Theme/Rheme Division And Translation

In virtue of Halliday's theories of Systemic-Functional Grammar, this paper makes a contrastive analysis of the thematic structures of English and Chinese and concludes the advantages of Theme-Rheme division in translation.After a brief introduction to the research background, the first part of the paper proves feasibility of Systemic-FunctionalGrammar in Chinese study and provides the approach of Theme-Rheme theory in describing a language. It shows Theme-Rheme approach is of practical value in Chinese description. Then the four terms --- Theme, Rheme, Topic and Comment are defined.The second part deals with review of literature. It gives the reason why Hallidayan school is preferable. Only some scholars relevant to the paper and their works are mentioned. So far as study on Themes in English is concerned, most scholars mainly follow Halliday with a little modification. And study on Themes in Chinese is not systematic. As for its application in translation, most scholars focus on conflation of the two languages, which is not comprehensive. Part three is concerned with contrast. It covers two levels: clause and discourse. The former is rather complex, to which seven sections are devoted: simple Themes, Theme and mood, other characteristic Themes, multiple Themes, clauses as Themes, predicated Themes, Theme in dependent, minor and elliptical clauses. Of all the sections, number two is in detail as the realization of Chinese and English moods resembles as well as differs in many respects. The contrast shows Chinese is much more complicated in the realization of Theme in different moods. Therefore, the claim that Chinese is similar to English in thematic structure is too optimistic. And due attention should be paid to their differences. As for the latter, the paper illustrates the seven patterns of thematic progression. Roughly, English and Chinese are similar on discourse level, though Chinese does not depend so much on cohesive devices. In part four, the results of the contrast are summed up. The summary reveals that English and Chinese languages enjoy similarities and differences in thematic structure. They differ chiefly in the realization of Themes in exclamatory, interrogative and imperative moods. Thus, in translation, a translator had better consider different choices of thematic structure in the two languages, instead of following one rigidly, as some scholars insist. Part five offers advantages of adopting thematic structure in translation: helpful in distinguishing slight differences of some sentence meanings, helpful in understanding source language, and discourse cohesion and coherence.The last part supplements the unexpected results of the paper and presents that any approach is preferable as long as it facilitates the study of Chinese and translation.