Word order plays an important role in translation cause it can make articles unitary。 As a tool of communication and thought, language reflects the thinking mode of language user and is affected by thinking mode。 Therefore, word order is actually the reflection of thinking mode, and the differences between Chinese and English word order are caused by differences of thinking mode of two nations。 Translation is not only the transformation of two language, more important, it’s a transformation from one thinking mode to another。

Word order has grammatical usage, and different word order expresses different meanings。 This topic starts from the origin of difference of word order, researches different meanings resulted from different word order and finds out solutions of avoiding deviation while translating。

2。 The Origin of Difference of Word Order

2。1 Difference of culture

In ancient China, Confucianism was understood as the core of human civilization。 Now, it still provides abundant resources for modern people。 Confucian culture and its value have become an important factor in the spirit of Chinese nation。

In Confucianism, people are required to contribute to social and nation。 They should be responsible for family and nation。 The governor request people to forget their selves。

Compared with Chinese culture, western culture is more aggressive and free。 Western people lived in a harsh environment at past, they faced more danger from nature than our Chinese, so they dare to have challenge and chase for freedom。

In this kind of environment, western people pay more attention to impersonal world。 They want to find out the truth。 Their personal value is more important。

Another aspect of culture differences is the culture origin。论文网

For western culture, it was influenced by Roman and Greek culture。 Just like Chinese, there are a lot of proverbs related with myth and historical allusions。 For example, ‘Love is blind。’ was from the story of Cupid, but in Chinese myth, there was no Cupid, so we translate it to “情人眼里出西施”。 “西施” is a beauty in Chinese history, so it is a well-known character for Chinese。(Jin 567)

Because of this, we need to consider the culture gap when we translate English to Chinese。

2。2 Difference of thinking mode

Language is dominated by thought, it is the carrier of thought of people in communication。 As translation is an act that transfers a language to another, it is not only a kind of language activity, but also a kind of thinking activity。 Much difficulty that we meet in translation is caused by domination of thought to language。 In another word, differences between English and Chinese word order reflect differences between English and Chinese thinking mode。

English-speaking nations have straight thought。 They are used to putting the key points at the beginning of sentence, then add to some other factors one by one。 However, Chinese are used to describe things with indirect ways。 First may be environment, then the key information。 This is why core is at the beginning in English sentence structure(e。g。 It is well-known that he has criminal record), but core is at the end in Chinese sentence structure(e。g。 他是有前科的，这件事大家都知道)。

Thought of people is similar, thinking mode of most of nation is ‘ main body+behavior+object’, but different language-speaking nations also have some different thinking modes。 Thinking mode of English-speaking nations mainly is ‘main body+behavior+object+behavior symbol’, so their language mode is ‘subject+verb+object+adverbial’。 However, thinking mode of Chinese is ‘main body+behavior symbol+behavior+object”, so their language mode is ‘subject+adverbial+verb+object’。 It means that adverbial is before verb in Chinese while adverbial is behind verb in English。