspicuous. The manifestations of different levels of dynamism between English and Chinese will be detailed as follows.
The stative nature of English
It is well-known that English is characterized by its heavy use of nouns and prepositions, which can be sufficiently exemplified by the following paragraph:
In the doorway opposite the entrance to the Zipfer Bar, on the other side of the building, the senior policeman looked at his watch. “Over half an hour. You’d better go and have a look. Let’s make sure.”The other policeman nodded and crossed the road. He went into the bar. In less than a minute he reappeared, a worried frown on his face. He came quickly back to his senior. He’s skipped. There’s another way out.
The above quotation carries only one finite verb in each sentence except for the paratactic predicate verbs “go and have”, “nodded and crossed”. There is an elliptical sentence (Over half an hour) that omits its verb. It is not hard to understand that the noun preponderance is doomed to lead to the heavy use of preposition since preposition is the word class that is used before noun in English grammar. As a result, the preponderance of nouns and that of prepositions are closely related in English. In addition, the above example also manifests that the ideographic function of English nouns and prepositions is obvious and strong. English usually uses nouns or prepositions to indicate the meanings that verbs convey in Chinese. For instance, “look” in “have a look” in the above paragraph is a noun, but in Chinese the phrase is translated into“看一看”, in which“看”is a verb. The same is in the case of “a worried frown”, which will be translated into“焦急地皱着眉”in Chinese. And “to” in “the entrance to the Zipfer Bar” is translated to a Chinese verb“通往”(Lian Shuneng,1993:158). In Britain and American literature, many writers also confirmed the linguistic habit of the heavy use of nouns and prepositions in English in their woks. For example, this is a quotation from Jonathan Swift’s famous essay A Modest Proposal:
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserve of the nation.
In detail, the stative nature of English can be seen from six aspects.
Firstly, nominalization is a very common practice in English. Nominalization is to use nouns as substitutes of the concepts expressed by verbs or adjectives. For example, in English, abstract nouns are used to manifest some concepts such as move, behavior, feelings, change, etc. This “preponderance of nouns over verbs” usually makes expressions concise and sentences flexible. It also contributes to natural writing and is helpful to express some complicated contents. These advantages can be observed from the following example:
The doctor arrived extremely quickly and examined the patient uncommonly carefully; the result was that he recovered very speedily. The doctor’s extremely quick arrival and uncommonly careful examination of the patient brought about his very speed recovery.
As a matter of fact, many linguists in Britain and America pointed that there exists a noun habit in English. More nouns result in increasing prepositions in English. At the same time, verbs with vitality decrease accordingly. Although the nominal style makes a narrative more precise and appropriate, it also leads to abstraction and obscurity. And excessive use of nouns will make a sentence wordy, vague and lifeless(Lian Shuneng,1993: 177). Therefore, a lot of English stylists object the abuse of nominal expressions and advocate more use of vigorous verbs to simplify sentence structures and make a sentence more understandable and lively.
Secondly, English speakers tend to use nouns to indicate agentive nouns and thus avoid the use of verbs. As we know, in English, some abstract nouns are used to express notions of behavior and action, such as realization and completion. Besides, there are a great number of nouns derived from verbs which not only stand for agent but also keep their meanings of verbs. And this kind of nouns usually combined with prepositive adjectives to form some stative structures. For example, a mail order=an order received or shipped through the mail, a day laborer=an unskilled worker paid by the day, a hard worker＝someone who works hard.
Thirdly, in English, it is common to replace adjectives with nouns, which leads to headline phrases. In order to save the layout of a printed paper, people usually try to omit function words and other secondary words and then squeeze stimulating words together to form headlines. Under this circumstance, the multiple uses of nouns is a very effective and attractive way. For instance, January Crude Oil Output Beats Target This kind of phrases with multiple use of nouns bears very simple structures which greatly facilitates expressions of crucial information with few words while a great deal of information. Given its advantages, apart from headlines of newspapers and journals, this expression has been used in a wide range in modern English,“The whole tendency of the modern language is towards doing away with adjectives, or at least, using nouns as epithets.”(Foster,1981:200) such as gold reserve, generation gap, job opportunity discrimination, etc. Particularly, EST (English for science and technology) take full advantage of the multiple use of nouns and compound nouns, which can be seen from following examples: space shuttle fight test program, computer programming teaching device manual and satellite communications ground station equipment repairer. There is no denying that the multiple uses of nouns strengthens the preponderance of nouns over verbs in English, but noun pileups should be avoided for the reasons have been stated above.
