A Contrastive Study On Personal Cataphora In English And Chinese Based On Accessibility Theory

Cataphora is the marker form of the anaphora,and it is an essential cohesive device.Compared with the study of anaphora,the study of cataphora has not attracted much attention from scholars,but as a referential phenomenon,cataphora is equally worthy of in-depth study.In order to study the similarities and differences of cataphora in Chinese and English,24 authentic instances of Chinese cataphora and 445 authentic instances of English cataphora were collected from CH’ten’s Fortress Besieged and its English translation book.These authentic instances of cataphora were also compiled and analyzed in a bi-directional comparison.Cataphora could be formed by zero cataphor((?))or the personal pronoun(P),whose accessibility is high;its antecedent could be formed by a personal pronoun or the noun,whose degree of accessibility is lower than(?).Based on these three references,Yu Zechao(2011)divided the cataphora into three kinds:1)(?)+P,2)(?)+N,3)P+N.Based on these three divisions,the instances appearing in Chinese and English texts that conform to this sentence pattern are categorized and listed.Based on Ariel’s accessibility theory,the similarities and differences of the personal cataphora in the English and Chinese are compared and analyzed from a cognitive perspective.The following findings were obtained.(1)There was a significant difference in the distribution between cataphor and its antecedent in Chinese and English.In the English authentic instances,the vast majority of the cataphor and its antecedent were within the same sentence,and a few were within the same paragraph;however,in the Chinese authentic instances,the distribution of cataphor and the antecedent existed not only within the same sentence,but also within the same paragraph or even across paragraphs.(2)The characteristic of cataphora in En glish and Chinese:V-ing made these authentic instances as the zero cataphor,mostly in the English cataphoric expression.96.2%of the cataphoric expression which used(?)as the cataphor((?)+N/(?)+P)existed in the cataphora authentic instances in English.75%of Chinese authentic instances were(?),which exist as the cataphor.Based on the exploring feature of accessibility,the personal cataphora was analyzed,which would provide assistance to other cataphora.The shorter the distance between the cataphor and its antecedent,the higher degree of accessibility of its antecedent.The accessibility of zero,personal pronouns,and nouns decreased in order.So when the distance between zero cataphor and antecedent was short,antecedent was often a personal pronoun rather than a noun.However,if more than one person appear in the paragraph,the antecedent often appeared as a noun,which had lower accessibility but higher informativity,which could ensure that the addressee could successfully decode the referential information.In this thesis,the personal cataphora in English and Chinese is analyzed,and the feasibility of accessibility theory is also explored.Then the assistance could be provided to other scholars in future cataphora studies.