Sentence Structure and Translationese
Translation played a significant role in the extensive spread of the vernacular Chinese in the early 20th Century and consequently in the development of the Chinese language.The influence exerted by modern translation on the Chinese language comes mainly from so-called literal translation,which brings to the country not only new expressions but also Europeanized sentence structures. As we know, English is quite different from Chinese both in syntax and in rhetoric. Europeanized sentence structures often lead to translationese and produce a malign influence on the Chinese language. Here are some examples:
Translationese : A Style or a Syndrome
Since scholars have often had to read a good deal of such material, they come to accept it more and more as a kind of literary standard, not realizing that this banal and artificial form of language fails utterly to do justice to the rich resources of the receptor language. (Nida, 1969:100) 1969:100)