翻译作品论文开题报告

英语专业翻译方向论文开题报告范文

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How to Deal with Ellipsis in English-Chinese Translation

I. Purpose and Significance

With the development of globalization, the world’s political, economic and cultural communications are becoming increasingly frequent. Therefore, the role of translation cannot be ignored. However, the differences between English and Chinese cultures that are reflected in the two languages pose considerable difficulty.

It is acknowledged that when doing translation one can not translate word for word, or sentence by sentence. Therefore, we must use some translation strategies such as amplification, ellipsis, conversion and so on. Ellipsis as one of the basic translation methods plays an essential role in English-Chinese rendition. Translators apply it in order to make their versions more coherent and understandable.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, ellipsis means leaving out a word or words from a sentence deliberately, when the meaning can be understood without them. Ellipsis in translation does not mean cutting some content from the original articles. What could be omitted are words that are useless in translated works or else they will make the versions redundant or disobey the manner of expression in another language.

Some words and phrases are useless in Chinese but necessary in English. Articles in English are the most significant phenomenon from this aspect. They are very important in English, but we can hardly see any reflection of this part in Chinese. Ellipsis is designed on the basis of faithfulness to the original text, making it more fluent, smooth, concise, thus conforming to idiomatic Chinese. The paper will explore ellipsis in English-Chinese translation from five aspects, which are ellipses of pronouns, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, modifications, so as to achieve smoother and clearer communications among China and English-speaking countries.

II. Literature Review

Long before, some people began to learn other countries’ languages to understand others cultures. In China, Xuanzang was the first translator who not only translated the Sanskrit sutras into Chinese, but introduced the first Chinese writings to foreign countries, making foreigners understand China’s ancient culture. Meanwhile, he was the first to translate Lao Tse's works into Sanskrit. Indian scholars had a high opinion of Xuanzang, "In China, there is no such great translator, and also in the human cultural history, we can only say that Xuanzang is the first great translator."(Ye Lang, 2008) We can say that it was Xuanzang who motivated people to know the different parts of the world, their cultures and the peoples who live there. Then, some big countries such as America, China, and so on became a melting pot.(Gu Zhengkun, 2000) People have imperceptibly spent thousands of years in knowing each other.

With China’s entry into WTO and its open-up policy, cross-cultural exchanges are increasingly frequent between this country and others. A lot of foreign tourists come to visit China. While traveling, these foreigners are not satisfied with the translations of the scenic spots. Sometimes, they even feel confused. A lot of problems exist in the translation, such as misuse of words, poor expression of meaning and so on. All of these poor translations do harm to our country’s international image, and cause a lot of inconveniences for the foreign visitors. (Ma Zuyi, 2000). I am fond of tourism and being a free tourist like the others who are good at enjoying their wonderful lives. The love of tourism makes me feel the need to improve the translation. But every time when I have a trip, many unsuitable translations of the names of those scenic spots will embarrass me. Tourism is part of intercultural communication, so proper translation of the scenic spots become more and more important to our country.

Communication plays a significant role in the globalized society. In order to know each other better, people from all over the world have tried a verity of ways. Of course, translation is one of them. All translators have done their best to make the translated works more consistent with the needs of people.(Gu Jinming, 1997) From my perspective, they really have done a great job. And I want to retrospect the cause of their development. After a thorough evaluation, I choose a branch of translation—ellipsis in translation from English to Chinese, then I did the following jobs.

I put all my researches and other stuffs together, and then I found that it is a common case in English and Chinese which draws much academic interest. In 1976, Halliday and Hsan classified ellipsis into nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis. This classification exerts great influence in academic circle. Thereafter, ellipsis in Chinese and English has been studied according to this theory, which is based on different layers of structure. This kind of study underlines differentiations and similarities of ellipsis in Chinese and English.

Another famous theory to explain ellipsis is Economy Principle. Economy Principle was put forward by Chomsky (1991,1993, and 1995) in his Generate Crammer. It maintains that language and linguistic study follow Economy Principle, which means using the least effort to express the most information. This principle just coincides with ellipsis in function.

