A Study Of E-C Translation Under The Guidance Of Cohesion Theory

Cohesion serves as an essential device in text construction.It helps ensure coherence and clear logic of text.In the 1970s,linguists Halliday and Hasan put forth Cohesion Theory.They defined cohesion as a textual device that serves as connection between elements in text.This theory has a profound influence in linguistic field,and is widely applied in many fields including translation study.Many scholars consider text as the basic unit of translation study.Translated text also needs to be coherent and well-structured.Therefore,how to handle cohesion devices appropriately is an important issue in translation studies.This commentary discusses strategies of translating cohesion devices in E-C translation under the guidance of Cohesion Theory.The material for translation is from The Gift:How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World,a sociology work by American scholar Lewis Hyde.As a scholarly argument,this book uses various cohesive devices,contributing to the logical argument and organization of the text.Therefore,it is a significant to translate these cohesive devices appropriately so as to reproduce the author's argument in the target language and ensure the coherence of the translated text.Taking the translation of Chapter 8 of Lewis Hyde's book The Gift:How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World as a case of study,this commentary chooses typical examples of translating cohesive devices for close analysis based on the classification of Cohesion Theory:reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction,and lexical cohesion.And then it summarizes feasible translation strategies in different conditions.It proposes that there are obvious differences between English and Chinese in using cohesive devices.English tends to use explicit grammatical means to achieve cohesion,while Chinese usually applies implicit cohesive devices and semantic connections.The translator does not have to be constrained by the use of cohesive devices in the source text.Rather,he or she should consider the text as a whole,and flexibly use translation strategies after fully grasping the meaning,structure and logical coherence of the text,and taking into consideration both the context and conventions of Chinese expression,so as to make the target text coherent and functionally equivalent.