Abstract

Translation, a bridge among different languages, plays an important role in facilitating the international exchange of politics, economy and cultures. However, in the process of Chinese-English (C-E) translation, Chinglish has existed largely. It could be hard to recognize and correct if we do not find out the causes of Chinglish. Therefore, from the perspective of negative transfer of native language, this paper analyzes the causes of Chinglish at lexical, syntactic and cultural levels. Causes at the lexical level include redundant words and misuse of words; causes at the syntactic level include wrong word order and misuse of connectives; causes at the cultural level include misuse of images of idioms and misuse of courtesy expression. This paper also attempts to explore effective solutions to make students avoid Chinglish, such as keeping aware of differences of Chinese and English, thinking in English and developing all-round English competence.

Keywords: C-E translation; Chinglish; negative transfer of language; causes

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 Previous Studies on Chinglish-1

2.2 An Introduction to Language Transfer-3

3. Detailed Analysis of Chinglish in C-E Translation-3

3.1 Chinglish at Lexical Level-4

3.2 Chinglish at Syntactic Level-6

3.3 Chinglish at Cultural Level-9

4. Strategies of Avoiding Chinglish in C-E Translation-11

5. Conclusion-12

Works Cited-14