Thematic Analysis And Translating Practice

At present, translators and academicians are attaching more and more attention to the application of text linguistics to translation theory. Based on the thematic analysis, part of text linguistics, and contrastive analysis, the thesis analyzes the features of Chinese clauses and English ones and explores the differences & similarities between thematic progression in Chinese text and in English one. Furthermore, the thesis studies how to reconstruct coherent and faithful TLT (target language text). The thesis employs the combination of theory and practice to test the important guidance of thematic analysis in translating practice.Thematic structure of a clause is different from the traditional grammatical structure of a clause. The theme is what the clause is about, and the rheme is what the speaker says about the theme. Each clause has its own thematic structure, which may be subordinate to a larger thematic structure. The overall choice and ordering of themes plays an important role in organizing a text. The thematic structure of each clause and the thematic progression of a text is another way to achieve cohesion and coherence. Therefore, by analyzing the thematic structure of each clause and the thematic progression in a text, we can see how cohesion and coherence is realized. Consequently, thematic analysis can be used to explore the thematic structure of the individual source language clauses and the thematic progression in a SLT (source language text), which is helpful to the correct understanding of the SLT. Meanwhile, thematic analysis can be employed to assess whether the TLT is coherent and faithful. This thesis consists of five chapters. In chapter 1, the relationship between translation and text linguistics is discussed, and a brief introduction to text linguistics is presented. Meanwhile, an introduction to thematic analysis and its influence on translating practice are put forward.Based on the discussion of the contribution of thematic analysis to translation, the detailed identification of theme is set forth in chapter 2. A contrastive analysis between identification of Chinese clauses and that of English ones is made. Through the contrastive analysis of identification of theme, the similarities and differences between Chinese clauses and English ones stand out. Chapter 2 underlies the basis for the latter exploration to the thematic progression. In chapter 3, the relationship between thematic progression and cohesion in a text is discussed first. Then, eight thematic progression patterns shared by Chinese and English are presented. In chapter 4, thematic analysis is applied to analyze four pieces of advertisements and their translated versions. The four case analyses suggest the important role played by thematic analysis in translating practice. Chapter 5 is a conclusion to the thesis. The results of the study indicate that thematic analysis is quite essential to reproduce a coherent and faithful translated text, and its feasibility in translation is apparent.