EffectofNegativeTransferofMotherTongueonTranslation

何嘉哲

1. Introduction

Negative transfer is interference by the mother tongue， resulting from the dissimilarities between the mother tongue and the target language. Scholars of linguistics have found that most of the linguistic errors in students translation products are results of the influence of Chinese and the effect of negative transfer at difference linguistic levels such as lexicon， semantics， and discourse.

2. Negative Transfer in Lexicon

2.1 Difference in word structure between Chinese and English

Nida （1993） points out that “in general the range of designative meaning of specific vocabulary is much more likely to be similar between languages， while the semantic ranges of generic vocabulary very frequently do not readily correspond”.

2.1.1 Constitution of Chinese at the lexical level

Comparing the Chinese lexicon to the English translation， errors may cause by insufficient knowledge and one-one correspondences thinking. For example， at the beginning of learning English， learners may translate “錢包” into “money bag ” not proper noun “purse”.

2.1.2 Integrity of English at the lexical level

Negative transfer of the mother tongue usually causes errors at the lexical level. Redundancy errors are the appearance of the unnecessary words in translation products of Chinese second language learners.

3. Negative Transfer in Syntax

3.1 Sentence structure

Chinese always use word order to show subject–object relationships. At the syntactical level， English is a language with more prepositions and nouns， and Chinese is one with more verbs. Chinese people choose a person or creature as the subject of a sentence. However， English has a strict rule of subject-predicate structure， in which an inanimate subject with an animate verb is widely used.

3.1.1 Integrality of the structure of a simple sentence

Based on the studies of linguists， the majority of human languages share the VSO， SVO， or SOV patterns as their basic word orders. Moreover， both English and Chinese have an SVO order. Compared with Chinese， the sentence structure of English is integral and may cause negative transfer of mother tongue in translating. For example，

3.1.2 Connection and cohesion in the structure of a complex sentence

In English， clauses in a complex sentence must be explicitly connected one way or another. In translation practice， it is important to find the logical linking and distinguish the sort of complex sentence and link up the clauses by grammatical means.

3.2 The tenses of finite verbs

With the Chinese way of thinking， Chinese learners are prone to errors in such circumstances， one is error in the connection between main and subordinate clauses as discussed above， and the other is error in form variations of tense and mood.

4. Negative Transfer in Discourse

4.1 The restructuring of syntax

At the discourse level， Chinese learners of English often refer to their mother language norms when structuring discourse in their translation practice. In English， cohesion is a very important factor of a paragraph.

夏威夷地處熱帶，氣候卻溫和宜人，年均溫度常年在攝氏24度左右。島上時時刮過的東北風，伴著太平洋吹來的陣陣海風，讓人備感覺涼爽舒適。

Badly organized version： Hawaii is located in the tropical zone. Its climate is comfortable， and the temperature always remains close to the annual average of 24 degrees Centigrade. On this island， winds from the Pacific Ocean and the northeast of this island make you feel comfortable.

Well organized version： Although the state （Hawaii） is located in the tropical zone， its climate is comfortable because of the ocean currents that pass its shores and winds that blow across the land from the northeast. The temperature usually remains close to the annual average of 24 degrees Centigrade.

5. Conclusion

At the lexical level， learners should avoid the one-to-one corresponding thinking habits， and then choose proper lexicon in translation in the English way of thinking. At the syntactic level， learners could pay more attention to number， tense， voice， mood， syntactic structure， which often cause errors in the translations of Chinese learners. At the discourse level， Chinese has a circular pattern， while English a linear pattern.

References：

[1]Butler，Christoper.2003.Structure and Function：A Guide to Three Major Structural-Functional Theories，Part 2，Volume 64 of Studies in Language[M].Amsterdam：John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[2]Nida，Eugene A.1993.Language Culture and Translation[M].Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3]陳斌.母語負遷移對翻譯的影響和解決辦法[J].中南民族大學學報，2003（4）：173-174.