In this thesis, I think that brevity is the most obvious and common function of ellipsis, especially in daily language. And in both English and Chinese, people advocate brevity. Shakespeare once remarked, “brevity is the soul of wit”, and in Chinese there are numerous idioms like “yan jian yi gai” (meaning compendious). However, apart from the function of brevity, ellipsis embodies other functions which are also pretty common in the two languages but less noticed.(Hua Xianfa,2002)These functions distribute in both English and Chinese unevenly and represent great colorfulness of language. Exploring other functions of ellipsis and searching for functional recreation in translation will be of much benefit to both English to Chinese and Chinese to English translation.

I found that when Chinese authors try to analyse ellipsis in English to Chinese translation, they always initially put articles in the list. They consider that it is a common phenomenon that Chinese always leave out personal articles. While it is obviously different in English that almost every sentence has a subject, we can see articles fluently. That is because when we translate from English to Chinese, personal articles can be omitted, even though sometimes it may appear once, it can also be omitted if necessary. Furthermore, if the objects can be seen obviously, personal articles should also be omitted. However, it never happens in English. From this point, it is not only allowable but also necessary when we translate personal articles which are objects in sentences into Chinese.

In my point of view, the development of society has in some way has deliberately promoted the way of people’s thinking, translation system has become more and more perfect, people from all over the world have enjoyed the convenience. However, we can not neglect that there are still some problems in this field in China, and we have less influential Chinese translators in the world. Therefore, we still have a long way to go in translation.

III. Feasibility Analysis

This academic paper is a feasible project and the reasons are as follows:

1.I have great interests in the way of English-Chinese translation.

2.I have already studied translation methods and have been familiar with the functions and applications of ellipsis .

3.I have collected enough references both Chinese and Western on ellipsis in

translation and do a scrupulous study of the relationship between them.

4.I have a carefully planned schedule and have worked out a detailed outline of this thesis.

5.I have acquainted myself with the correct format, a clear and complete structure required by the academic paper, and my adequate English competence will enable me to write in fluent and precise English.

6.My instructor is a qualified translator who is familiar with the subject I havechosen.

IV. Problems of the research and solutions

1. Problems

Despite the references I have collected and read, a thorough study of ellipsis in English-Chinese translation from the point of freely using still needs far more. What’s more, owing to the limited ways of getting references in Xinjiang, I will have to make full use of my present resources. Also, this is the first time I have ever written such a serious academic paper. I am therefore a learner and lack the needed training and experience.

2. Solutions

(1) I shall make full use of my already acquired references which come from books, magazines and the Internet as well.

(2) I shall value my own original thoughts and mainly rely on detailed analysis that I have read from the books which have closely idea with my purpose.

(3) When I have difficulties in the writing process, I shall consult my instructor and seek for help.

V. Necessary conditions

1. Our university and school of foreign languages have provided the basic study and research conditions and facilities, including books and journals in the library and reading rooms.

