A Contrastive Study Of Cohesive Devices In English And Chinese And Its Implications For English Teaching

This thesis aims to examine how English and Chinese are different in their use of cohesive devices, to probe into causes for those differences, and to provide some implications for English teaching. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion is the way certain words or grammatical features of a sentence link to its predecessors or successors in a text. It is the network of lexical, grammatical and other elements in sentences that require the reader to refer to the sentences around for their interpretation. Cohesive devices, which help to build a coherent text, are categorized into reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Admittedly there are some differences as to the classification of cohesive devices, this thesis still adopts Halliday and Hasan's cohesion theory as the theoretical framework because it is by far the most comprehensive treatment of the subject of cohesion and has become the standard in this area.Based on a thorough analysis of 60 English texts and their corresponding translated Chinese texts from the second edition of New College English books One to Four published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, this thesis presents quantitative and qualitative information concerning the frequency of different cohesive devices and causes for those differences. A comparison shows that English texts and their corresponding translated Chinese texts differ considerably in a number of ways.Firstly, English and Chinese are different in the frequency of reference. Because English is a hypotactic language, it has a higher frequency in using pronominal reference than Chinese; Chinese is a paratactic language, and it uses more zero-anaphora than English. When it comes to demonstrative reference, English uses more distant demonstratives and Chinese uses more near demonstratives because of the different psychology of English-speaking people and Chinese people. As for comparative reference, there are not many differences between Chinese and English. The biggest difference is that English not only uses lexical and grammatical means but also modifies the form of a word, such as the comparatives or superlatives of adjectives or adverbs. On the contrary, Chinese can only use lexical or grammatical means to express comparison.Secondly, substitution and ellipsis are not very common in English or Chinese in total. Comparatively speaking, English uses substitution more frequently and Chinese uses ellipsis more frequently. Not many differences are found in using conjunction between Chinese and English.Thirdly, Chinese uses repetition more frequently than English because of cultural, psychological and typological differences. Repetition is only used when necessary; otherwise, it will cause redundancy. When it comes to collocation, not many differences are found. It is a complicated research area that needs further study.It is hoped that the findings can raise students' awareness of these differences and therefore better comprehend the English texts. In translation practices between Chinese and English, students can consciously choose some cohesive devices and avoid others corresponding to differences in using cohesive devices between these two languages. In addition, a text can be regarded as a whole with the help of cohesive devices in English writing teaching.