II. How to Make Sentence Division
Owing to the fact that Chinese and English belong to different language families, there are dissimilarities in the use of some punctuation marks. For instance, Chinese has the mark dun(、), whereas English has not such a mark. There is not any mark between the personal name and the family name of a Westerner, but we must insert a mark like a full stop as soon as they are translated into Chinese. lts only difference from a period is in its place which is a little higher than the position of a full stop of a sentence. Take the translitetation 威廉·莎士比亚 of William Shakespeare for example. Here [would like to go into the usage of commas and periods. Commas are much more often used in Chinese than in English while periods are much more often used in English than in Chinese. That's to say, sometimes commas (occasionally semi-colons) in the Chinese original have to be changed into periods in the corresponding English version. As a result, the Chinese sentence will become at least two sentences, which naturally
brings about the question of sentence division. Make a comparion between the sentenccs selected from the same essay and the sentences of
English version:
6. 因为长而且空,群众见了就摇头,(comma)哪里还会看下去呢?
Because the articles are long and empty, the masses shake their heads at the very sight of them. (the period replacing the comma in the original) How can they be expected to read them?
7. 延安虽然还没有战争,但军队天天在前方打仗,后方也唤工作忙,(comma)文章太长了,有谁来看呢?
Although there is as yet no fighting here in Yen'an, our troops at the front are daily engaged in battle, and the people in the rear are busy at work. (the period replacing the comma in the original) If articles are too long, who will read them?
8. 比如军事指挥员,(comma)他们并不对外发宣言,但是他们要和士兵讲话,要和人民接洽.(comma),这不是宣传是什么?
The military commanders, for instance. (The period replacing the comma in the original) Though they make no public statements, they have to talk to the soldiers and have dealings with people. (again the period replacing the comma in the original) What is this if not propaganda?
9. 提出问题,首先就要对于问题即矛盾两个基本方面加以大略的调查和研究,才能懂得矛盾的性质是什么(comma),这就是发现问题的过程。
To pose the problem, you must first make a preliminary investigation and study of the two aspects of the problem or contradiction before you can understand the nature of the contradiction. (the period replacing the comma in the original). This is the process of discovering the problem.
10. 要解决问题,还须作系统的周密的调查工作和研究工作,(comma)这就是分析的过程。
In order to solve the problem it is necessary to make a systematic and thorough investigation and study. (the period replacing the comma in the original) This is the process of analysis.
责任编辑:admin