2. The Internet is another source of information and on the campus we have easy access to the Internet.

3. I have been assigned an instructor to guide me through the whole process of planning and writing.

VI. Outline

I. Introduction

A. A Brief Introduction of Ellipsis in Translation

B. What Should We Pay Attention to When Dealing with Ellipsis

C. The Reason Why Ellipsis Is So Widely Used in Translation

1. Chinese Expressions Are Much Briefer Than That of English

2. English Grammar Is Wee-Knit and Complete in Sentence Structure

II. The Principles of Ellipsis

A. Omitted Words Must Be Useless And Unnecessary in the Translated Works

B. The Meaning of the Omitted Words Is Implied in the Test

C. Omitted Words Which Are Self-Evident

Ш. The Functions and Applications of Ellipsis

A. The Coherence of the Meaning of Expression

B. The Coincidence of the Manner of Expression

1. Ellipsis of Articles

a. Ellipsis of Definite Articles

b. Ellipsis of Indefinite Articles

2. Ellipsis of Prepositions

3. Ellipsis of Pronouns

a. Ellipsis of Personal and Impersonal Pronouns

b. Ellipsis of Indefinite Pronouns

c. Ellipsis of Relative Pronouns

4. Ellipsis of Conjunctions

a. Ellipsis of Coordinating Conjunctions

b. Ellipsis of Subordinate Conjunctions

5. Ellipsis of Rhetoric

a. Ellipsis of Repeated Words

b. Ellipsis of Synonyms

A Contrastive Study between English and Chinese Idioms（题目：二号，黑体，加粗，居中,除了英语小词外，其他单词首字母都要大写；另外：除了题目外，论文中所有英文的字体均采用“Times New Roman”）（学院、专业、学号、作者姓名、指导教师姓名（小四号宋体字，加粗），依次排印在论文题目下，上空二行，居中）【Abstract】 This paper centers on the different expressions of …… （英文摘要：上空二行；题目采用五号“Times New Roman”字体，加粗，置于粗体方括号【】内，顶格放置；随后的内容与前面的粗体方括号【】之间空一格，不用其他任何标点符号；采用五号“Times New Roman”字体，不加粗；单倍行距。）【Key Words】 idiom; comparison; English; Chinese （英文关键词：题目采用五号“Times New Roman”字体，加粗，两个单词的首字母要大写，置于粗体方括号【】内，顶格放置；随后的内容与前面的粗体方括号【】之间空一格，不用任何其他标点符号，采用五号“Times New Roman”字体，不加粗，除了专有名词外，其他单词的首字母不大写，各单词之间用分号“；”隔开，分号之后空一格；最后一个关键词之后不用任何标点符号；单倍行距。）1. Introduction (顶格，除了第一个单词及专有名词外，其他单词首字母都不要大写；标题最后不用任何标点符号，上空两行)In both English and Chinese, …. So, this essay is trying to focus on the differences between Chinese and English idoms in terms of their essential meaning, customary usage and typical expression (Chang Liang, 1993:44; Li Guangling, 1999). (段落第一行缩进4个英文字符；夹注的标注法：出现在夹注中的作者必须与文后的参考文献形成一一对应关系；注意一个或多个作者间的标点符号，时间、页码等的标注法；另外，汉语参考文献的作者要以拼音形式出现，不能出现汉语姓氏；夹注出现在标点符号之前)2. The similarities between English idioms and Chinese idioms In English, …. And it can be clearly seen in the below examples:(1) I don’t know。我不知道。 (2) I am not a poet. 我不是诗人。 (正文中的例子以（1），（2）…为序号排列，直至最后一个例子；而①, ②…则为脚注或尾注的上标序号)3. The differences between English idioms and Chinese idioms3.1 The characteristics of English idioms（正文章节序号编制：章的编号：1. ，2.， 3.，…；节的编号：1.1,1.2…，2.1,2.2…；小节的编号为：1.1.1, 1.1.2…。小节以下层次，采用希腊数字加括号为序，如（i），（ii）…；之后再采用字母加括号，如(a), (b),…;每章题目左顶格，小四号字，加粗；每节（及小节以下）题目左顶格，小四号字，不加粗但要斜体；所有章节的题目都单独一行，最后不加任何标点符号）….In conclusion, ….3.2 The characteristics of Chinese idioms….Feng (1998) found some problems as shown in the following examples (注意此句中夹注的另一种写法):(9) We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.(10) People take no thought of the value of time until they lose it.….3.2.1 The analysis of the differences between English and Chinese idioms… (i) ….….(ii) ….…. 4. Conclusion….Bibliography (References) （小四号，加粗，后面不加任何标点符号） Sanved, ed. The Oxford book of American literary anecdotes[C]. New York: OUP, 1981.常亮，“关于英语的偏离否定”[J] 。《外国语文》，1993，4：44。 冯树健，“否定之否定新说”[J] 。《英语辅导》，1998，6：11。 李光陵，“不完全否定浅析” [J] 。《大学英语》，2000，30：30。 （论文最后的参考文献中所有文献的排列顺序：尾注：按照编号顺序。夹注：英文文献----网络文献----汉语文献，各个文献的先后以作者的姓氏字母或拼音为序，不用单独加序号或编号；每个参考文献的第二行起必须缩进4个英文字符；1.5倍行距；另外，与文中的夹注一一对应；不同类型的参考文献写法请参照写作指南中附件2的内容）