Cohesion And Coherence In The English Translation Of Fortress Besieged

Discourse cohesion and coherence not only act as the fundamental criteria of the textual formation but also the core of the discourse research,among which cohesion realizes the connectivity between the superficial form and the proposition while coherence refers to the general effects of the communication acts.The cohesion theory proposed by Halliday and Hasan(1976)lays much weight on the syntactical level;while Hu Zhuanglin(1994)and Zhang Delu(2003)further make some supplements to the cohesion theory,which forms a multilevel mode of the theory.Based on the cohesion theory,this thesis chooses the English translation of Fortress Besieged(translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao)as the research subject.Fortress Besieged has long been considered as the apotheosis in modern Chinese literature.The language of the novel is standard and typical,which may represent the mainstream of modern Chinese language.Through the analysis of the extracts,the researcher intends to make a comprehensive study of the discourse cohesion and coherence in the novel.In order to explore the characteristics of the novel in a more systematic and comprehensive way,this thesis adopts the statistical Tool UAM Corpus Tool 2.8.17 to do some researches into certain important chapters.First of all,a self-built corpus is annotated.Then the corpus is identified by the statistical instrument UAM Corpus Tools 2.8.17 and the occurrence of each cohesive device used in the novel is calculated by the statistical tools.Finally,the extracts will be analyzed so as to find out how the cohesive functions of these cohesive devices are realized in the novel.The thesis mainly uses the non-structure cohesion theory proposed by Halliday and Hasan to study the cohesion and coherence of Fortress Besieged.Meanwhile,it adopts the structure cohesion theory supplemented by Hu Zhuanglin and Zhang Delu to enrich the research.The analysis is mainly based on non-structure cohesive devices including reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction and lexical cohesion,as well as structure cohesive devices such as Theme-Rheme structure,information structure and transitivity.This study adopts qualitative methods in combination with the quantitative methods.Quantitative research is adopted to have an overall understanding of the cohesion and coherence phenomenon of the novel;qualitative research is mainly applied to analyze the specific examples so as to have a more accurate conception of the cohesion and coherence characteristics in the novel.The findings evinced from the research show that various cohesive devices have been applied in the English translation of Fortress Besieged.In terms of the non-structure cohesion,the most frequently adopted cohesive device is lexical cohesion and what comes next are reference and ellipsis which are relevant with the writing techniques employed in the novel.A great number of lexical chains are beneficial for the integrity of the novel.The frequent application of referential items is closely related with the plot complexity and the good usage of reference can contribute to a better interpretation of the novel.Ellipsis often exists in dialogues which can help the conversation continue coherently in certain context even though some information is not demonstrated clearly in the text.The usage of ellipsis can also help to avoid repetition and further improve the discourse coherence.Viewed from the structure cohesion perspective,various thematic progressions are adopted to ensure the textual coherence of the novel,which can better evince the plot development of the novel in turn.And it also indicates that the high frequency of certain transitivity process type can yield the effects of cohesion,which can help to reflect the general thematic meaning of the discourse.This thesis provides the readers with an effective approach to further analyze novels and with the help of the cohesion and coherence devices,the reader can have a deeper understanding of the literary works.And also,it is suggested that when reading a novel,the readers should establish some cohesive chains in their mind,which can interact with each other so as to help them grasp the theme of the discourse easily.