1. Passive sentences in English into Passive structures in Chinese
a. Agentless passive sentences in English into Agentless passive sentences in Chinese e.g. He was soon overpowered. 他很快就被制服了。
e.g. When we got home, we were greeted by Henry.
In agentive passive, the end focus falls on the agent.
Passive sentences in Chinese e.g. 羊被狼吃掉了。 e.g. 我的方案被董事会否定了。 Agentive Passives in Chinese are mainly to place the end focus on the final verb or other final elements. e.g. 他被选为人大代表。
Passive verb occupies the final position, and it receives the unmarked end focus.
e.g. A police officer was killed last night in a road
accident.
Final elements at the end of an agentless passive sentence, unmarked focus falls on that element.
The final element is the unmarked end focus in the agentless passives in Chinese.
information focus in Passive sentences
Active sentences and passive structures have different information focus, though they have the same propositional content.
b. Agentive passive sentences in English into agentive passive structures in Chinese e.g. The young woman was abandoned by her husband. 这个年轻妇女就是被她丈夫遗弃了。 e.g. Note: some passive sentences can be translated into corresponding structures, but information focus of the original sentence is changed. In the original agentive passive sentence, information focus falls on the agent, while it falls on the final elements in Chinese version, according to its grammatical system.
偷偷地，那个女孩溜出了房间。
e.g. Slowly he rose from his seat. 慢慢地，他从座位上站了起来。
When the fronted adverbial is an adverbial of location or adverbial of frequency, the marked information focus falls on the fronted adverbial. In Chinese, the adverbial of location or adverbial of frequency is hardly fronted. When translate such English sentences, we change the fronted word order into normal word order in the target language. e.g. Many a time has Mike helped me. 迈克已经帮我好多次了。 e.g. Down the hill did John run.
II. Syntactic structures and information focus
Passive sentences in English
e.g. When he came back, he gave a huge feast for all in the village. Everyone was invited.
e.g. Chairman of the committee they have elected Jake.
他们选举杰克为委员会主席。
d. Sentences with a fronted adverbial When the fronted adverbial is an adverbial of manner, the marked information focus falls on this adverbial. This phenomenon also exists in Chinese. So, we translate the original sentence into a fronted Chinese sentence. e.g. Stealthily the girl crept out of the room.
e.g. The heavy rain damaged the crops. 那场大雨毁坏了庄稼。 e.g. The crops were damaged by the heavy rain. 庄稼就是被那场大雨毁坏了。
பைடு நூலகம்
NOTE: Though English and Chinese can use passive structures to mark information focus, there are many differences between them. English passives are far more frequently used than their Chinese counterparts, so it is natural that most English passive sentences are turned into active Chinese sentences. In translation of them, sometimes we have to abandon the information focus of the original sentence according to grammatical features of Chinese.
“根据计算机统计，西方语文之间同多于异，有90%以上可以对等， 所以西方翻译理论学家提出了对等译论。但是西方语文和中国语文 之间却是异多于同，只有40%左右能够对等，因此，对等译论只能 解决40%左右的中西互译问题；50%以上的问题都要用”创作 论”“艺术论”的思想才能解决。”
“……西方译论只能解决低层次的科技翻译问题，而中国译论却能 解决高层次的文学翻译问题。……”
约翰从山上跑了下来。
Summary: Through the analysis above, we can find that word order should draw translators’ attention. Ignorance of word order in translation can mistranslate the meaning of the original and reduce the degree of the equivalence of information focus of target versions. In E-C translation, we should not only transfer the information focus of ST to TT but also translate according to grammatical resources of TL.
王秉钦《20世纪中国翻译思想史》P12
《重读传统译论——目的与课题》张佩瑶 中国翻译 2008（6）
Information focus of fronted sentences (marked focus)
Information focus
Fronted element (marked focus) End focus
Final Elements final Elements
English Chinese
Object Predication
Object complement
adverbial
Object Predication
Complete
Translation strategies a. Sentences with a fronted object An object can be fronted in both English and Chinese. The fronted object gains the highest information value as a marked information focus. It is possible to achieve the equivalence of information focus by following the word order of the original sentences in E-C translation. e.g. That magazine story, and the person who wrote it, I have never been able to track down. a. 登在杂志上的那篇故事以及写那篇故事的人，我却一直未能找 到。