Fourthly, noun preponderance brings about preposition preponderance. As we all know, prepositions are used in front of nouns or noun phrases. Due to the noun preference, it is natural to see more prepositions in English as well. As the morphological changes of nouns and adjectives are greatly abandoned, propositions instead bear some functions of morphological changes. When the noun preponderance is combined with preposition preponderance, the stative tendency of English becomes more conspicuous. As prepositions in English are used very frequently, some scholars even named English as “the language of preposition”. The following sentence can serve as a great exemplification of this feature of English:
Adequate clearance between the rear face of the last stack in the load and inside surface of the rear doors was provided to enable the refrigerated air flowing from the front to the rear of the trailer to enter the longitudinal air channels through the load which opened on the rear of the load at this point.
In addition, English usually replaces verb phrases with preposition phrases, which means it replaces “dynamic” with “stative”. For example:
He is at his books. (He is reading books) With these words he went away. (After saying these words, he went away.) They immediately set out in pursuit of the enemy. (They immediately set out to pursue the enemy.)
What’s more, in English, a series of preposition phrases are usually combined with weak verbs (be, seem, look, become, etc.) and “ponderous” nouns. (Liu Miqing,1991:219)The argument can be efficiently testified by the following letter in reply which is roundabout:
In view of the fact that Mr. Jones is not very well, I am taking the opportunity of replying on his behalf. Our company’s well-defined position is that it stands ready at all times to co-operate with your firm whenever it is called upon to do so. The majority of stockholders are in complete sympathy with your company's goals and objectives in regard to the construction of a new plant. It may be within your recollection that prior to 1963, this company tendered your company a loan consisting of a large amount of money in order to put it in a solvent and strong financial position. The occasion was the time of your company's most ambitious retooling operation, when it was hardly in a position to utilize existing resources. Despite the fact that the company had many obstacles to overcome, it did not wait until such time as the situation would improve. The loan was repaid in short order. It is because of this fact that our company continually displays the utmost confidence in the operations of your company.
In conclusion, it is common to see that a number of weak phrases in English manifest the “noun plus preposition” format. This kind of phrases usually weakens or dilutes the meanings of verbs, adjectives and other words which they originally are to express. As a result, the narration becomes circumlocutory and the dynamicity is weakened and the static state is strengthened. For instance: of great significance (significant), afford an opportunity to (allow), in view of the foregoing circumstances (therefore).
However, some English stylists hold that the abuse of the debilitated style is not a good phenomenon because excessive use of these phrases will make expressions wordy, verbose and lifeless which should not be advocated.“Strings of nouns depending on one another and the use of compound prepositions are the most conspicuous symptoms of the periphrastic malady,and writers should be on the watch for these in their own composition.”(H.W.,1965:446) Therefore, there are increasing scholars argue that plain, lively and direct words should be used more in writing so as to lessen the stative feature of English.
Fifthly, the weakening and grammaticalization of verbs in English is very obvious. As a matter of fact, the most frequently used verb in English is exactly the word bears the least meaning of action--to be and its varieties including there be, must be, may be and should be and so on. In particular, the sentence led by “it” or “there” and “be” manifests more stative tendency than that of others, which can be seen from the following comparisons:
There was a tropical storm off the east coast of Florida. A tropical storm lashed the east coast of Florida. It was the finding of the committee that there had been bribes paid by company managers to foreign officials. The committee found that company managers had bribed foreign officials.
