An Observation Of The Functions Of Texual Cohesion In Chinese And English Time Adverbials

Based on Halliday's theory of cohesion, through language data of English-Chinese bilingual translation, this paper makes a survey and contrastive study on the function of textual cohesion of time adverbials in English and Chinese. The findings show that both Chinese and English time adverbials serve the same function of textual cohesion, and both of which belong to the same cohesive types. But the differences in typology, inner-structure, aesthetic functions, rhetorical effects, and the ways of expressing time result in different frequencies of occurrence of Chinese and English time adverbials which function as textual cohesion.These differences affect the high quality language output of CFL and EFL learners especially in their writing and translating learning process on their senior stages. This paper raises some suggestions for foreign language teachers on the teaching of Chinese and English time adverbials from the perspective of textual cohesion.This paper is made up of six parts.Part one discusses the purpose and significance of the present study, and reviews and reflects relevant research and findings at home and abroad as well.Part two introduces the subject, the methods and theoretic basis of present study.Part three is concerned with the selecting and collecting of the language data needed in the study.Part four makes a very specific analysis and contrast of the language data.Part five puts forward some suggestions for CLT and ELT based on the findings of the previous part.The last part is a conclusion, pointing out the value and limitations of the study and put forth suggestions for further research.