A Comparative Study On Cohesive Devices In Chinese And English Litigation Writing

Cohesive devices, on which the production of discourse is based, can be found in every natural language. There are a large number of previous studies focusing on cohesive devices both at home and abroad, however, most of them just targeted on cohesive devices in literature or poetry instead of in legal texts. A particular genre has its own particular cohesive devices. This paper explores the cohesive devices in litigation writing which are different from others. The author conducts a comparative investigation into cohesive devices between Chinese and English litigation writing and examines what the more frequently employed cohesive devices are as well as what the similarities and discrepancies of these cohesive devices between Chinese and English litigation writing are.According to Halliday and Hasan's cohesion theory, this paper conducts a comparative study on cohesive devices between Chinese and English litigation writing by using quantitative method. The following conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the thesis: the cohesive devices more frequently employed in Chinese and English litigation writing are reference, nominal substitution, conjunction, repetition and collocation. Meanwhile, they have distinct characteristics in litigation writing such as using archaic words as demonstrate reference and high frequency of repetition. In addition, the archaic word"where"is frequently used in English litigation writing to express causal relation.The comparative study provides a new perspective to study cohesive devices among different languages. Moreover, it is meaningful since it offers a theoretical framework and practical reference in the field of legal translation, which could raise the translator's awareness while translating litigation writing between Chinese and English. This paper may help to better understand the similarities and discrepancies between Chinese and English Litigation writing, which contributes to the communication and cooperation between different legal systems.