Chinese "/" And English "this / That" The Discourse Function

This thesis focuses on textual function of "这/那" and "this/that" , including referential and indexical function, which respectively reflected by two forms: single use and use with nouns. Therefore, through these two concrete forms the thesis is to discuss the similarities and differences between Chinese and English, as well as the tendentious rules.The first chapter is the introduction, including reasons of selected topic, purposes and methods of the research, also some explanation for language materials.The second chapter mainly introduces the research already accomplished both in Chinese and English. Domestic research is mainly about the origin and the functional evolution of "这/那" , as well as the research from syntactic, pragmatic and textual aspect. Oversea studies are mainly from pragmatic and textual aspect to investigate anaphoric function in cohesion and coherence of text.Chapter three inspects the form of single use. We think it is correspondent here between Chinese and English. The anaphoric ability of proximal-terms is stronger than distal-terms, and the referential function of proximal-terms is weaker than distal-terms. Moreover, besides temporal, spatial and mental distance the choice of proximal-terms or distal-terms is related to the referent.The fourth chapter investigates the form of "这/那" and "this/that" with nouns. The amount of "这 + (数) + (量) + 名" is larger than "那 + (数) + (量) + 名" , and the amount of "this + 名" is similarly larger than "that + 名". The indexical function of demonstrative pronouns is stronger than the anaphoric function. Combining the research in the third chapter the conclusion is drawn that in most conditions the textual function is correspondent between Chinese and English, but it' s not correspondent when used in anaphora and reference to a person.Chapter five inspects the phenomena of "这/那" and its correspondent and non-correspondent English translation forms. When translated into English, "这/那" are mostly translated into "the" , which can be used to explain that "这/那 " has a strong referential ability, and they are...