Methods of translating long sentences in English for postgraduate entrance examination
Translation methods of long sentences
Translation of long sentences is actually a comprehensive application of various translation methods. In translation, candidates should first find out the structure of the original text, find out the central idea and the meanings at all levels, analyze the logical relationship between the meanings at all levels, and then translate them correctly according to Chinese characteristics and expressions, not sticking to the form of the original text. Commonly used methods include sequential method, reverse order method, translation method, synthesis method and so on.
example 1: the Committee prepared this paper because its members recognized that the government has failed to establish an energy policy capable of providing. Ing a comprehensive energy source that can meet our requirements for the last port of this century and the greater port of the next.
Brief analysis: If the time or logical order is consistent with Chinese expression, the translation method can be adopted. This sentence consists of four sentences, one subordinate to the other, which is a vertical relationship, so it is translated in sequence. In the third sentence, because the phrase guided by capable is long, there is a gerund providing as an attribute in the middle, which is placed after the modified noun policy, and can be placed before the policy when translated compactly.
The committee drew up this document because its members saw that the government could no longer draw up a comprehensive plan to meet our needs in this century and the second half of the century.
example 2: primary colors are colors in terms of which all other colors may be described, or from which all other colors may be evolved by mixture.
brief analysis: if the order of the original text is different from Chinese expression habits, or completely opposite, the reverse translation method can be used in Chinese translation. In English, nouns, pronouns, adjectives or gerunds are usually placed in front of the modified nouns when they are used as attributes; Clauses and various phrases are placed after the modified nouns when they are used as attributes. Chinese, on the other hand, is different, and its attributives are all placed before the modified words, so the arrangement order of the original structure needs to be partially adjusted when translating. There are two restrictive attributive clauses in this sentence, both of which are translated backwards.
The primary colors are the colors that all other colors can represent or be formulated with.
example 3: the great difference of introducing radically new computer architectures which requires customers to rewrite most of their software excluded th. E possibility for these techniques to find their way to the commercial marketplace.
Analysis, also known as disassembling translation, is to disassemble some long compound sentences with twists and turns into short sentences and then translate them separately. The subject of this sentence is a prepositional phrase with a complex structure of attributive clauses, which is difficult to translate directly. The translation had to break up the structure of the original sentence and reassemble it. First, the attributive clause was separated and translated, and then the word "great difference" was extracted and translated, which made the translation fluent.
The adoption of a brand-new computer architecture will inevitably require users to rewrite most of their software, so it is difficult to put it into practice, which excludes the possibility of this technology entering the commodity market.
example 4: to head the development division they choose a forty-year-old engineer, kenicai yamamoto, who in the succeeding few years emerged as one of the handful of the handful of Men---Froede, Bentele, Ben singer of Daimler-benz s-who has made major contributions to rotary technology.
a brief analysis: when the current three translations are inconvenient, they can be comprehensively processed, or translated in chronological order or logical order, with proper and negative directions, and with proper and secondary directions. This sentence is connected by the connection who. Chinese must be separated into separate sentences, so the related words in the previous sentence must be repeated.
In order to lead the development department, they chose a 4-year-old engineer, Yamamoto Ken. In the next few years, he became one of the few celebrities ―― Freddy, Bentel and Bensinger of Daimler-Benz, who made great contributions to rotor technology.
Let's do some exercises to consolidate what we learned today:
1. On August 1, The Gunboat Began Her Mission, Which Was, In the Eyes of the Defenders, a provocative act and seemed to be part of the overall assault which had begun on July 31.
2. The method normally employed for free electrons to b e produced in electron tubes is thermionic emission, in which advantage is taken of the fact, if a solid body is heated sufficiently, some of the electrons that it contains will escape from its surface into the surrounding space.
3. The site at Poverty, Louisiana, has been known to archeologists since the early 19s, but it wasn’t until 1953, when aerial photographs were taken, that the ridge pattern was first spotted.
4. By the middle of the year, he warned, the Soviet Union would overtake the United States in the number of landbased strategic missiles, The result of a massive Soviet effort beginning in the mid-196s, after the Cuban fiasco, to achieve at least Paris and possible superiority in nuclear weapons.
Reference translation:
1. On August 1, the gunboats began to perform their tasks. From the defender's point of view, this is a provocative action, and it seems to be an integral part of the full-scale attack that began on July 31.
2. When a solid is heated to a sufficient temperature, some electrons contained in it leave the surface and escape into the surrounding space. This phenomenon is called thermionic emission. This is how electron tubes produce free electrons.
3. Archaeologists knew about this site in Beaufort, Louisiana as early as the beginning of this century. However, it was not until the aerial photography was carried out in 1953 that the figure of the arrangement of earth hills was discovered for the first time.
4. He warned that by the middle of this year, the Soviet Union will surpass the United States in the number of strategic missiles launched on land, because after the failure of the Cuban incident, the Soviet Union has been vigorously developing missiles since the mid-196s, with the aim of at least reaching parity with the United States in nuclear weapons and striving to surpass the United States. ;