中译英过程中的语篇衔接研究.docx

中译英过程中的语篇衔接研究.docx

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中译英过程中的语篇衔接研究

Introduction

“Cohesionisanimportantfieldofstudyindiscourseanalysis.Itreferstothegrammaticaland/orlexicalrelationshipsbetweenthedifferentelementsofdiscourse.Thismaybetherelationshipfromdifferentsentencesorbetweendifferentpartsofasentence”（刘润清&文旭175）. Wecanseeclearlythatcohesionactuallyconcernsthequestionofhowsentencesareexplicitlylinkedtogetherinadiscoursebydifferentkindsofovertdevices.Suchcohesivedevicesincludereference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunctionandlexicalcohesion.Inthefollowingwepresent“fivetypesofcohesivedevices”（qtd.in刘润清&文旭175-178）.

1.Reference

Averycommoncohesivedeviceistheuseofreferencewordswhichincludepronouns,demonstratives,thedefinitearticleanditems.Referenceconsistsoftwotypesofreference:

endophoraandexophora.Andendophoricreferencecanbedividedintotwosubtypes:

anaphoraandcataphora.

2.Substitution

Theprocessorresultofreplacingonewordbyanotherataparticularpositioninastructureiscalledsubstitution.Therearethreetypesofsubstitution:

nominal,verbal,clausalsubstitution.

3.Ellipsis

Leavingoutaconstructionofasentenceforreasonsofeconomy,emphasisorstyle,andtheomittedpartscanonlyberecoveredbythereaderfromthepreviousdiscourse.Therearethreetypesofellipsis:

nominal,verbalandclausalellipsis.

4.Conjunction

Anitemoraprocesswhoseprimaryfunctionistoconnectwordsorotherconstruction.Theconventionalsubclassificationoftheseconnectiveitemsincludecoordinatorconjunctions,subordinatorconjunctions,andconjunctiveadverbs.

5.Lexicalcohesion

Itreferstorepeatingthesamewords,orgeneralnouns,orotherwordssharingthemajorityofsemanticfeatures.Therearethreekindsoflexicalcohesion:

repetition,synonym,andsuperordinate.

Ⅰ.LiteratureReview

Researchofdiscoursecohesiontheorystartsintheearly1960s,butitisHallidayandHasan'sbookCohesioninEnglishthathasarosepeople’swideattention.Withthedevelopmentoftheresearch,discoursecohesiontheoryhasbeenfurtherdevelopedandthenformedafewsetoftheories,suchasHalliday&Hasan'scohesiontheory,VanDrDijk’smacrostructuretheory,Widdowson’sillocutionaryacttheory,Mann’srhetorictheory,Brown&Yulepsychologicalframetheoryandsoon,whichappropriatelymakecommentsontheachievementsandproblemsofourpredecessors.Inthewhole,theyhavealmostinvolvedallaspectsrelatedtothediscoursecoherence,butacommondefectofthemisthattheyhaven’tseparatelyformedacompleteandmoreconcreteTheoreticalmodelsandanalysisframeworks.

Now,HallidayandHasan’sdefinitionofcohesioninCohesioninEnglishhasbeenwidelyacceptedintheacademiccircles,whichisalsoregardedasthemostauthoritativeinthefield.Theythink“theconceptofcohesionisasemanticoneanditreferstorelationsoffancythatexistwithinthetext,andthatdefineitasaText”（qtd.in张琦13）.In1985,Hasanattributesfurthertothedevelopmentoflinguistics,“hedividescohesionintostructurecohesionandnon-structurecohesioninhisbookLanguage,ContextandText”（qtd.in张琦14）.Andinthenon-structurecohesion,hethinks,therearemainlyfivedevicesofdiscoursecohesion,that’sreference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunctionandlexicalcohesion.

II.DiscourseCohesioninChinese-EnglishTranslationIllustratedbyMoYan'sNobelPrizeAcceptanceSpeech

A.Reference

Hallidaypointsoutthatwhenthemeaningthatsomewordsrefertomustdependonthecontext,anddifferentreferenceshavethesameidea,wecallthisphenomenonreference.

Themainfunctionofreferenceistosetsemanticrelation.Thecommonlyusedreferencewordsincludepronouns,demonstratives,items,andthearticle“the”.Therearetwotypesofreferences:

endophoraandexophora,whileendophoracanbefurtherdividedintoanaphoraandcataphora.ReferenceisoftenusedinEnglishwriting.Intermsoffrequence,thepronoun&demonstrativereferenceisgreatlyused,whileChineseoftenemployszero-referenceandrepetitiontoindicatecontextlink.WhendoingC-Etranslation,weshouldaddsomecontentthatisomittedinChineseinproperplace.FollowingaresomeexamplesquotedfromMoYan’sspeech:

a.原文：

但是有一个此刻我最想念的人，我的母亲，你们永远无法看到了。

我

获奖后，很多人分享了我的光荣，但我的母亲却无法分享了。

译文：

Butthepersonwhoismostonmymindatthismoment,mymother,is

someoneyouwillneversee.Manypeoplehavesharedinthehonorofwinning

thisprize,everyonebuther.

Inthissentence,theauthoruses“最想念的人”,“我的母亲”,whichisakindofreferencetoemphasizetheimportanceofhismother.InEnglish,wecanseethewords“mymother”“someone”and“her”.Hereusesexophora,withouttheformercontext,wecannotknowwhom“she”refersto.

a.原文：

有一段时间，集市上来了一个说书人。

我偷偷地跑去听书。

译文：

Astorytelleroncecametothemarketplace,andIsneakedofftolistento

him.