Apart from be, have, become, grow, feel, go, come, get and do are also commonly used verbs of feeble phenomenality in English.Also, in English, it is a common practice to transform or derive a verb into a noun and put it after a delexical verb (have, make, take, do, etc.) as its object. So there are many expressions as follows in English: take a walk, have a look, do some damages, make a proposal and so on. These verb phrases tend to be powerless and colorless, which can be seen from the following comparison: After he had a quarrel with his boss, Bob quit. VS. After he quarreled with his boss, Bob quit. It is not hard to perceive more strength in the second sentence that directly uses verbs(Ernest,1987:55).
In addition, English often takes gerunds as the objects of delexical verb do, which gives birth to some phrases such as do shopping, do cleaning, do some washing and so on. And another example is here: The combine does the harvesting of the grain. Certainly, this sentence can also be made as: The combine harvests the grain. Sixthly, adjectives and adverbs are used to indicate the connotations of verbs in English. A great number of verbs can be expressed by adjectives that are derived from them, which can be seen from support and supportive, thank and thankful, create and creative, etc. An adjective derived from a verb are often combined with the weakening of verbs to express the connotation of that verb. For example:
I am doubtful whether he is still alive. (doubt, live) The teacher thanked her pupils because they are very cooperative. (cooperate well) The doctor felt sympathetic with his patients. (sympathize)
Besides, in English, adjectives that express mental or physical feelings are often associated with delexical verbs to indicate the connotations of verbs(Henry,1920:201). For instance:
A postman is not afraid of dogs John seems content just to sit in front of the television all night.
What’s more, adverbs are also used to express the meanings of verbs, which can be manifested in following examples:
I am afraid Mr. Brown is out but he will be in soon. He’ll be home in half an hour. Down with the old and up with the new.
To sum up, in English, through the derivation, transformation, weakening and grammaticalization of verbs, non-verbs (nouns, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, etc) are commonly used to express the meanings of verbs, which is the reason why English is characteristic of stative nature.
The dynamic nature of Chinese
Chinese is a language that pays attention to dynamic descriptions. Functionally, verb preponderance is conspicuous in Chinese and this is one of the most important ways of expression in Chinese. The tendency of verb preponderance in Chinese can be seen from the typical instance:
“我决定跳下车去，看看轮子陷进地里究竟有多深。下车后，只听见副司机从车后钻出来大声嚷嚷着，叫司机派人去调拖拉机来拉车，司机看来也没好气，冲着副司机骂了一声：‘乱弹琴！’就甩开膀子，跨着大步，径直往村口走去了。我心想，车陷进地里出不来，两位司机又不和气，要解决问题可就费劲了。倒不如在路边找个地方坐坐，等等看能帮个什么忙……”
The above paragraph contains many sentences which use continuous verbs, of which the first sentence contains six different verbs of different grammatical functions. It is not hard to find serial verb constructions and telescopic forms in the paragraph which is a typical manifestation of various and complicated forms of verbs’ multiple use in a Chinese. Even though these verbs in sentences take vastly different roles but their morphs have not been changed at all, which is also an important feature of Chinese.
Specifically, the dynamic nature of Chinese can be illustrated from six aspects as well:
Firstly, Chinese verb (phrase) can serve as many other constituents in sentences such as subject, predicate, object, complement, predicative, attribute and adverbial but still remain its original form(Zhang Jing,1986:80), which can be seen from following instance: 学不嫌晚。(“学”is a subject.) 我想妈妈了。(“想”is a predicate.) 我们爱学习。(“学习”is an object.)工人们干起来了。(“起来”is a complement.) And some phrases with more than one verb can also act as different constituents in a sentence. For example, 实现理想境界要靠辛勤劳动。(“实现理想境界”is a subject and“辛勤劳动”is an object.) 他不停地来回走动，激动得说不出话来。(“不停”is an adverbial and“说不出话来”is a complement.) 解决问题的最好方法是进行调查研究。(“解决问题”is an attribute and“进行调查研究”is a complement.)
