On The Realization Of Textual Coherence In E-C Translation

Language is the carrier as well as the object of translation, and it has been a traditional approach to study translation from the linguistic point of view. Especially with the boom of text linguistics, text analysis has been introduced into translation studies as an illuminating new perspective. Coherence, the key property of a text, undoubtedly provides an effective and significant base for translation studies. This paper is a study of the realization of textual coherence in E-C translation conducted upon this consideration.Since the publication of Cohesion in English by Halliday and Hasan in 1976, coherence has been perceived from various perspectives at different levels and much acknowledged as a comprehensive semantic notion incorporating complicated influential factors. Through the analysis and comparison of English and Chinese cohesive devices, this research focuses on the realization of textual coherence in E-C translation. Coherence is regarded as the internal semantic relations whereas cohesion the external linguistic devices. Coherence realization fulfilled through grammatical coherence and structural coherence serves as the norm for the choice of translation strategies and the criterion to evaluate translated versions as well. Based on the theoretical analysis, this paper also conducts a case study with the comparison and analysis of the coherence realization of three Chinese versions of The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, a famous American novelist, in the hope of demonstrating and testing the feasibility and significance of coherence realization in translation. The paper falls into five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the aim and scope of this research. Chapter two offers the literature on the topic. Chapter three provides the theoretical foundation for the analysis of the realization of textual coherence. The case study is laid in chapter four, and a conclusion is reached in the last chapter.In a word, through the combination of theoretical elaboration and practical analysis of translated versions, this dissertation aims to evidence the constructive guidance and effective operability of coherence realization in translation studies as well as practices. Since coherence is an inclusive semantic notion, it surely leaves vast space for further research in this field.