Division
"Division", as a translation technique, means the necessary splitting of a long sentence into shorter sentences.
To split a sentence at will is definitely a mistake in translation. For this is bound to mar the style or even the meaning of the original. But that does not mean "splitting the sentence" is absolutely impermissible. On the principle of "subordinating the part to the whole", a translator may, through a careful analysis of the context, split a long and involved sentence properly in translation, so as to convey faithfully the thought of the original in a readable way.
We believe that the prerequisites for the correct handling of long or complex sentences in English-Chinese translation, --- including the application of "Division"，"amplification"，"conversion" etc. ---lie in the translator's correct comprehension of the original and, secondly, in his capability of adequate representation of the essence and thought of the author in the language to be translated into. Corrrect comprehension, therefore, is always the first and foremost step; and the dialectical unity of“faithfulness”and“smoothness”---the dialectical unity of content and form---is always what we should strive to achieve. This means we have to begin with a careful analysis of a long and complex sentence in the light of the context so as to understand clearly ； (a) what the author is driving at, (b) what his arguments or views are and what "logic sequence" there is in the original, (c) what grammatical relations there are regarding the three, four, five or even more "modifiers" in the long sentence to be translated.
With the above three-point requirement truly met, we will be in a position to handle a long and complex sentence---to render it into Chinese in a draft form. Then, when the whole piece is completed, we must read the draft once or twice through, to see what improvement we have to make.
Generally speaking there are a few rules to go hy in“splitting”a long English sentence in E-C translation, on the basis of a correct comprehension of the original.
1. When the long sentence includes or implies the author's two or more“steps”of reasoning, or his arrangement of facts in a certain order (e.g. in an ascending order of rhetorical forcefulness).
Example. "Thus it happened that when the new factories that were springing up required labour，tens of thousands of homeless and hungry agricultural workers, with their wives and children, were forced into the cities tn search o{ work* any work, under any condition，that would keep them alive."
An analysis enables us to see that the line of reasoning in the original work is: when new factories needed labour, cheap labour was easily available; this was because tens of thousands of agricultural workers in Britain who were forced into the cities were homeless and jobless and were consequently ready to work under any conditions…！ Having grasped this, we can render the sentence into:“于是，就出現(xiàn)了這樣的情況，正當(dāng)新辦的工廠紛紛建立、需要?jiǎng)趧?dòng)力的時(shí)候， 成千上萬(wàn)無(wú)家可歸、 饑腸轆轆的從事農(nóng)業(yè)的勞動(dòng)者，攜家?guī)Э?，被迫流人城市；他們要找活兒干?不管什么活兒，不講什么條件,只要不使 他們餓死就行?！?/p>
Another example. “I would go further and point out that the misuse of 'the earth resources programme' may not be limited only to economic matters, important as they may be，but that man-made satellites, as we well know, could also be the means for obtaining intelligence data of vital strategic import."
An analysis of the original shows the author's "logic sequence", his assessment of "the misuse of 'the earth resources programme'" in an "ascending order". Having grasped this clue，we can translate the sentence into：“我還想進(jìn)一步指出，對(duì)‘地球資源的遙測(cè)計(jì)劃’加以濫用一事，可能不僅限于經(jīng)濟(jì)問(wèn) 題方面，盡管經(jīng)濟(jì)問(wèn)題是重要的;眾所周知，人造衛(wèi)星也可以用作獲取重要戰(zhàn)略情報(bào)的手 段?！?/p>
2. When the “modifiers” (especially non-restrictive adj. clauses) qualifying the subject are too long.
Generally speaking these sentences can be properly rendered into Chinese by employing the techniques of "division"，"amplification" and "conversion" on the basis of a correct comprehension of the original, e. g.
“Facilities which have been developed in the process of trying to provide realistic flow conditions at high speeds and which are now used fairly extensively in high-speed testing include hotshot tunnels, plasma jets, shock tubes, shock tunnels, and light gas guns. ”——“在試圖提供實(shí)際髙速氣流條件的過(guò)程中，發(fā)展了一批設(shè)備，目 前這些設(shè)備已相當(dāng)廣泛地用于高速試驗(yàn)；它們包括熱射式風(fēng)洞、等離子體射流、激波管、激波風(fēng)洞以及輕氣體炮等。 ”
Similarly, sometimes the modifiers qualifying a predicate are too long and also to be split. e.g.
“Fire is a chemical reaction tn which atoms of the gas oxygen combine with atoms of certain other elements, such as hydrogen or carbon. ”\t—— “燃燒是一種化學(xué)反應(yīng)，在這類反應(yīng)中，氧原子與像氫或碳那樣的其他元素的原子相化 合?！?/p>
3. When the "modifiers" (especially non-restrictive adj. clauses) qualifying the object are too long. e. g.
"Others, in their haste to pick up additional techniques not covered in the elementary calculus course, take courses in advanced engineering mathematics which cover such topics as Fourier series, Laplace transforms, partial differential equations, boundary-value problems, and complex variables. "——“其他學(xué)生由于急于學(xué)到基礎(chǔ)微積分課程之外的其 他方法，于是就學(xué)習(xí)高等工程數(shù)學(xué)的若干課程，包括象傅里葉級(jí)數(shù)、拉普拉斯變換、偏微分方程、邊界值問(wèn)題和復(fù)變 函數(shù)等課程?！?/p>
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