The Study Of Translation Of Discourse Marker So In Friends

Discourse markers, according to Schiffrin (1987:31), are defined as sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk, which are one of the common language phenomena in discourse interpretation. The translation of discourse markers, therefore, should be considered according to translation theories as well as its definition in dictionaries. So we should translate in such a way that the target language is equivalent to that in the source language. This thesis endeavors to make a tentative study of the translation of the word so, a widely used discourse marker, taking the American sitcom Friends as the target of research. The thesis first states the author's motivation for the study of the translation of discourse markers, then briefly reviews the research done on discourse marker and the translation theories. The most important part of the thesis is the analysis of the discourse marker so in Friends and its Chinese translation in various instances. The conclusion drawn from this study is that when translating discourse markers, we should not employ word-for-word translation, or merely literal translation; rather, we should integrate various translation skills so that the discourse markers are properly translated.