Syntactic Choice in Translation: A Hierarchical Three-Tier Framework for Cross-Linguistic Transfer

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jhve.202616404

Author(s)

Jiang Ying

Affiliation(s)

School of General Education and Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Suzhou Vocational Institute of Industrial Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

Syntax serves as the core mediating structure that connects the source and target texts in translation. The quality of syntactic choice directly determines whether a translation achieves the triple requirements of faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance. This paper systematically examines the internal logic of syntactic choice from three dimensions: the foundational requirement of semantic fidelity, the optimizing strategy of adaptation to the target language, and the ultimate goal of stylistic equivalence. The study proposes a hierarchical three-tier framework and argues that effective syntactic choice requires navigating between the two extremes of mechanical copying and excessive reinterpretation, achieving a three-dimensional balance among source meaning, target-language conventions, and original stylistic character. The ultimate goal is to produce translations that are accurate in meaning, natural in expression, and appropriate in stylistic tone. While the framework is language-pair-independent in principle, it is particularly well-suited to language pairs exhibiting strong typological asymmetry, such as the parataxis-hypotaxis divide that characterizes Chinese-English translation.

Keywords

Syntactic Choice In Translation; Semantic Fidelity; Target-Language Adaptation; Stylistic Equivalence; Hierarchical Framework; Cross-Linguistic Transfer

References

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