ABSTRACT
Pronunciation is an important criterion to test English proficiency. As the backboneof English phonetics, super-segmental factors play a key role in communication,realizing the functions of disambiguating, conveying information and expressing thespeaker's attitude. This study focuses on super-segmental features of senior Englishmajors in a public university in Zhejiang Province by means of ToBI labeling. Twentyeight senior English majors and three native English speakers are required to read aloudand record the same material. Five target sentences are extracted from each participant'srecording and with the help of PRAAT, the pitch contours of these five target sentencesread by each participant are produced, and after that, ToBI labeling is conducted.
The super-segmental features are studied from the perspectives of prominence,phrasing and tunes. Results indicate Aat: （1） EFL learners use prominence morefrequently, but the distinction between prominent words and unprominent words are notquite obvious,which may blur the focus of information. （2） EFL learners tend tosegment the utterance into smaller chunks with fewer words in shorter time. （3） EFLlearners tend to use various types of tunes in the utterance but level and falling tones aretwo commonly used tune types. The pitch range of their tunes is narrow, withoutobvious undulations. Possible causes are negative transfer from mother tongue Chineseand a lack of phonetic knowledge.
Pedagogical suggestions are made to improve phonetic instructions, i.e., increasingstudents' phonetic awareness, particularly their awareness of super-segmental features,and applying visual software to phonetic instructions. Limitations of andrecommendations for further studies are also presented.
Abstract
In the early 1970s,Even-Zohar put forward the polysystem theory, considering thetranslated literature as one subsystem of the polysystem, and giving an objective descriptionof the acceptability and influence of translated literature in target culture system. Later, basedon Even-Zohar5s study, Toury established an independent subject called “DescriptiveTranslation Studies” and proposed the 6tthree-phase methodology“ to explore the translators'behavior during the translation process. Toury believes that, in the translation process, thetranslator normally will be constrained by the following three norms,separately, the initialnorm, the preliminary norm and the operational norm.
In C-English translation, it is crucial to compose an authentic English sentence;moreover,the English predicate, not only occupies the kernel position of an English sentence,but also will affect the selection of other syntactic components,such as, the object,theattribute, the adverbial. Therefore, in C-E translation, the selection of English predicate is soimportant that it may have an influence on the quality of the whole translation. However,asfor the studies on the selection of English predicates in C-E translation, few people have donethat; while, on the contrary, most scholars have focused on how to translate Chinese predicate（or predicate verbs） into English based on the differences between the English and Chinesepredicates （or predicate verbs） and from one perspective - part of speech,syntax, or syntacticstructure. Apart from that, previous studies fail to refer to a complete corpus as mostexamples are scattered among the translation practice of different styles.
Based on the third chapter of HLM and its two English versions, this article, adhering toprinciples of authority and operability, intends to make a descriptive study on thenorm-governed selection of English predicates in C-E translation through the comparisonbetween the ST and TTs with Toury's three-phase methodology. This research starts with anattempt to disclose the operational norms for predicate selection in the two versions and findsthat the higher syntactic status the English predicate occupies, the higher information value itconveys,which determines that normally the selected English predicates will be incorrespondence with the original syntactic components which also enjoys a higher syntacticstatus as well as possesses a higher information value. This finding is conspicuously reflectedby the fact that the element loaded with the information about the result of an event in the ST,for instance, the Chinese verb indicating the result of an event, is normally rendered into atarget element with a higher syntactic status in the TT such as the main-clause predicate verb.
This thesis concludes that in C-E translation, in order to improve the acceptability of TT inthe target culture, the translators in the selection of English predicates have followed theinitial norm of subjecting themselves to the target culture to different degrees, the preliminarynorm of subjecting themselves to the translation policy in their own translational context,andthe operation norms of selecting those elements with a rather high syntactic and informativestatus as predicates. Violation of those norms may reduce the acceptability of the translation.
Apart from that, the selection of English predicates is also constrained by the discourse themeof ST, English subject selection and different means of lexicalization between Chinese andEnglish. This thesis is believed to have made contributions to the descriptive study oftranslation process and translation norms and also to translation teaching and practice.
