On Repetition: A Cohesive Device Used In Translation

Repetition is often seen during the translation process. However, few studiessystematically explore the translation skills of dealing with repetition currently. Onthe basis of cohesion theory by Halliday and Hason, this paper aims to analyzerepetition from the perspectives of cohesion, pragmatics and rhetoric. It dividesrepetition into cohesive and rhetoric repetition, systematically explained the conceptof both, in the hope to provide theoretical foundation for translators to overcomeproblems caused by the different mechanism of cohesion in English and Chinesediscourses during translation, as well as new insight in studies of translation studies.Repetition as a cohesive device has played an important role in discoursecohesion in both English and Chinese, while appropriate translation of repetition canmake up for the difference in linking patterns between the two languages. In addition,repetition is a rhetoric device that can reinforce the strength and expressive effect ofthe translation. On the basis of previous studies, this paper suggested repetition can beused to replace other cohesive devices in the source language that are improper in thetarget language, thus ensuring the fluency of translation. Meanwhile, this paperanalyzes repetition from the perspective of rhetoric.Due to the apparent difference in cohesion between English and Chinese,translation can not be simple duplication of the information in the source language.The translator should adjust the translation, after decoding source languageinformation, according to the cohesion mechanism and expression habit of the targetlanguage, so that the translation is acceptable to target language readers.The value of this paper lies in that it works on repetition from the perspective ofcohesion, pragmatics and rhetoric, which has seldom been studied before. Therefore,it is hoped that this paper would do some contributes to future researches and offers a new respective to study fields of translation, cohesion and pragmatic rhetoric.In conclusion, this study about repetition is expected to promote the expressionof translated works and make contributions to studies on translation theories.