HeretheChineseemployszero-reference,whiletheEnglishusespronoun“him”toindicates“storyteller”,itisareflectionofanaphora.

b.原文：

自己的故事总是有限的，讲完了自己的故事，就必须讲他人的故事。

于是，我的亲人们的故事，我的村人们的故事，以及我从老人们口中听到过

的祖先们的故事，就像听到集合令的士兵一样，从我的记忆深处涌出来。

译文：

Apersoncanexperienceonlysomuch,andonceyouhaveexhaustedyour

ownstories,youmusttellthestoriesofothers.Andso,outofthedepthsofmy

memories,likeconscriptedsoldiers,rosestoriesoffamilymembers,offellow

villagers,andoflong-deadancestorsIlearnedoffromthemouthsofold-timers.

HereChineseuses“亲人们的”,“村人们的”,“祖先们的”todenote“他人的”,andEnglishuses“familymembers”,“fellowvillagers”,“long-deadancestors”torefertotheformerword“others”,whichisanemploymentofcataphora.Inthisexample,wecanseetheChineseandEnglisharealmostcorrespondtoeachother.

B.Substitution

Substitutionisarelationonthelexico-grammaticallevel,arelationbetweenwordsandconstructions,andtheyhavesamefunction.Itmainlyhappensinthelatertext.Substitutionincludesthreetypes:

nominal,verbal,andclausalsubstitution.Toavoidrepetitionandexcellentlyconnectcontext,wemakeuseofsubstitutionthatisalwaysappliedinoralEnglish,soinMoYan’sspeechwhichisawrittenpassagewecannotfindmanynoticeableinstances.WeshouldtakeEnglishfeaturesintoconsiderationwhendoingC-Etranslation,changingsomerepeatedwordsintosubstitutedwords.

a.原文：

在这本书的卷前语上，我写下了“献给母亲在天之灵”的话，但这本

书，实际上是献给天下母亲的，这是我狂妄的野心，就像我希望把小小的“高

密东北乡”写成中国乃至世界的缩影一样。

译文：

ThoughIwrote“Tothespiritofmymother”onthededicationpage,the

novelwasreallywrittenforallmotherseverywhere,evidence,perhaps,ofmy

overweeningambition,inmuchthesamethatIhopetomaketinyNortheast

GaomiTownshipamicrocosmofChina,evenofthewholeworld.

Inthissentence,MoYanuses“thesame”toreplace“ambition”.Itisanexampleofnominalsubstitution.InEnglish,frequentlyusednominalsubstitutionsare“one”,“ones”and“thesame”.Thereisn’tcorrespondingChinesetomatchthem,but“的”,“者”mayhavethesamefunction.

b.原文：

我希望你们能耐心地读一下我的书，当然，我没有资格强迫你们读我

的书。

即便你们读了我的书，我也不期望你们能改变对我的看法。

译文：

Iwouldlikeyoutofindthepatiencetoreadmybooks.Icannotforceyou

todothat,andevenifyoudo,Idonotexpectyouropinionofmetochange.

Inthistwosentences,theauthoruses“do”tosubstitute“findthepatiencetoreadmybooks”;thisisverbalsubstitution.“Do”isusuallyusedasverbalsubstitution,andwemayuseChinese“来”,“干”,“弄”,“搞”tocorrespondto“do”.

Asforclausalsubstitution,wedon’tfindsuchkindofexample.Referringtosomecontexts,weknowthatinclausalsubstitution,whatisreplacedisnotanyelementbutacompletesub-clause.Affirmativeword“so”andnegativeword”not”arethemainclausalsubstitutionword,andinChineseweuse“这样”,“这么”,“是”,“如此”,“等等”tomatchcorrespondingEnglishwords.

C.Ellipsis

ItisknownthatEnglishisthelanguageofhypotaxiswhileChineseparataxis,whichisespeciallyapparentwhentalkingabouttheapplicationofthecohesivedevicesinthesentencesorthediscourses.IntermofEllipsis,ChinesescholarTanLihuathinksitoftenappearalongwiththemarkofforminEnglish,whileinChinese,ellipsisintendstopursuetheexpressive.Chineseisthelanguagethatoftenomititssubject.Sometimes,wemayhearorseeaseriesofsentenceswithoutsubjects.However,itisrareforChinesetoomitthepredicate（qtd.in谭丽华89）.

ellipsismeansalltheomittedinformationisexpectedtobefoundinthecontext.InordertoavoidredundancyinEnglishdiscourse,ellipsisisoftenchosentoreachthecoherent.SointhetranslationfromChineseintoEnglish,weshouldalsoconsideredEnglishhabitsandusetheformofellipsiswhererepeatedwordsappearinChinese.Forinstance,thefollowingaretheexamplesfoundintheMoYan'sNobelPrizeacceptancespeech.

a.原文：

你们也许看到了我的九十岁的老父亲，看到了我的哥哥姐姐、我的妻

子女儿，和我的一岁零四个月的外孙子。

译文：

Youmayhaveseenmyninety-year-oldfather,（haveseen）aswellasmy

brothers,mysister,mywifeandmydaughter,evenmygranddaughter,nowayear

andfourmonthsold.

b.原文：

聆听了许许多多神鬼故事，历史传奇，逸闻趣事，这些故事都与当地

的自然环境，家庭历史紧密联系在一起，使我产生了强烈的现实感。

译文：

myearsfilledwithtalesofthesupernatural,historicalromances,and

strangeandcaptivatingstories,all（thestories）tiedtothenaturalenvironment

andclanhistories,andallofwhichcreatedapowerfulrealityinmymind.

Thewords“haveseen”,“thestories”inthebracketshavebeenomittedinordertoignorethegiveninformationandtheredundancyandtohighlightthenewinformation.

D.Conjunction

ConjunctionisoneofthebiggestdifferenceasfarasthecohesiondevicesbetweenEnglishandChineselanguages.IntheChineselanguage,thesemanticrela