Secondly, Chinese verbs can contribute to form an interrogative sentence through the use of affirmative form and negative form at the same time. For example,昨天他来没来呢？今天你开心不开心？她明天去不去啊？
Thirdly, Chinese verbs can serve as auxiliaries. As a matter of fact, in modern Chinese many prepositional auxiliaries and postpositional auxiliaries (complements) are all verbs. There are some common prepositional auxiliaries: 能、会、要、肯、敢、应该、愿意、可能等等。And postpositional auxiliaries mainly include: 来、去、起来、下去、过去、出来等等。Some examples in daily utterances are as follows：“你出来吧”，“我过去吧”，“你去看看他吧”，“他不肯来”，“我来扶您吧”，“说来话长”，“他谈起来就没个完”，“让她猜去吧”，etc. Particularly,“来”or“去”can be put both before and after verbs. Or we can use them respectively before and after a verb at the same time. For example, 他来（去）借书。他走路来（去）了。他来（去）借书来（去）了。Besides, in a sentence,“来”or“去”can be separated from the main verb of the sentence and also can be used to link two verb (phrases). For instance, 我们一起找他去。我拿了一本词典来。你们要想一个办法来（去）帮助她。只有这样来解决问题了。
Fourthly, Chinese verbs can take the role of prepositions. Strictly speaking, in Chinese, most prepositions are evolved from verbs since they still keep certain characteristics of verbs. As Chinese has no morphological changes, it is often difficult to distinguish verbs from prepositions in some contexts, which also leads to some prepositions and verbs exchanging for each other(Zhang Jing,1986:144). For example, “在”in“他在家”is a verb while in“他在家学习”a preposition.“朝”in“窗户朝南”is a verb while in“窗户朝南开”a preposition.“离”in“离京北上”is a verb while in“离沪两百公里”a preposition. And verb’s serving as preposition contributes to strengthen the dynamic tendency of Chinese, which can be seen from following examples: 替他说、为我好、给他讲、把手一甩、拿他开玩笑、从全局出发、离长沙只有十公里。
Fifthly, Chinese verbs usually repeat and overlap to form reiterative locations in different formats such as吵吵嚷嚷、说说笑笑、热闹热闹、比试比试、看一看、读一读、想了想、谈了谈、任劳任怨、有始有终 and some alliterating verb phrases such as 背井离乡、唉声叹气、千变万化, which make up various and vivid verb structures in Chinese. In addition, parallel sentences and balanced sentences are also popular expressions in Chinese. For example,
要钱有钱，要人有人。 说是说了，没有结果；做是做了，没有成功。 我们谈到自己，谈到前途，谈到旅程，谈到天气，谈到彼此的情况——谈到一切，只是不谈我们的男女主人。
It is worth noticing that in modern Chinese two verbs are often combined into one verb which can be called as “dual verb” such as“指控”is produced from the combination of “指责”and“控诉”as“宣讲”is from“宣传”and“讲解”(Zhang Zhigong,1985:261).
Sixthly, in Chinese grammar, the predicate function of adjectives enables them to verbify themselves and then these adjective are called functional verbs, for instance, the adjective“红”in“花儿又红了”serves as the function of the verb“开”(Generally, “开花”is the fixed collocation in Chinese).The same is in the case of“杨柳绿了”and“露水湿了我的衣服”in which “绿”shares the same function with the verb“发芽”and“湿”with“使变潮”. In conclusion, the multiple functions of Chinese verbs and their repetition, overlapping, combination and compound and different derived expressions all contribute to the dynamic feature of Chinese.
Origins of the differences between Chinese and English in terms of dynamism
Basically, I classify the origins of differences between Chinese and English in terms of dynamism into two categories: linguistic origins and cultural origins.
Linguistic origins
On the one hand, when using English verbs, we will confront a lot of limitations because generally English has not get rid of inflections yet and the inflectional morphological changes of verbs have not on the wane yet and are still the most stable part in the morphological changes of English word classes. As English verbs take on stable inflectional morphological changes with different morphs bearing different grammatical functions, there is a distinction of finite verbs and infinite verbs in English sentences and every sentence can only carry one finite verb, which is the reason why in English verbs as a word class is limited a lot when used. As a result, in English, a great number of concepts that originally should be expressed by verbs except used in the form of non-finite verbs have to draw support from the word classes beside verbs (mainly nouns and prepositions) to convey their meanings(Sheridan,1985:136).
