Tough sentence to translate
paulinurus
April 27, 2010, 03:53 AM posted in General DiscussionReceived an email today from my Chinese friend. In her email was this sentence which I thought is a good example of how difficult it can be sometimes to figure out what is meant simply because of the odd structure (as viewed by a West Brain) of the Chinese sentence.
"它让我想起一些一直陪伴着我的人，而他们给我带来了如此多的感动。"
literal translation: it allows me to recall continuously accompanying me my people, and they to me brought so much moved.
I think the sentence could mean something like this: "It makes me recall of the people who are always by my side and who have touched me so much."
Other interpretations of this sentence?
paulinurus
Yeah, I think that's also a pretty close translation. It's just that the sentence structure is quite foreign and quite unlikely for a West Brain to write it in such a manner to mean something like that. In analyzing the sentence, I understand or don't understand as follows:
[ 它让我想起 ] - it makes me think
[ 我的人 ] - my people (noun object]
[ 一些一直陪伴着 ] - adjectives describing the noun
[ 而 ] - don't know why er2 is an appropriate conjunction here
[ 他们给我带来了如此多的感动 ] - not sure whether these are describing the people as being inspirational or that they have done things that have moved her.
paulinurus
Hi Changye, thanks for rebracketing... that helps to clarify the structure, but can you tell me why 着 is used here? I recall you mentioned at one time that 着 can also be used for emphasis besides indicating a continuous/continuing action. Is 着 used here to emphasize or to mean accompany..ing ? Also, can 和 be used as a conjunction here instead of 而 ？
changye
Hi paulinurus
You can also say “一直陪伴我的人”. As you say, the “着” is for emphasis. The “而” means "and", and connotes "causal relation". You can't use “和” in the case of the example sentence.
paulinurus
Thanks Changye... I got the brackets at the wrong places which led to a bit of confusion in analyzing the structure of the sentence. I think I got it now.
paulinurus
April 28, 2010, 04:15 AMYeah, I think that's also a pretty close translation. It's just that the sentence structure is quite foreign and quite unlikely for a West Brain to write it in such a manner to mean something like that. In analyzing the sentence, I understand or don't understand as follows:
[ 它让我想起 ] - it makes me think
[ 我的人 ] - my people (noun object]
[ 一些一直陪伴着 ] - adjectives describing the noun
[ 而 ] - don't know why er2 is an appropriate conjunction here
[ 他们给我带来了如此多的感动 ] - not sure whether these are describing the people as being inspirational or that they have done things that have moved her.
paulinurus
April 28, 2010, 05:45 PMWith help from Changye, here's my revised analysis of this sentence. I found that placing brackets in a complex sentence to break it up into components does help me to understand how the East Brain thinks.
[它让我想起一些][一直陪伴着我]的人，而[(他们给我带来了如此多)的感动]
[ta1 rang4 wo3 xiang3qi3 yi1xie1] [yi1zhi2 pei2ban4 zhe5 wo3] de5 ren2, er2 [(ta1men5 gei2 wo3 dai4lai2 le5 ru2ci3 duo1) de5 gan3dong4.]
而 means "and" however it is a "related conjunction" rather than the ordinary "and" which can be a conjunction of two unrelated aspects. So, [(他们给我带来了如此多)的感动] refers to the attribute of the people who have always stood by her side. My friend describes this phrase in English as "and they bring me much touchingness".
So, the English translation of the sentence would seem to be: "It makes me think of the people who have always been there for me, and have moved me."
trihelix
April 27, 2010, 07:05 PMi guess i would say "it makes makes me think of the people who have always been there for me, and all they have done for me has really moved me." but i dunno how well that captures it yet..