Semantic Shifts And Logical Cohesion In C-E Novel Translation

It is generally accepted that language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Translation, as an important way of communication between peoples, involves transferring content and formal features from SL to TL. This paper mainly dwells on two aspects of meaning and forms: semantic shifts and logical cohesion, which are crucial to make the translated version readable and coherent. So far, much research has been done on these two aspects by both domestic and foreign scholars. However, most studies are exemplified with separate examples; there are seldom large-scale observations of a whole novel, let alone the corpus-based investigation. This dissertation randomly selects two chapters among nine and builds corpora to make a comprehensive compare, attempting to fill in the blank left by the previous studies. At the same time, the author borrows all the data and examples from Ch'ien Chung-shu's Fortress Besieged, which guarantee the consistency of research data.This paper uses Leech's classification of meaning as the theoretical framework. Semantic shift in translation is to depart from cognitive meaning of language unit in source text, choosing textual meaning, associative meaning, or structural meaning to convey meaning. As for the logical cohesion, we use additive, adversative, causal and temporal conjunctions of Halliday's schema to investigate transference of logical cohesion from SL to TL. Based on previous studies and established theories, this paper holds a hypothetical statement that there are certain regularities of the semantic shift and the transference of the cohesive devices between Chinese and English text of The Fortress Besieged. These regularities are affected by the some internal and external factors and can be explained to some certain extent.Based on the corpus selected from Fortress Besieged, this dissertation firstly looks into the 8 categories of semantic shifts, including specification/generalization, intensification/weakening, addition/ellipsis, substitution, and neutralization of image, in order to provide reference for translator's strategy selection and experience in dealing with semantic shift in C-E translation. Then based on the theoretical framework put forward by Halliday and Hasan in Cohesion in English, this dissertation explores four different kinds of logical cohesive devices: additive, causal, adversative and temporal. Due to dissimilarity in language system and cultural customs, conjunctive elements between clauses in C-E translation do not clearly correspond with one another. The conjunctive devices are more employed in English than in Chinese to enhance the logical sense between sentences and bring them into a whole. This dissertation intends to observe the diversity of logical cohesion in different languages, and how they are converted from source text to target readers in translation.By statistics and exemplifications of semantic shifts and logical cohesion, it can be concluded from the dissertation that the transference of meaning and form are affected by many factors, among which different cultures, values, ideologies and language structures are the most important and influential ones.