Inversion（倒置法）
Inversion of Word Order in Translating Word-Groups or Phrases（词组或短语的词序倒置） Examples & Drills 8.1
Give Chinese equivalents for the following, paying attention to the word order:
card-playing, letter-writing, white-washing, absent-minded, open-door policy, time-sharing system, error correcting code
you, he and I; Lisa, Linda and I; my wife (husband) and I
men and women, young and old; sisters and brothers (cf. boys and girls); dear mother and father
1. Four cardinal points: north, south, east, and west.
2. northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest; North and South Poles 4. contradictions between ourselves and the enemy 6. the iron and steel industry
7. sooner or later; quick of eye and deft of hand
8. heal the wounded and rescue the dying; life or death; now sink, now emerge 9. the soil and water mixture 11. rich and poor
12. food, clothing and housing 13. negative and positive
14. hot and cold (water); hard and soft; old and new 15. back and forth; to and fro 16. by twos and threes 17. right and left 18. loss and gain
19. land and water; fire and water; as well blended as milk and water 20. track and field (events) 21. model worker
1.（罗盘上的）四个基本方位：东、南、西、北（《现代汉语词典》2002: 545） 2. 东北，西北，东南，西南；南北极
3. 玩（扑克）牌，写信，刷白（刷石灰水），心不在焉，门户开放政策，分时系统，纠错码 4. 敌我矛盾
5. 男女老少；兄弟姐妹（cf. 男女孩）；亲爱的父母亲 6. 钢铁工业
7. 迟早；手疾眼快/眼疾手快（《现代汉语词典》2002: 1768） 8. 救死扶伤；死活/生死；浮沉/沉浮（《现代汉语词典》2002: 598/236） 9. 水土混合物
10. 我、你和他；我、莉萨和琳达/莉萨、琳达和我；我和我妻子（丈夫）/我妻子（丈夫）和我 11. 贫富
12. 衣、食、住
13. 正反/正负；阴阳 14. 冷热（水）；软硬；新老/新旧 15. 来回；往返/来回/往复/来来往往 16. 三三两两
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17. 左右 18. 得失
19. 水陆；水火；水乳交融 20. 田径运动 21. 劳动模范
The coordinating words of an English word-group or phrase are usually arranged according to their shades of meaning: “each is more impressive than the preceding” (Fowler 1965:92). Chinese word order is often the opposite. Thus a common rule for translation is:
English Chinese narrower range → wider wider range → narrower range range less important → more more important → less important important weaker → stronger stronger → weaker Examples:
1. 无地和少地的农民
peasants who had little or no land
2. 丰收年多积累一点，灾荒年或半灾荒年就不积累或少积累一点。
Accumulate more in good years and less or none in years when the crops half fail or totally fail. 3. 受打击、排斥或轻视
be slighted, pushed aside or attacked 4. 知识分子和青年学生
students and intellectuals 5. 中小国家
small and medium-sized countries
6. 我们并不认为，他们必须或者应当采取我们的做法。 We do not maintain that they should or must adopt our way. Inversion of Word Order in Translating Attributes（定语的词序倒置）
Invert the word order of the attributive and the noun (倒置定语与名词的词序)
Examples:
1. consul general总领事 来 2. letters patent 特许状，专利证 5. God Almighty万能的神（上帝） 3. court-martial军事法庭 6. the bride elect待嫁的新娘 4. from time immemorial自远古以Drills 8.2.1
7. a minister designate 17. the rent due 8. ambassador plenipotentiary 18. a battle royal 9. professor emeritus 19. fibre glass 10. knight errant 20. Central Texas 11. the heir male (apparent) 21. sum total 12. the body politic 22. third person singular 13. corps diplomatique 7. 已被任命而尚未上任的部长 14. poet laureate 8. 全权大使 15. malice prepense (aforethought) 9. 荣誉退休教授 16. proof positive 10.（中世纪的）游侠骑士
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11. 男系（当然）继承人 12. 政治团体 13.（法）外交团 14. 桂冠诗人 15. 恶意预谋 16. 确凿的证据
17. 该付的房租/到期的房租 18. 混战/殊死战/长时间的恶斗 19. 玻璃纤维
20. 得克萨斯州中部 21. 总数/要旨 22. 单数第三人称
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Invert the word order in translating a series of attributive modifiers before a noun (倒置前置序
