AffirmationandNegationEverylanguagehasitspeculiaritiesinnegation.Andthereisindeedanimportant,thoughoftenneglected,differencebetweenEandCinnegation.Itisadifferenceinthewayofthinkingandinthemodeofspeaking.A:Areyounotgoingtomorrow?B:No,I’mnotgoing.

AffirmationandNegationinE-CTranslation

Generallyspeaking,Englishnegativewordsandexpressionsfallintothefollowingcategories:1.“Fullnegatives”:no,not,none,never,nothing,nobody,nowhere,neither,nor;2.“Seminegatives”:hardly,scarcely,seldom,barely,few,little,etc.3.“Partialnegatives”:notevery,notall,notboth,notmuch,notmany,notalways,etc.4.“Wordswithnegativeimplication”:fail,without,beyond,until,unless,lest,ignorant,refrain,refuse,neglect,absence,insteadof,otherthan,except,ratherthan,etc.1.AffirmativeinE,butNegativeinChinese

Suchcasesarefoundinawiderangeofexpressions:wordsofdifferentpartsofspeech,variousphrases,orsentencestructures.1)VerbsWaterisagoodlubricant,ifyoucandeviseawaytokeepitfromleakingoutorevaporating.如果能設(shè)法使水不泄漏或蒸發(fā)，那么水就是一種很好的潤滑劑。Thefirstbombsmissedthetarget.第一批炸彈沒有擊中目標(biāo).2)AdverbsWemaysafelysayso.我們這樣說萬無一失（或：錯(cuò)不了）。Therelayactedvainlyduetonegligiblecurrent.電流太小，繼電器不能啟動(dòng)。

3)AdjectivesTheseofficialdocumentsshallformanintegralpartofthiscontract.這些正式文件必須作為合同不可分割的組成部分。Wearewatchingthefluidsituationwithconcern.我們密切關(guān)注動(dòng)蕩不定的局勢(shì)。4)PrepositionTheoryofRelativityworkedoutbyEisteinisnowabovemanypeople’scomprehension.愛因斯坦提出的“相對(duì)論”現(xiàn)在還有不少人理解不了。Itwasbeyondhispowertosignsuchacontract.他無權(quán)簽訂這種合同。Withoutsubstances,therewouldbenoworld.沒有物質(zhì)也就沒有世界。5)ConjunctionUnlessthereismotion,thereisnowork.沒有運(yùn)動(dòng)就沒有功。wewouldratherusemachinepartsofplasticsthanuseofmetals.我們寧可使用塑料機(jī)器零件，也不用金屬的。6)PhraseButforelectricityourworldwouldbestill.要是沒有電，整個(gè)世界便會(huì)寂靜無聲。Japanisthelastcountrytoinventradar,butEngland.發(fā)明雷達(dá)的國家根本不是日本，應(yīng)該是英國。7)SentenceHewas75,buthecarriedhisyearslightly.他七十五歲了，可是并不顯老。Myguessisasgoodasyours.我的猜測(cè)并不比你的準(zhǔn)確。

Thedecisionhastocome.決定還沒有做出。2.NegativeinEnglish,butAffirmativeinChinese1)Verb

Irodearoundwithhimonedayseeinghowtheshipsunloaded.一天我和他乘車轉(zhuǎn)了轉(zhuǎn)，看看船如何卸貨。

Thebosscouldfireanyemployeewhohadeverdispleasedhim.老板可以開除任何曾經(jīng)得罪他的雇員。2)

AdverbandadjectiveManyagreedthatthePrimeMinisterhadineffectresigneddishonorably.許多人認(rèn)為首相辭職實(shí)際上是很丟面子的。ThebirdisanunusualwintervisitortoBritain.這種鳥很少冬季到英國來。Allthearticlesareuntouchableinthemuseum.博物館內(nèi)一切展品禁止觸摸。3)Noun

The

illiteracy

rate

declined

from

30.4

in1910

to

22.9

percent

in

1920．文盲率從1910年的30.4%下降到1920年的22.9%。Therehasbeenseriousdisagreementbetweenthetwopoliticalpartiesoverthisquestion.關(guān)于這個(gè)問題兩個(gè)政黨之間存在著嚴(yán)重的分歧。4)PhraseTheexaminationleftnodoubtthatthepatienthaddiedofcancer.調(diào)查結(jié)果清楚地說明病人死于癌癥。Students,withnoexception,aretohandintheirpapersthisafternoon.今天下午學(xué)生統(tǒng)統(tǒng)要交書面作業(yè)。

