Chapter 15 Translation of Attributive Clause

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Chapter 15 Translation of Attributive Clause

• Of various English subordinate clauses,
  the attributive is perhaps the most complicated
  and therefore it always presents a hard nut for
  the translator to crack. This is either because
  of the disparity between English and Chinese
  syntax or because of their habitual modes of
  expressing the same idea in different ways.

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• I. A Comparative Study of English and Chinese
  Attributive Structures
• A comparative study of English and
  Chinese attributive structures helps us to bring
  this disparity to light. As some linguists have
  pointed out an English sentence may be followed
  by an unlimited number of attributive clauses
  following the word being modified,

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• While a Chinese sentence allows only a
  limited amount of words preceding the word being
  modified. And eventually, there is no
  correspondence between their sentence structure.
  Let's compare the structure of the following
  English sentences and its Chinese versions.

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• 1. This is the cat.
• 2. This is the cat that killed the rat.
• 3. This is the cat that killed the rat that ate
  the cake.
• 4. This is the cat that killed the rat that ate
  the cake that lay in the house.

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• 5. This is the cat that killed the rat that ate
  the cake that lay in the house that Jack built.
• Apparently, it's impossible for a
  translator to put all the information into one
  Chinese sentence in the same sequence as English.
  Therefore, a readable Chinese version of the
  above English sentences 3, 4, 5 should be worked
  out.

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• Consequently, some efficient ways have been
  suggested to tackle the problems that occurs in
  the translation of English attributive clauses.
• II. Restrictive Attributive Clauses
• Restrictive attributive clauses, which are
  characterized by the absence of a comma between
  the subordinate clauses and the principal
  clauses, are very closely related to the nouns or
  pronouns (also called antecedents) that they are
  modifying.

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• The meaning of the complex sentence would
  not be complete unless the restrictive
  attributive clause is taken into consideration.
  Generally, the following three methods are used
  to translate restrictive clauses.

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• 1.Combination
• This is the most common practice, in
  which an English restrictive attributive clause
  is embedded in the Chinese sentence
  with---?---, and is placed before the words
  being modified(the antecedents). By combination,
  we have actually converted the complex English
  sentence into a simple Chinese sentence.

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• The people who worked for him lived in mortal
  fear of him.
• Pollution is a pressing problem which we must
  deal with before 2008 Olympic Games.
• In the room where the electronic computer is
  kept, there must be no dust at all.

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• 2. Division
• Sometimes, an English sentence with a
  restrictive attributive clause is too long or too
  complicated for a translator to take as whole. In
  this case, we may divide it into two, placing the
  attributive clause after the principal clause to
  conform to the Chinese usage, repeating the
  antecedent being modified.

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• How can I introduce into a casual conversation
  those lengthy lines of argument that inject the
  adrenaline into a given idea.
• They are striving for the ideal which is close
  to the heart of every Chinese and for which, in
  the past, many Chinese have laid down their
  lives.

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• Between these two tiny particles, the proton and
  electron, there is a powerful attraction that is
  always present between negative and positive
  electric charges.
• Sometimes, however, a sentence with a
  restrictive attributive clause may be translated
  as a compound sentence without repeating the
  antecedent.

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• He managed to raise a crop of 200 miracle
  tomatoes that weighed up to two pounds each.
• A fuel is a material which will burn at a
  reasonable temperature and produce heat.
• They worked out a new method by which production
  has now been rapidly increased.

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• 3. Mixture
• By mixture here we mean combining the
  principal clause and the attributive clause into
  a single Chinese sentence without any
  demarcation. This method is usually adopted
  in translating English there be --- structure.

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• There were men in that crowd who had stood there
  every day for a month.
• Fortunately, there are some chemical fuels that
  are clean and smokeless.
• There are some metals which possess the power to
  conduct electricity and the ability to be
  magnetized.

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• III. Non-restrictive Attributive Clauses
• Non-restrictive attributive clauses are
  characterized by a comma between the principal
  and the attributive clause. In comparison with
  restrictive attributive clauses,
  non-restrictive attributive clauses hold a
  loose relationship with the antecedents,
  functioning as a supplementary part in the
  sentence.

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• In terms of translation techniques, there
  is no significant difference between these two
  kinds of attributive clauses. However the method
  of division is adopted more frequently in
  translating non-restrictive attributive clauses
  than in translating restrictive attributive
  clauses, while the method of combination is just
  the other way around.

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• 1. Division
• This is a university of science and technology,
  the students of which are training to be
  engineers or scientists.
• He saw in front that haggard white-haired old
  man, whose eyes flashed red with fury.
• One was violent thunderstorm, the worst I had
  ever seen, which obscured my objective.

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• 2. Combination
• The sun, which had hidden all day, now came out
  in all its splendor.
• Transistors, which are small in size, can make
  previously large and bulky radios light and
  small.
• You can break up a beam of incoherent light with
  a prism, which is made of glass.

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• IV. Attributive Clauses Functioning as
  Adverbials
• Some attributive clauses function as
  adverbial in the complex sentence, having a very
  close logic relationship with the principal
  clause and indicating the cause, result, purpose,
  time, condition, concession, and so on.
  Therefore, when translating such sentences, we
  should render them into corresponding Chinese
  adverbial sentences.

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• We know that a cat, whose eyes can take in many
  more rays than our eyes, can see clearly in the
  night.
• There was something original, independent, and
  heroic about the plan that pleased all of them.
• The software engineer bought the half-million
  house, but the professor of sociology, whose
  salary is much lower, only bought a small
  apartment.

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• Electronic computers, which have many advantages,
  cannot carry out creative work and replace man.
• Men became desperate for work, any work, which
  would help them to keep alive their families.
• For any machine whose input and output are known,
  its mechanical advantage can be calculated.

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• I'll try to get an illustrated dictionary dealing
  with technical glossary, which will enable me to
  translate scientific literature more exactly.
• We have to oil the moving parts of the machine,
  the friction of which may be greatly reduced.