CL Assignment 2  (for “Topic 2  Principles and Methods of Comparing and Contrasting Languages”)

 

1.    What is transfer? Illustrate positive language transfer and negative language transfer with examples.

 

2.    What are theoretical CA and applied CA respectively concerned with?

 

3.    Make a comparative reading of the different Chinese translations of the first line of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet and judge if they do justice to the original. You are also encouraged to translate this line by yourself and state the reason for translating it your way.

 

To be, or not to be, that is the Question:

(Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? ...)

(Shakespeare. Hamlet. III i 56-60)

 

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4.    What is meant by “interlingual level shifts” or “level crossings”? Why may they be necessary in contrastive analysis?

 

5.    What do we mean when we say that CA can predict errors? Error analysis distinguishes two types of errors: interlingual errors and intralingual errors. What type of errors can CA be reasonably expected to predict