Pragmatic Analysis And Translation Of English And Chinese Deixis

Contrastive study is a branch of science concerning with two or more languages by exploring the differences and similarities in a synchronic way. This thesis is an attempt to analyze the similarities and diversities of deixis between English and Chinese, especially to focus on the analysis of the pre-emptive usage and anti-pre-emptiveness of deixis. The purpose of this thesis is to apply some pragmatic theories on deixis to translation through contrastive analysis.Deixis is a popular and universal language phenomenon, which reflects the relationship between language and context in the language system. The usage of deixis is seemingly simple, which always disguises the complexity of it. In comparing deixis between English and Chinese, participants lacking pragmatic knowledge often could not understand the differences because of the cultural differences between speakers of different languages.Translation is also an intercultural communication. Pragmatic knowledge can assist the translator to understand the source text deeply. Simultaneously, to reproduce the source text in the target language also needs pragmatic knowledge. So it is necessary to apply pragmatics to the study of translation. The thesis is composed of eight chapters.Chapter 1 is an introduction, in which the current development of researches on deixis, the achievements and the existing problems are generally summarized. Moreover, the aims of this thesis are listed.Chapter 2 generally summarizes the definitions of deixis and translation. Additionally, the classification of deixis, the pre-emptiveness and anti-pre-emptiveness of deixis, the methods of translation and the relationship between pragmatics and translation are dealt with in this chapter.Chapter 3 uses many examples and some charts to compare the differences and similarities of person deixis between English and Chinese, focusing on the analysis of pre-emptive and anti-pre-emptive usage. Some seemingly abnormal usages of person deixis are explained. Some techniques and factors on translating person deixis areillustrated.Chapter 4 elaborates the similarities and differences of time deixis between English and Chinese. It also puts emphasis on the analysis of pre-emptive and anti-pre-emptive usage. Time deixis is classified into four kinds that are illustrated and compared between English and Chinese respectively. Verb tense is a unique feature of English time deixis, which can't be found in Chinese. Similarly, some techniques and factors on translating time deixis are illustrated.Chapter 5 analyzes the place deixis. The location and direction of the speaker seem very important in the context of utterance. Especially psychological distance has influence on people's understanding. Some techniques and factors on translating place deixis are illustrated, too.Chapter 6 focuses on analyzing discourse deixis between English and Chinese. Discourse deixis is classified into three kinds that are illustrated and compared between English and Chinese respectively. Techniques and factors on translating discourse deixis are illustrated, tooChapter 7 deals with social deixis. There exist more differences in social deixis between English and Chinese than in other four deixis, which can be found through the comparative analysis. Techniques and factors on translating are also attached importance to.Chapter 8 is the conclusion of the thesis. Major findings and suggestions of the researches in this thesis are elaborated. Additionally, it points out the limitations existing in this thesis and points that need further researches.