On the E-C Attribute Translation
Attribute is an element shared by both Chinese and English languages. You can see in my first sentence, an attribute is used to modify the word “element”. Moreover attribute is used widely and flexibly to our heart’s contents. In English ,you can place attribute either before or after the word to be modified. While in Chinese things are totally different .As Chinese is not belonging to the Indo-European language family as English does, There are great disparities of grammars between English and Chinese. For example, in Chinese placing attribute after the word to be modified is not permitted. This is the most obvious disparity which gives rise to the difficulties facing us while we doing E-C attribute translation. In my thesis, I’d like to tell you several methods on how to translate attribute in English, How to convey the meaning correctly according to English sentence. You can translate English attribute into Chinese attribute, predicate, subject, adverbial or into several separated sentences. Now let’s discuss it one by one.
Part One attribute before the word to be modified(定语前置)
In English sentences, the attribute before the word to be modified(Hereafter called central word)are usually simple word attribute, such as noun, pronoun, adjective, number, etc which can be translated into attribute in Chinese version. Moreover ,a few participle phrases attribute can also be put before the central word. Here present participle means subjective and present, while past participle has passive and complete implied meaning. We should pay special attention while doing this kind of translation. Here are some examples
The charged capacitor behaves as a secondary battery.
The attribute past participle “charged” means passive and complete ,so it's transslated into attribute in Chinese “冲过电的”.So the whole translation is 冲过电的电容器相当于蓄电池。
The shining star is called the North Star.
The present participle “shining” here means present and subjective. We can translate it equally into Chinese attribute” 正在闪烁的”the whole translation is 正在闪烁的星星是北极星。
The improved step rocket sent a heavy sputnik into its orbits.
Attribute “improved” here is translated into Chinese attribute “改进了的” which means passive and complete. The translation is 改进了的多级火箭把一个重型人造卫星送入轨道。
More examples
He spent a long time looking at a drop of liquid food in the microscope.
他花了很长时间来观察显微镜下的一滴液态食物。
Pasteur’s next discovery was quite different.
巴斯德的下一次发现就完全不同了。