Interpretation And Reconstruction Of Coherence In The Process Of Translation

This paper focuses on the vital role of coherence in the process of translation. Firstly, a distinction is made between cohesion and coherence. After reviewing the relevant literature on the debate over the relationship between cohesion and coherence, this paper follows the idea that cohesion is subordinate to coherence in that cohesion refers to the cohesive relations within the discourse and coherence indicates all the links within and without the discourse. This paper hypothesizes that coherence is an intricate characteristic of all literature works and the coherent relations of the original work needs to be reconstructed in the translated works. Lang Tuteng by Jiang Rong and its English version Wolf Totem is taken as the analyzing text in this paper and it is attempted to find out how the translator interprets and restores the intricate coherence network in the original novel. Halliday and Hasan's typology of different types of cohesion ties is also applied in the analysis to prove the point that the realization of inner-discourse cohesion is one of the pre-requisites in translation. And the other pre-requisite is the realization of coherence which bridges the gap between the discourse and the socio-cultural environment it is set in. In the whole process of translation, both the correct comprehension of the source text and appropriate expression in the target language depend on the understanding of coherent factors. Negligence of coherence may result in misunderstanding and mistranslation. By analyzing and discussing the methods adopted by the translator, the author hopes to achieve some generalization which can lay certain groundwork for future research in the study of coherence in translation.