teacher who taught in a school which was
known for its graduates who……
• 汉语句子的特点： • 话题说明，叙述分层，可断可续，
意尽为界；
• 英语句子的特点： • 主谓搭架，枝叶上挂，叠床架屋，
都有语法。
In-class exercises
• E.g. I shall despair if you don’t come .(The American Heritage Dictionary, p.649 )
• Parataxis: The arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them, but by underlying semantic or logical relation, e.g.
implicit coherence (隐性连贯) Paratactic
语义型语言 意合语言
(以意统形)
English
Form-focused with emphasis on
explicit cohesion （显性衔接）
Hypotactic
形态型语言 形合语言
(以形驭意)
• Hypotaxis: The dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses arranged with connectives;
• The rain fell; the river flooded; the houses were washed away. (The world Book Dictionary, p. 1513)
• 汉语句子: (parataxis) 语义型或意合型
依仗意义，即内在的逻辑关系组织语言的手 段。“以意统形”
• I usually come across too many young friends, who are diligent and study hard, being capable of getting good results. However, their acquaintance of Chinese is so not enough to make a letter smooth. Asked for reasons, they answered that their interests were not in Chinese.
• On the other hand, a Chinese sentence often lays emphasis on the thought or notion, so it is based on the thought pivot.
• 汉语：主题显著的语言 (topic-prominent language), 采用主题-述题(topic-comment)的 句式 “话语 ---说明结构” 汉语句子建立 在意念主轴 (thought-pivot)上。
• 评论：SVO三分结构，直译，显得不通顺。改译后， 原主语的偏正结构变为描写句（名词＋形容词），后 句续评论。通顺，符合汉语表达习惯。
• That dirty house is an offense to everyone who lives in the street.
• 那座肮脏的老房子使住在那条街上的 人都很讨厌它。
• 2) 东湖既是花的海洋，也是水的世界。“月月有 节，季季有花”是东湖的魅力所在。东湖名花荟 萃，万彩纷呈，花开四季，十里飘香，春兰、秋 桂、夏荷、冬梅是风景区最具特色的花卉；东湖 浩淼的水域云蒸霞蔚、雾绕烟横，万倾波光浮天 摇地。
• 3) He bought a book which was written by a
• 1. Topic-prominent vs. Subject-prominent • 2. Paratactic vs. Hypotactic • 3. Left-branching vs. Right-branching • 4. Top-heavy vs. End-weight • 5. relatively fixed order vs. flexible order
Form-pivot
Topic-prominent Subject-prominent
Language
Language
话题突出型语言
主语突出型语言
• In an English sentence, prominence is usually given to the subject. There are five basic sentence patterns in English: SV, SVC, SVO, SVO1O2, SVOC, all with SV as its essentials. We can venture to say that an English sentence is built on the subject-predict-pivot, with the subject and predicate in agreement.
• 2) 东湖既是花的海洋，也是水的世界。“月月有 节，季季有花”是东湖的魅力所在。东湖名花荟 萃，万彩纷呈，花开四季，十里飘香，春兰、秋 桂、夏荷、冬梅是风景区最具特色的花卉；东湖 浩淼的水域云蒸霞蔚、雾绕烟横，万倾波光浮天 摇地。
• 3) He bought a book which was written by a
• 英语句子: (hypotaxis） 语法型或形合型
依仗形式（包括词的形态变化，词汇的衔接 等）将语言符号由“散”（个体的词）到 “集” （词组乃至语篇）的语言组织手段
•
——王力《中国语法理论》
Examples
• I bought 4 pens and 3 pencils which cost me 12 dollars in all. When I took them home, I found they were second-hand, which could only be thrown away. 我买了四只钢笔，三只铅笔，一共花了十二 美元。拿回家一看，都是用过了的，只能把 它们扔掉。
她希望儿子平平安安的。
• Warm-up thinking:
• 1) 武汉市自然风光绚丽多姿，人文景观璀璨夺目。 屈原曾在这里行吟；李白曾在这里漫游；商代盘 龙城遗址，是长江流域发现的第一座商代古城； 龟山脚下的古琴台，流传着俞伯牙和钟子期知音 相会的千年佳话；黄鹤楼名闻天下，晴川阁古色 古香，归元寺参禅圣地，东湖，磨山景色宜人。
➢ ① SV: The bell rang. / 铃响了。 ➢ ② SVC: He is a teacher. / 他是老师。
You look young. /来自你看上去很年轻。 ➢ ③ SVO: He dug a hole. / 他挖了个洞。 ➢ ④ SVoO: He gave me a pen. / 他给了我 支笔。 ➢ ⑤ SVOC: She wished her son safe and sound. /
teacher who taught in a school which was known
for its graduates who……
Generally, the major syntactic differences between English and Chinese can be summarized as the following:
• The strong walls of the castle served as a good defense against the attackers.
• 原译：那城堡的坚固城墙充当了抵御进攻者的良好防 御物。
• 改译：那座城堡的城墙很坚固，在敌人的进攻中起到 了良好的防御作用。
• 改译：那座城堡的城墙很坚固，能够很好抵御敌人的 进攻。
• 英语：主语显著的语言 (subject-prominent language), 几乎都采用主语-谓语(subjectpredicate) 的句式 “主语 --- 谓语结构” 英语句子建立在形式(或主谓)主轴(formpivot)上。
• Comparison:
• 1) 武汉市自然风光绚丽多姿，人文景观璀璨夺目。 屈原曾在这里行吟；李白曾在这里漫游；商代盘 龙城遗址，是长江流域发现的第一座商代古城； 龟山脚下的古琴台，流传着俞伯牙和钟子期知音 相会的千年佳话；黄鹤楼名闻天下，晴川阁古色 古香，归元寺参禅圣地，东湖，磨山景色宜人。
• 那座老房子很脏，住在那条街上的人 都很讨厌它。
• Her effort gained her a reputation.
• 她的努力为他赢得了声誉。 • 她很努力，名声很好。
• His skills qualify him for the job.
• 他的技艺使他有资格担任这一工作。 • 他有技术，能担任这一工作。
A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English (II)
At the syntactic level
Similarities
English and Chinese share a lot in common in their syntactic structures.
Examples
1) 天气寒冷，河水都结冰了。 It was so cold that the river froze.
2) 江山易改，本性难移。 ① It is easy to change rivers and mountains but hard to change a person’s nature. ② (A person can hardly change his nature as) a leopard can hardly change its spots.