On the other hand, during the hundreds of years of development from old English to Middle English, the language has undergone a long process of simplification, especially the simplification of nouns and prepositions. The change of case is an example. In old English, nouns have four cases, namely, nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. But as time goes by, the nominative, dative and accusative were gradually mixed into a common case without inflectional changes. The common case refers to the base of a noun such as girl, book and so on. And the formation of the common case greatly promoted the wide range use of nouns. As the development of the common case of nouns, the grammatical and expressive functions of prepositions are strengthened and as discussed before, nouns can be derived and transformed from verbs and are relatively free of the restrictions of inflections so they are more flexible and convenient to use and prepositions are closely related to nouns so they are also used widely in accordance with that of nouns. The preponderances of nouns and prepositions not only decline the frequency of verbs used in English but also weaken the meanings expressed by verbs which results in the weakening and grammaticalization of verbs. Eventually, “preponderance of nouns over verbs” makes expressions stative in English. Last but not least, substituting nouns for verbs makes sentences and meanings more concise and flexible, which conforms to the overall development tendency of Modern English.
On the contrary, Chinese is a language with its words always close to their roots. And Chinese verbs are very stable because they have no inflectional morphological changes. For example, in the sentence“我想去玩玩这个游戏”，the three verbs“想”、“去”、“玩”are all appears in the form of their roots without any limitations of inflections so Chinese verbs are very convenient and flexible to use. What’s more, there is no distinction of finite and infinite verbs in Chinese and verbs with original forms can serve as various constituents in sentences and can be used continuously and multiply even be repeated, overlapped and compounded(Zhang Zhigong,1985:233). And few prepositions in Chinese are nearly all replaced by verbs. Therefore, apart from some sentences without verbs such as“今天国庆节”and“天气真不错”, a lot of Chinese sentences carry more than one verbs, which contributes to the verb preponderance in Chinese and the dynamic tendency of Chinese expressions.
Cultural origins
The nominalization of English is combined with its method of abstract diction. Abstract nouns are used frequently in English which results from following reasons. Firstly, abstract thinking is regarded as a kind of superior mind and a mark of civilized man in western countries. Secondly, with the development of science and technology and the progress of civilization, emotional and simple expressions are not sufficient to express more and more flexible and sophisticated concepts so the abstract method gradually becomes popular. In addition, some writers intend to flaunt their “profound” thoughts and be deliberately mystifying so they are fond of abstract nouns in their works(Lian Shuneng,1993:202).
Translation strategies
Given the differences between English and Chinese languages in terms of dynamism, when translating, we must pay attention to transform “stative” to “dynamic” or “dynamic” to “stative”. And if necessary, addition and omission should be used to guarantee accurate translation. There are some examples which help to demonstrate the translation strategies above. Case 1: Because of educational sensitivity to diversity and pluralism in America, policies today are quite different. 现如今，美国对教育中的多元文化现象非常敏感，教育政策也与以往大不相同。 In this case, the former half of the English sentence is a noun structure, but in its Chinese translation, the former half has become a complete sentence with a subject, a predicate and a complement thus the dynamics of the original sentence become stronger and this translation conforms to the Chinese expression habits as well.
Case 2: When teachers are aware of this issue, they can develop an effective support strategy in the classroom for students who show little initiative or independence. 老师意识到这个问题，就可以在课堂上用有效手段帮助那些几乎不去创新或者依赖性很强的学生。 In this case, the adjective “aware” in the English sentence is translated into the verb “意识到” and the nouns “initiative” and “independence” are translated into the verb “创新” and the adjective “依赖性强的” in the Chinese sentence.
Case 3: This chapter is about cultural differences in education. 本章将介绍教育方面的文化差异。 In this case, the adverbial “about” in the English sentence is translated into the verb “介绍” in the Chinese sentence.
Conclusion
As discussed above, at first the manifestations of the dynamic nature of English and the stative nature of Chinese are respectively analyzed from six aspects. And then the linguistic and cultural origins of the contrastive characteristics of English and Chinese are explained. Lastly, translation strategies in terms of this feature of English and Chinese are introduced. The English and Chinese are so distinct in terms of dynamism, which is a very noticeable aspect in the practice of English-Chinese translation.
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