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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
WANG Lehang
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.06.005
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Due to its structural mechanisms, the Japanese language naturally tends to form long sentences with complex structures and dense information. In contrast, Chinese favors parataxis and concise clauses. This fundamental difference makes the Chinese translation of Japanese long sentences a prominent challenge. Mechanical correspondence often leads to obscure logic and strong “translationese” in the target text, severely undermining its readability and expressiveness. Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory, which prioritizes the receptive effect of the target language readers and advocates breaking free from formal constraints to achieve functional equivalence, provides theoretical guidance for this problem. Based on this theory, this paper proposes a set of translation strategies centered on “logical chain” analysis. It systematically elaborates how to transform Japanese long sentences into natural, fluent, and equivalently effective translations that conform to Chinese expression habits through logical deconstruction, logical explication, and syntactic reconstruction, aiming to provide a specific methodological reference for related translation practices.
Communicative Translation Theory, Japanese long sentences, logical chain, translation strategy
WANG Lehang. Chinese Translation Strategies for Japanese Long Sentences From the Perspective of Communicative Translation Theory. US-China Foreign Language, June 2026, Vol. 24, No. 6, 235-242 doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.06.005
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