Cohesion And Coherence In English Translation Of Classical Chinese Text

This thesis aims to study cohesion and coherence in English translation of Classical Chinese in the view of text linguistics. In the past, the study of Classical Chinese translation is mainly from words and sentence level, while this thesis studies it from the text point of view. Coherence is the final aim of a text. Cohesive devices are an important means to achieve coherence, so the study of cohesive devices in achieving coherence is significant.Based on Halliday and Hasan s theory of cohesion and coherence, and considering other linguists definitions and classifications of them, the author mainly studies the intratextual conditions (cohesion, thematic progression and linguistic context) in achieving coherence. Fu Sheng Liu Ji, which is written by Shen Fu, records his family lives, hobbies and travels. The essay depicts the image of his wife Yun and their life style embodies the essence of Chinese life style. Through its two English versions, this thesis attempts to study how cohesive devices affect coherence in translation from Classical Chinese to English.The thesis contains five chapters. Chapter One is the part of introduction, it contains the topic sources and theoretical basis, research significance and methodology, objectives and contents. Chapter Two introduces linguistics and textual translation, the different views on cohesion and coherence and their effects on translation. Chapter Three and Four analyzes the translation versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the intratextual conditions (cohesion, thematic progression and linguistic context). Through the differences between Classical Chinese and English in cohesive devices, and the different managements of the translation versions, the thesis studies how to achieve coherence through the use of cohesion and thematic progression patterns and linguistic context in English translation of Classical Chinese and points out the issues which should be noticed. Chapter Five is the part of conclusion.