The Use and Explanation of Comparative Degrees in the English Translation of the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: A Case Study of “Better” and “Further”

Wang Jianguo and He Ziran (2014) proposed that Chinese and English show pragmatic differences in their emphasis: Chinese emphasizes process, while English emphasizes outcomes. Consequently, English translations often convey meanings that are implicit in or exceed those of the original Chinese text. Based on this observation, this paper hypothesizes that many comparative adjectives or adverbs in English translations originate from positive (base form) adjectives or adverbs in Chinese, or sometimes have no corresponding Chinese adjectives or adverbs at all. By examining the sources of “better” and “further” in the English version of the 20th National Congress Report, this paper confirms this hypothesis, enhancing our understanding of Chinese-English pragmatic differences and providing insights for similar Chinese-English translation research and practice.