Cohesion And Translation Of Dashes In Biographical Text

This practice report is based on the translation of the fifth,sixth and eleventh chapters of the book Midnight in Chernobyl.The source text is biographical literature,which contains detailed and rigorous content with clear logic,idiomatic verbal and compound sentences.In addition,one phenomenon attracted the writer's attention is the punctuation mark: dash.Dashes are so frequently used in these chapters that they deserve our serious attention both in understanding and translation.Dash,according to its definition,is a straight,horizontal stroke used in writing or printing to mark a pause or break in sense or to represent omitted letters or words,or to separate two main clauses whose meanings are closely connected.Dashes can cause misunderstanding easily if not understood or translated properly.As an important punctuation mark in written language,dash serves to express the author's writing style effectively.As a result,the author of this practice report surveys the functions and roles of dashes in the sentences under the guide of cohesion theory.Based on the logico-semantic relationship of expansion proposed by Halliday,and Hu Zhanglin's further explanation of the theory,this report attempts to analyze examples on the three semantic groupings: elaboration,extension and enhancement.Moreover,this report explores the cohesive function of dashes,and summarizes two strategies of the dashes translation and conversion: If you keep the dash,you need to further analyze whether you need to adjust the sentence order;if you translate it into other punctuation,you need to consider whether you need to add related words or split the sentence.The characteristics of the biographical text,considering the original author's expression should be considered as well.Through the translation practice,the author has a certain understanding of dashes connect function and translation,which would provide some valuable references for the translation of the punctuation mark—dash.