5)SentenceThesignificanceoftheseincidentswasn’tlostonus.這些事件引起了我們的重視。Knowledgeaboutthemostpowerfulcomputermanhasneverdevelopedistoovaluablenottoshare.人類業(yè)已開發(fā)出功率極大的計(jì)算機(jī)，這方面的知識(shí)極其寶貴，應(yīng)為人類共享。3.DoubleNegativeforEmphasisDoublenegativeinEnglish,asinChinese,isusedforemphasis.Inthiscasewemayeitherdropbothnegativewordsorkeeptotheoriginal,dependingonwhichversionisidiomaticinChinese.Thereisnorulethathasnoexception.任何規(guī)則都有例外。Thereisnotanyadvantagewithoutdisadvantage.有利必有弊。Itssignificanceandimportancecanneverbeoveremphasized.它的意義和重要性，不管怎樣強(qiáng)調(diào)，也不算過分。Iamnotreluctanttoacceptyourproposal．我很樂意接受你的建議。4.RoundaboutAffirmativeThisisanindirectwayofexpressingastrongaffirmative，andwhentranslatedintoChinese，theemotionoftheoriginalshouldbeproperlykept.Hedidn'thalflikethegirl．他非常喜歡那姑娘。I'mnotalittleafraidofsnakes.我特別怕蛇。

Icouldn'tagreewithyoumore.

我太贊成你的看法了。Ifthatisn'twhatIwant！我所要的就是這個(gè)呀！

Hecan'tseeyouquickenough．他很想盡快和你見面。

5.SomeTrapsinNegativeStructures

Inthepracticeoftranslation，wemayfindnowandthenthatsomenegativestructurescanhardlyberenderedintoChineseliterally，andsometimeseventheiroriginalmeaningcouldbeelusive.Thisiswhereweareliabletomakeblunders.Thefollowingaresometypicalpatternsthatcallforattention.1)not---becauseDon'tscampyourworkbecauseyouarepressedfortime.不要因?yàn)闀r(shí)間緊而敷衍塞責(zé)。Thisversionisnotplacedfirstbecauseitissimple.此方案并不因?yàn)楹喴锥旁谑孜弧?）cannot...tooIshallneverbeabletostresstoomuchforyourkindness.不管怎么感謝你，都不足以報(bào)恩于萬一。Youcannotbetoocarefulinproofreading.校對(duì)時(shí)，越仔細(xì)越好。3）all／every...notAllthatglittersisnotgold．發(fā)光的并不一定都是金子。Everythingisnotstraightenedout.并非每一個(gè)問題都弄清楚了。4）both...notButyousee，webothcannotgo.但是你明白嗎，我們倆不能同時(shí)走。

Boththeinstrumentsarenotprecisionones.這兩件東西不都是精密儀器。5）Itbe+adj.+n.+that+negativeword...Itisagoodworkmanthatneverblunders.智者千慮，必有一失。Itisalonglanethathasnoend．路必有彎。（凡事必有變化，不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)不變。）Itisanillwindthatblowsnobodygood．壞事未必對(duì)人都有害處。AffirmationandNegationinC-Etranslation

1.AffirmativeinChinese,butNegativeinEnglish

中國的體育運(yùn)動(dòng)經(jīng)歷了幾千年的發(fā)展，但直到1949年中華人民共和國成立后才成為國家的一項(xiàng)事業(yè)。SportshaveundergoneseveralthousandyearsofdevelopmentinChina.Yet,notuntiltheestablishmentofthePeople’srepublicofChinain1949diditbecomeanationalevent.

對(duì)中國人來說，聽到別人贊揚(yáng)時(shí)，通常要表示受之有愧，做得很不夠。ToChinese,thecustomaryreplytoacomplimentwouldbetoclaimthatoneisnotworthyofthepraise,thatwhatonehaddoneishardlyenough.2.NegativeinChinese,butAffirmativeinEnglis