Towards Textual Coherence In Chinese-English Translation From The Perspective Of Culture And Thinking

The purpose of this thesis is to promulgate the significant meaning of textual coherence in translation, using the theories and studies concerning text linguistics and textual coherence; and further, to explore the strategies for the paramount purpose of maintaining coherence in C-E translation from the perspective of both culture and thinking; and to advocate coherence as a potential standard in text translation.Translation, coherence, and text constitute an inseparable trinity in text translation. The intent of text-based translation is to establish in the target text functional coherence equivalent to that of the source or original text. Besides studying the intrinsic factors in the text that influence coherence, a translator has to analyze the factors outside of the text that may influence coherence, and to work out ways to deal with the very factors (outside), so much so that the functional equivalence at the textual level between the source text and target text can be realized.Translation involves not only two different languages but also diverse cultures in antithesis to each other; that is to say, translation is in general cross-cultural communication. Since translation is cross-cultural communication, then the cultural background knowledge, which is unexplained in the source text, must be compensated in the target text so that coherence can be incorporated into the structure of the target text. Difference in mode of thought between Chinese and westerners also influences the understanding of the target text, to which some translators often fail to give careful thought or attention. Due to the above factors, different strategies have to be undertaken to help provide target readers a coherent and adequate translation. The author of this thesis made a thorough study of different possible strategies which can be utilized for the purpose of establishing functional equivalence between the source text and target text.The thesis studied and analyzed a limited number of standards, propagated the theoretical necessity of coherence and the practical value of instituting coherence in translation, and concluded that coherence can be established as a criterion for textual translation after a thorough comparison with the other standards. In finality, the thesis assertively put forward different categories of original texts would definitely result in dissimilar qualities of translations. No single guideline can represent an all-encompassing standard applicable to all types of translation. A guideline or standard then has to be flexible so that it may be practical to its full extent. However, whichever standard a translator may subscribe to, there is only a one and common main goal for all translation, it is to produce a coherent translation, so that it can be read and understood naturally by the target readers.