第三章 英译汉基本技巧.docVIP

第四章 Negative and Affirmative Negation is an important composition成分 of any language, but different languages have various ways to express negation, which are reflected not only in the use of negative words but also in different structures of negation. For example, negative words are always put before the part to be negated in Chinese. However, in English, negative words can be put before the predicate (usually by negating the auxiliary 辅助的, and “do” is added in case there is no auxiliary), the subject or the object, but semantically these are not necessarily the negated parts. This phenomenon is referred to as the “shift of negation”. Look at the following two sentences: The planets do not go around the sun at a uniform speed. 各个行星并不以一致的速度绕太阳旋转。 （ “Go” is negated in structure, but “at a uniform speed” is the part actually negated in meaning.） So far we know of no effective way to store solar energy. 到目前为止，我们还不知道储存太阳能的有效方法。 （ Structurally, “no” negates “effective way”, but semantically “know of” is actually negated.） As a matter of fact, negation is more often just a view of point or a certain perspective about something or some idea. Something seemingly affirmative may look negative viewed from the opposite aspect. As a result, a word, phrase or sentence can often be translated as either the negative or the affirmative. This may be caused by different focus of people speaking different languages. Look at the following sentences. He is little more than a child. Anyone wants to get out? Over my dead body! Mother said Father would come soon, but Mary knew better. Stir and you are dead. The old man lay awake almost the whole night. Students are still coming. He is little more than a child. 他比孩子大不了多少。 他完全还是个孩子。 Anyone wants to get out? Over my dead body! 只要我活着，谁也别想出去。 Mother said Father would come soon, but Mary knew better. 玛丽知道（爸爸）不会（很快回来）。 Stir and you are dead. （不许动！）敢动，我就要你的命！ The old man lay awake almost the whole night. 这个晚上老人几乎都醒着躺着。 老人躺着，几乎一夜没合眼。 Studen