列定语)
(1) Generally speaking, especially in colloquial speech or literary works, a series of attributive modifiers in Chinese is seldom completely placed before a noun: with some before the noun, and the rest after. Examples:
1. Keith: A little, yellow, ragged, lame, unshaven beggar. (John Galsworthy)
基思：一个讨饭的，身材矮小，面色苍黄，衣衫褴褛，瘸腿，满脸胡子。
2. She had such a kindly, smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own. (Vanity Fair) 她心地厚道，为人乐观，性情温柔，待人和蔼，器量又大。
3. She was an intelligent, attractive and somewhat temperamental daughter of a well-to-do doctor in Haddington. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica)
她是哈丁顿一位富裕医生的女儿，有才华，又迷人，但有点脾气。 Drills 8.2.2a
4. Then one can see the oval face of a handsome young woman with deep dark eyes and long heavy clinging tresses. (Tess of the D’urbervilles)
5. Somebody tapped me on the shoulder; I looked up from the exercise books of my young pupils, which I was just correcting, into the lined, kindly face of a little lay sister.
6. The door opened with a sucking hiss and out of the dark a large, gaily-dressed, sullen-looking colored woman got on with a little boy. (F. O’Connor: Everything that Rises Must Converge) 4. 那时可以看出，她是一个眉清目秀的少女，鹅蛋型脸，两眼又深又黑，披着又长又密的头发。
5. 有人轻轻拍了拍我的肩膀，我放下正在批改的小学生作业簿，抬头一看，原来是那个做勤杂的修女；她个子矮小，满脸皱纹，和蔼可亲。
6. 车门随着一阵抽气声打开。黑暗中走出一个女黑人，身躯硕大，衣着艳丽，面有愠色，带着一个小男孩上车。
(2) The order in multiple attribution
English: General principle for placing several attributive modifiers before a noun Determi- native 限制性 冠词、指主观判示代词、断 不定代Epithet 词、所有性质、特格、数量征 词 a very a some her this
Descriptive 描述性 客观描述 Age Color 新颜色 旧 old red green pink purple 4
Classifying 分类性 Head- Gerund, word Noun, 中心词 Substance etc. 物质 （动）名词 gold brick silk eating watch wall apples face dress Size 大小 high Shape 形状 Origin 来源 valuable sour pretty small round quite an a three the my three attractive famous brisk triangular large green Cape-colony German Chinese California wooden medical night stamp college carpets air tables green small round (Source: A Reference Grammar for Students of English by R. A. Close, 1979:159, Longman) 1. 一个很值钱的（贵重的）旧金表 2. 一堵高的红砖墙
3. 一些适宜生吃的绿色酸苹果 4. 她那张粉红色的小圆脸 5. 这件漂亮的紫色丝质连衣裙
6. 一张十分吸引人的绿色三角形好望角殖民地邮票 7. 德国的一所著名的医学院 8. 三条绿色的中国大地毯
9. 加州清新的夜晚空气/加州的夜晚，空气清新 10. 我那三张木头小圆桌
Drills 8.2.2b
Translate the above and the following into Chinese: 1. advanced world levels
2. all competent university scientists 3. a big forest fire in Oregon 4. 23 New York City hospitals 5. the three Baltic states
6. the perennial American problems 7. the large West End shops
8. the Second United Nations Development Decade 9. other influential American critics 10. nineteen-century American history 11. remarkable political stability 12. automatic thermal regulator 13. high-speed metal cutting 14. crystalline pig insulin
15. two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone (Nathaniel Hawthorne) 16. many of our most important new projects in other fields 17. the most thriving new agricultural areas in the world
18. the recently released official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures
19. the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize (1960) in recognition of his long non-violent
struggle against racial discrimination (The New Encyclopedia Britannica ) 20. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English 21. Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature 1. 世界先进水平
2. 大学里所有合格的科学家
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