OntheapplicationofcorpusinChinese—Englishtranslations

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Abstract： In translating from Chinese to English， we Chinese tend to rely on dictionaries or sometimes simply intuition to choose lexes. However， the translated texts still read not that idiomatic as the native speakers'，the basic reason lying in the inappropriate collocations. Fortunately， the discovery of corpus laid the quantized basis for the study of collocational behaviors. This article aims to discuss the functions of corpus in bettering C-E translations.

Key word： Corpus； C-E translation； Collocation； Semantic prosody

1.Introduction

The process of translating is to transfer the expressions in source language into target language. The criteria of “faithfulness， expressiveness and elegancy” proposed by the great master in translation， Yanfu， has long been advocated in the translating world.However，it is in no way easy to reach these criteria， for translating is not only an interlanguage activity but also a trans-cultural one. As far as Chinese and English languages are concerned，it differs a lot in terms of phonetics， syntax and context；while the two nations have great differences in values，social systems，religious belief， so and so forth.The reflection of diversities in cultures on languages hinders the translatability between two languages.So the mistakes translators make are usually not grammatical，but collocational.With regard to this problem， this article focuses on how to apply corpus researches and findings in translating work to produce accurate and appropriate translated texts.

2.Corpus

Corpus is a collection of texts in an electronic database， collected according to certain linguistic principles and with the method of random sampling.Corpus，by its character and function， is usually categorized into five patterns as follows： common corpus； specialized corpus； spoken corpus； parallel corpus.The evolution of corpus has experienced several stages， from manual corpus stage to computerized corpus stage to what we are benefiting from now， with samples reaching hundreds of millions. What’s more， the popularization of world wide web makes it more convenient to utilize corpus that a large number of corpora are accessible online，such as BNC and The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English and so forth.

3.The application of corpus in C-E translation

3.1 Collocations

Linguist Wilkins （1972） believed：”Without grammar very little can be conveyed， while without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”Yes， it is true.Vocabulary to language is what bricks to buildings. Chinese English learners tend to focus on the amount of vocabulary they accumulate. However， the acquisition of vocabulary is far beyond the mere quantity.Nation（1990）proposed four aspects in commanding vocabulary： pattern （phonetics and word form）， position （grammar and collocation），function （proficiency and appropriateness） and semantics （concept and association） as well. It is not even easy for native speakers to acquire every aspect of a word， let alone English learners. And it may be relatively easier for Chinese English learners to master the know-hows in pronunciation， but as to the rest in-depth aspects， especially collocation and associated meanings， it is never the case， which may cause certain collocational mistakes when translating from source Chinese to target English.

So what indeed is collocation and how to avoid or solve the collocational problems in the process of translating？

Collocation of lexical items is one intrinsic feature of language. It always occurs within a language， or to be more specifically， collocations accepted in one language is not necessary accepted in another. Chinese and English are two totally different languages that even the fact that you can find equivalents in each language does not indicate the same collocational behavior. For example， Chinese character “穿（着），戴（着）”，the common collocations are “穿着衣服，戴着手表”，while its English equivalent“wear”can be collocated with“a perfume”，meaning having sprayed perfume， which is not allowed in Chinese. For Chinese English learners， due to their lack of in-depth knowledge in vocabulary， they may fail to make acceptable collocations. Under such circumstances， corpus should be introduced to search the concordance lines of the node word to find its common collocates or to testify the accuracy of its collocates.

3.2 Semantic prosody

Semantic prosody is one of the most significant discoveries in linguistic research recently. Louw （1993） defined semantic prosody as”The consistent aura of meaning with which a lexical item is imbued by its collocates”.In general，semantic prosody is classified into three types：positive，mixed and negative. All the words are supposed to follow their semantic prosodic features，or it will cause abnormal collocations，thus breaking the semantic prosodic harmony.

Wei Naixing （2002） has analyzed and summarized， through the concordance lines in JDEST that the node word “career” is imbued with strong positive semantic prosody. Native speakers collocate it with words of positive associations， such as successful， distinguished， promising， professional and so on. While in his research into CLEC corpus， Wei （2006） found that Chinese English learners collocate“career” randomly， displaying no obvious positive semantic prosody. Semantic prosody is a rather abstract concept that only with the help of corpus can translators identify it and cultivate the awareness of it.

4.Conclusion

The development of corpus have benefited various areas of linguistic study. As English learners， we are not likely to acquire as much as collocational knowledge of lexes as native speakers that we may be caught in dilemmas in choosing the correct words. The abundant amount of authentic data in corpus enables us to testify whether the collocates we make are correct and also helps us to cultivate the awareness of semantic prosody， so as to avoid semantic prosodic clash， thus producing idiomatic translations.

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