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Analysis On Cohesive Devices Of Textual Translation

Posted on:2012-02-04Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H YangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155330332492858Subject:English Language and Literature
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Studies on textual cohesion theory and discourse research both started in the 1960s. As an important branch of discourse research, cohesion theory has drawn the attention of many linguists at. home and abroad since it was put forward. Among various researches, Halliday and Hasan have made the greatest contribution in this field. In their book Cohesion in English (1976), Halliday and Hasan defined "cohesion" as "relations of meaning that exist within the text" and divided cohesive devices into five categories:reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesive devices. This thesis is based on the classification made by Halliday and Hasan.With the development of cohesion theory, its research results have been applied to translation study. Nowadays, the focus of translators'studies has been shifted from the level of words and sentences to text. Not satisfied with the analysis of words and single sentences translators began to study the relations among sentences from the perspective of meaning. Translation is a process during which the translator, to a certain extent, reorganizes the text in the target language based on his understanding of the original textual meaning. Therefore, the translator must realize how significant the cohesion theory is.English and Chinese belong to two different language systems, thus similarities and differences in cohesive devices exist between the two languages. In English-Chinese translation, the application of cohesive devices has a direct influence on the quality of translation. Based on Halliday and Hasan's cohesion theory, this thesis does a systematic comparative study on the two Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights which is written by the famous female writer Emily Bronte. One aim of this thesis is to explore the effective and optimum manners of the five cohesive devices to realize coherence; another aim is to provide guidance in translation practice and research basis in English-Chinese translation of a literary novel by demonstrating the significance of cohesion theory. Five chapters are included in the thesis. Chapter One serves as an introduction, which accounts for the significance, method of the study and the structure of the thesis. Chapter Two offers the literature review and relevant theories, including the introduction to studies on cohesion theory both at home and abroad, and the relationship between coherence and cohesion, text and translation as well as translation and contrastive linguistics. Chapter Three provides an introduction to the novel Wuthering Heights and its Chinese versions. Chapter Four focuses on the comparison of the two Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights in five cohesive devices, namely, reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesive devices. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this research project.
Keywords/Search Tags:novel translation, text, cohesive devices, Wuthering Heights
PDF Full Text Request
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