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【Abstract】This paper uses translation theories to compare an English literacy piece， i.e.German Harry written by W.S.Maugham， and its Chinese translation by an expert Pan Shaozhong （Yang， 2004： 293-301）， in order to explore the differences between Chinese and English.The focus of this paper is on the change of part of speech and voice， as well as how to translate complex sentences.The findings are expected to be multiple and guide our translation practice.
【Key words】complex sentences， conversion， nominalisations， part of speech， voice
1.Introduction
Nida （1982） argued that linguistically， the most prominent distinction between Chinese and English languages may lie in the contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis.In other words， English is characterised by hypotaxis which depends heavily on grammar in the language itself， while Chinese is characterised by parataxis which depends largely on the logical connections within sentences.This difference is marked and visible and can be tracked if we investigate English texts and their Chinese translated versions.Thus the strategy of reorganizing the order is applied in this study for comparison and contrast.
The existence of differences between English and Chinese has made possible the heated debate over the choice between domesticating and foreignising in translation， the former referring to reducing the foreign text to the target language cultural values and the latter referring to registering the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text （Venuti， 1995）.It can be interpreted as a kind of continuum with “domesticating” at one end and “foreignising” at the other， and expert translators don’t stick to either pole of the continuum， but prefer to situate their translation somewhere between the two poles， i.e.communicating linguistic and cultural differences while at the same time removing linguistic and cultural peculiarities so as to make the translation as invisible as possible.This fit in well with the widely agreed translation standard of faithfulness， expressiveness / understandability， and elegance proposed by Fu Yan （as cited in Shen， 1998）.Therefore， there is a need to change part of speech and voice in some cases in the process of translation from English into Chinese.
2.A comparative analysis of the two texts
2.1 Part of Speech
Compared to English， Chinese in many cases prefer verbs to nouns （Zhang et al.， 1980）.English texts， particularly highly technical ones， are characterised by common use of abstract and metaphoric entities （also known as “nominalisation”） （Martin
【Key words】complex sentences， conversion， nominalisations， part of speech， voice
1.Introduction
Nida （1982） argued that linguistically， the most prominent distinction between Chinese and English languages may lie in the contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis.In other words， English is characterised by hypotaxis which depends heavily on grammar in the language itself， while Chinese is characterised by parataxis which depends largely on the logical connections within sentences.This difference is marked and visible and can be tracked if we investigate English texts and their Chinese translated versions.Thus the strategy of reorganizing the order is applied in this study for comparison and contrast.
The existence of differences between English and Chinese has made possible the heated debate over the choice between domesticating and foreignising in translation， the former referring to reducing the foreign text to the target language cultural values and the latter referring to registering the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text （Venuti， 1995）.It can be interpreted as a kind of continuum with “domesticating” at one end and “foreignising” at the other， and expert translators don’t stick to either pole of the continuum， but prefer to situate their translation somewhere between the two poles， i.e.communicating linguistic and cultural differences while at the same time removing linguistic and cultural peculiarities so as to make the translation as invisible as possible.This fit in well with the widely agreed translation standard of faithfulness， expressiveness / understandability， and elegance proposed by Fu Yan （as cited in Shen， 1998）.Therefore， there is a need to change part of speech and voice in some cases in the process of translation from English into Chinese.
2.A comparative analysis of the two texts
2.1 Part of Speech
Compared to English， Chinese in many cases prefer verbs to nouns （Zhang et al.， 1980）.English texts， particularly highly technical ones， are characterised by common use of abstract and metaphoric entities （also known as “nominalisation”） （Martin