A Study on Switch Strategies From Topic-Prominence to Subject-Prominence in C-E Translation

Abstract

 Knowing the differences between Chinese and English will help improve the quality of translation. Chinese belongs to the subject-prominent language, while English belongs to the topic-prominent language. This paper discusses the switch from topic-prominent to subject-prominent language in Chinese-English (C-E) translation from the perspective of topic and subject. This paper selects cases from China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI), and summarizes some strategies for subject conversion in C-E translation. Translation 1: Compared with the world, the geological mining conditions of coal resources in China are poor, most of the reserves need to be mined by Wells, and very little can be mined by open pit. Translation 2: Compared with other parts of the world, China faces severe geological difficulties in tapping its coal resources, and has to get most of its coal by underground mining, as only a small amount can be mined by opencast methods.