Cohesion In Translation

With the text as its basic unit, the essential function of language is to communicate. When analyzing the problems of translation, traditional linguistics tends to put emphasis on the level of words and sentences. However if we study translation from the perspective of text linguistics, we can handle the problems of information transfer at a higher level of linguistic structure.As the linguistic feature of the text, cohesion is the visible network of the text, and it is displayed on the level of surface structure. On the other hand, coherence is the essence of cohesion and an invisible network of the text. Coherence can be only displayed in the deep structure of the text and can only be achieved through the way of logic induction. Cohesion is a necessary factor to create a text and it is the basic ingredient for the text comprehension.As one of the prerequisites to the formation of a text, cohesion is the basis for a text to be understood. Cohesion is an important way to make a text concise, informative and coherent. Readers have to interpret a word by referring to what has been mentioned and what comes after in the text. Meanwhile, different languages have different preferences for cohesive devices. As a result, the studies about translation should be expanded to text other than merely bounded by words and sentences. Only after the respective cohesive devices in source language and target language and their differences are studied, could the adequate ways of adaptation be found out. Based on Halliday and Hasan's description of cohesion, this paper refers to the grammatical cohesive devices and lexical cohesive devices, with the former covering reference, ellipsis, substitution and conjunction, and the latter being made up of reiteration and collocation. This paper aims to enrich translation theories and practices from different angles by analyzing the relevant examples and thereby exploring the differences of Chinese and English cohesive devices and some laws in translation.The thesis consists of four chapters and one conclusion. It starts with an introduction that illustrates the significance of the study of cohesion in translation process, the theory frame, basic approach and main purposes of the thesis. Since 1960, many scholars have begun to introduce the achievements of text linguistics into the field of translation. Furthermore, they have made a lot of illustrations and expositions on translation from different kinds of angles.Chapter One mainly summarizes the development of cohesion theory in the field of linguistics and surveys the components of the theory. It covers the definitions and classifications of cohesion and coherence, the relation between the two concepts, and therelevant studies in the field.Chapter Two is about the development of cohesion theory in the field of translation studies. It describes how the scholars of linguistics at home and abroad apply cohesion theory to translation and the development of this study in these years.Chapter Three is to analyze the process of translation from the perspective of text linguistics. And the author divides the process of translation into two stages: text comprehension and text reproduction in accordance with the viewpoints of text linguistics.Chapter Four will make a detailed illustration of the shift of all kinds of cohesive devices mainly based on the translations of Kung I-chi with other translations as materials. And the cohesive devices explained in this thesis are as follows: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Then a short summary in this chapter is made to illustrate the differences between the cohesive devices in English and Chinese. At the same time, some techniques and laws in translation will be found.The conclusion is a final summary of this paper. It discusses the value of study of applying cohesion theory into translation, points out the restrictions in this thesis and probes into the future of this study.