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A Contrastive Analysis of Cohesive Devices in Translated Chinese and English Prose

Author: ZhuZuo
Tutor: MuLinHua
School: Capital Normal University
Course: Curriculum and Pedagogy
Keywords: cohesive devices coherence contrast between English and Chinese
CLC: H315.9
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2006
Downloads: 478
Quote: 2
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Abstract


As a discourse constituent in the language system, cohesion serves the function of clarifying meaning by connecting structurally unconnected constituents. It is also a device that makes the language concise, information prominent and logical. Coherence refers to a primary characteristic of the discourse, which has always been a research focus in discourse analysis. The study on both cohesion and coherence aim at helping readers to further understand the structure of natural language and how they realize language’s multilevel functions at the discourse level. Since Halliday and Hasan first advanced the cohesion theory in 1976, numerous positive studies have been done in this area, and some have found the differences in using cohesive devices between Chinese and English texts. In recent years, related academic papers and treaties have gradually increased; nevertheless, most of them emphasize the general literal styles. This thesis focuses on a contrastive analysis of five specific cohesive devices, namely Reference, Substitution, Ellipsis, Conjunction and Lexical cohesion. Based on Halliday’s cohesion theory, the study analyzed 40 published modern essays that have been translated either from English to Chinese or from Chinese to English. The result shows that the number of the Explicit cohesive markers (conjunctive words, personal reference, demonstrative reference, and substitution) in modern English essays is larger than that in the Chinese essays while the number of the inexplicit cohesive makers (ellipsis and repetition) in modern Chinese essay is larger than that in the English essays. The result verifies that different languages prefer distinct cohesive devices, and that the English culture focuses on hypotacticness while the Chinese culture attaches importance to paratacticness. It is also the purpose of the study to further prove the operativeness of contrastive discourse analysis and to provide some reference suggestions for the foreign language researches and translators.

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