Chinglish in Chinese-English Interpreting in Light of Chinese Thought Patterns

崔 蓓 翟 娜 李瑞超

（西安翻譯學院外國語學院，陜西 西安 710105）

Based on the differences in geography,economic system and philosophical traditions,Chinese and English people differ a lot in their thought patterns,which in turn influence their language patterns.As a typical product of Chinese-English translating work,Chinglish is defined as “the improper use of English by Chinese learners influenced by the rules and traditions of their mother tongue”(Li Wenzhong,1993:19).Chinglish is featured with the Chinese thinking patterns and language structures,which is grammatically correct but unacceptable to native English people.

Serving as an important form of language exchange in foreign affair arena,interpreting performance is usually frustrated by Chinglish which degrades the language quality as well as the China's image to the world.To explore the reasons and strategies,we must start from the features of Chinese thought patterns.

1 Chinese thought patterns

Imaginal thinking:Chinese thought patterns are featured firstly with their preference to use some “concrete” and “form-oriented” words to describe something “abstract”.For instance,the Chinese character “從”Combines“人”and “人”to describe“one is followed by another.”Also,“高跟鞋”,“回形針”,“雪白” are created based on the form or color of what they describe.

Integrated thinking:From the ancient history,integrated thinking is rooted in the mind of Chinese people.“The earth should be viewed as a whole” and “Group should take priority over individuals” typically represent this thinking stereotype.

Ontological thinking:Chinese society and culture are “peoplecentered”,in which people are deemed in the leading position of life.This leads to the phenomenon in language that people are mostly used as the subject of sentences,namely,“active voice” is used in most cases.

Successive thinking:Successive thinking is presented firstly in Chinese version of“time” and “space” which follows the order of “large to small”.Such as “ 年-月-日”, “國家-省-市-縣”.Describing an issue,they usually follow the pattern of “past to present”, “reason to result”,“macro-scope to micro-scope”.

As contrary to theses four thinking patterns,the English respective patterns are “abstract thinking”, “analyzing thinking”, “objecting thinking” and “reversing thinking”.

2 The analysis of Chinglish in C-E interpreting

2.1 The lexical level

Compare with “brevity” of English language,Chinese language is characterized by “redundancy” which is related to its “Imaginal thinking”.

Unnecessary words:

Eg.1:加快經濟建設的步伐

在經濟貿易等領域

In the two sentences,“步伐”and“領域”are the representatives of“Imaginal thinking”,that is,to illustrate abstract“經濟建設” and “經濟貿易”in a concrete way.It's not surprising to see the English version“to accelerate the pace of economic reform”and “in the fields of economy,trade and other areas”.Actually “pace” and “fields” are redundant sense their sense is already included in the sentence.The revised version should be:

To accelerate economic reform

In economy,trades and other areas.

Beside nouns,some unnecessary verbs and modifiers also appear commonly,for instance:

我們必須密切關注經濟局勢的變化和走勢，及時，靈活地采取措施。(2008年“兩會“溫家寶總理記者招待會)

Chinglish version:We should follow closely changes and trends in economy and make prompt and flexible responses.

Unnecessary modifiers can be illustrated by “mutual cooperation”,a valuable treasure” in which “mutual” and “valuable” should be eliminated.

Redundant twins:

The concepts“意合”and“形散神不”are too familiar to language learners,which is also the typical demonstration of Chinese people's preference of integrated thinking.It is why redundant twins appear frequent in Chinese to emphasize the same meaning repeatedly.For instance:

我們應努力對經濟建設中出現的問題進行解決。

Chiglish version:We should correct and solve the problems emerging in economic construction.

Revised version:We should solve the problems emerging in economic construction.

2.2 The syntactical level

The negative influence of integrated thinking pattern in syntactical level is that sentences are usually short of conjunctions or improperstructured,since Chinese people are used to think meaning should take priority over forms.

The lack or improper use of logical connectives

在反腐敗的過程中，我們應該有不會改變對外開放政策，并會進一步深化這一政策的決心。

Chiglish version:While fighting corruption,we must demonstrate our will not to change the policies of reform and opening up,and our resolve to deepen the policies.

Revised version:While fighting corruption,we must demonstrate our will not to change the policies of reform and opening up,but on the contrary,our resolve to deepen the policies.

The reason for this revision is that the latter part of the sentence conveys the opposite meaning instead of paralleling the former part.

Dangling structure:

如果要通過改革和重組來升級質量的話，重點應該放在技術創新上。（2005年“兩會”溫家寶總理記者招待會）

Chiglish version:In reforming and restructuring,upgrading quality should be the focus for technological renovation.

Revised version:In reforming and restructuring,we should focus on technological renovation to upgrade quality.

The misplacement of phrases and clauses:

The contradiction between successive thinking and reverse thinking is that the position of some phrases or clauses should be adjusted to adhere to the thinking tradition of the target language.For instance:

實現這個計劃，我依然認為首要的還是要堅定信心。(2009年“兩會”朱镕基總理記者招待會)

Chiglish version:To attain our goal,I think first and foremost,we need to have confidence.

Revised version:To attain our goal,I think we need to,first and foremost,have confidence.

3 Enlightenment to interpreting teaching

Working under extreme pressure,interpreters usually find it impossible to pay much attention to Chinglish on the conference site,the more possible way is to reform and enhance interpreting training.The responsibilities should be shouldered by teachers in the following aspects:

Firstly,interpreting courses can be given by the cooperation of Chinese and foreign teachers,in which the Chinese one lectures the theories,skills,and guides the practice activities,while the foreign teacher is responsible for correcting the improper language expressions.Moreover,some native English training programs can be carried out in interpreting classes or in other related English classes,such as the transferring practice “ from meaning-oriented form-oriented”, “from active to passive voices”,or “ from concrete to abstract expression” etc.

In addition,the curriculum design of interpreting majored students should be reformed.It is a problem that most domestic universities spare no efforts to perfect the courses like skill training and model conference for student interpreters.Actually,some courses about the differences of structure and thinking patterns between English and Chinese should be given attention as well.

［1］Gile,D.1984.Basic Concetp and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training[M].Amsterdam:John Benjamins Publishing Company.

［2］Pinkham,J 2000.The Translator's Guide to Chinglish[M].Beijing:Foreign language Teaching and Research Press.

［3］蔡小紅.口譯評估[M].北京:中國對外翻譯出版公司,2004.

［4］黃清貴.“中國式英語”現象的背后[J].福建師范大學福清分校學報,2005(3):65-68.

［5］連淑能.論中西思維模式[J].外語與外語教學,1993(2):40-46.