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the selection of attributes. Attribute is an importantsyntactic component in grammar, but takes different forms in English and Chinese. Inthe analyses of David Hawkes5 and Yang Xianyi's English versions of Hong LouMeng about the selection of attributes in the Third Chapter,the thesis has madestudies on the attributes translation. At first, the translated attributes have beenclassified into groups in order to find out their sources in the source text. Then, thethesis makes comparisons between the two English versions and the source text toreveal the similarities and differences between two translated versions in attributesselection. On the basis of Toury's Norm theory and other translation theories, thegiven examples in Chapter Three and Four have demonstrated the translators'decision-making process in attributes selection. Through the analysis of selectedattributes in the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng and their comparisons withthe source text, this thesis has concluded with three types about selection of Englishattributes in C-E translation practice, namely, the selection of attributes in the sourcetext, the selection of non-attributive syntactic components in the source text, and theselection of addition. For the norm theory of Toury, translation is an activity that isconstrained by sociocultural norms. According to the comparisons,the two Englishversions share similarities and differences in the selection of attributes. Among all thefactors that influence the translators,the dominant culture affects the initial norms oftranslators. The preliminary norms, which deal with the translators' situatedtranslating environment and translating styles, account for their differences on theselection of attributes. Based on the similarities of the two English versions, the thesishas concluded the translation norms of attributes in C-E translation practice: attributesin Chinese hold the similar syntactic position and information status so that they areusually translated into attributes in English; because of grammar differences of twolanguages and other factors, attributes in the ST can be transformed into othernon-attribute syntactic components; there are added attributes in the TTs, whoseexistence are constrained by the differences between the source language and targetlanguage. The selected attributes in the TT, either by addition or by conversion fromnon-attributive syntactic parts are all secondary in information status in thetranslational context. This thesis contains three parts. The first part reviews studies ofattributes in English and Chinese and their comparisons; the studies of attributetranslation and Hong Lou Meng's English versions. The second part is the main bodyof this thesis, including Chapter Three and Chapter Four. It reveals the sources ofattributes in the TTs with a description of their similarities and dissimilarities inattributes selection after a close examination of the attributes in the two versions. Itconcludes with some norms of attribute selection in line with Toury's theory of norm.
The third part is the conclusion of this thesis with the findings, limitations andsuggestions of this thesis.
Abstract
This study focuses on Chinese English majors' English listening. The purpose is toexplore the internal structure of Chinese English majors' listening motivation; anxiety theyexperience in English listening process; the relationship between English listening motivationand English listening anxiety; and influences of these two affective factors on Englishlistening performance.
This study adopted an analysis method of combining quantitative analysis withqualitative analysis. A total of 78 subjects in this research were sophomores who major inEnglish in China. The ELMS （The English Listening Motivation Scale） was used to examinethe internal structure of students' English listening motivation. The ELAS （the EnglishListening Anxiety Scale） was used to measure English listening anxiety. The English listeningpaper, the difficulty level of which was equivalent to that of the TEM4,was used as themeasurement of English listening performance. According to their performance in the test, 11students of different score levels were interviewed by the researcher.
The quantitative data were computed by SPSS 19.0. Descriptive statistics were used todescribe the general situation of English majors,listening motivation and listening anxiety;exploratory factor analysis was adopted to probe into the subcomponents of English majors'listening motivation; Pearson Correlation Analysis was used to explore the correlationsbetween listening motivation and listening anxiety and the influences of these two factors onEnglish listening performance. In the qualitative analysis part,supporting evidence wasfurther given to back up the findings obtained in the quantitative analysis; the effects ofteachers on students' listening motivation and listening anxiety were also examined byqualitative analysis approach. The research results are as following:Results of descriptive data analysis showed that most English majors have strongmotivation for English listening and the majority of English majors have medium degree ofanxiety in English listening.
Six factors resulted from the exploratory factor analysis: 1） avoidance; 2） individualdevelopment; 3） intrinsic interest; 4） going abroad; 5） immediate achievement; 6）achievement motivation. Among these factors, ”avoidance“, ”intrinsic interest“ and”achievement motivation“ were related to ”intrinsic“ motivation in the classical model,whereas ”individual development“, ”immediate achievement“ had some features of ”extrinsic“motivation. With focuses on different goals, ”going abroad“ has either ”intrinsic“ or ”extrinsic“features.
Correlation analysis suggested that English majors' intrinsic motivation and Englishlistening performance are significantly correlated: achievement motivation is positivelyrelated to English listening anxiety and negatively correlated to English listening performance.
However, no significant correlation was found between English majors' listening anxiety andlistening performance.
The qualitative analysis indicated that motivation is an important affective factor inforeign language listening. It is also an influential element in the process of foreign languagelistening. The qualitative analysis further proved that English majors' listening anxietygenerally has little influence on their listening performance and the achievement motivation isclosely related to listening anxiety and listening performance. In addition, foreign languagelistening teachers' teaching styles also influence students' motivation, anxiety and learningresults in foreign language listening.
This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the present studyprovides important empirical evidence for the affective theory in the area of foreign languageresearch. The practical significance of this study is that it can guide English majors to developappropriate motivation and manage anxiety in English listening. Moreover, it has greatimplications for English listening teaching.
