Context And Cohesion

Zhao Yuanren, a celebrated Chinese linguist, has ever said, "The so-calledlinguistic theory is nothing but scientific conclusions derived from a comprehensivecontrastive study of the languages of different nations in the world" (Wang Li,1983:40). It indicates that contrastive analysis is a basic method in linguistic study.Any contrastive study of languages cannot be as effective as it should be unless it isbased on a certain linguistic theory. Halliday, the founder of Systemic-FunctionalGrammar, has explicitly noted that the aim of SFG is to provide a theoreticalframework for text analysis. Accordingly, the thesis attempts to make a contrastivestudy of cohesion between a Chinese drama Teahouse and its English version,proceeding from the context theory in SFG.Context is a key linguistic category in the study of language use and function.According to SFG, context can be divided into three levels: context of co-text, contextof situation and context of culture. All the three types of contexts constitute cohesiverelations with a text: explicit intra-textual cohesion and implicit cohesion between textand context (Zhang Delu: 2003). On the basis of the collected literature up to date,there have been contrastive studies of cohesion only from the perspective of contextof co-text. No contrastive study of cohesion has been made from the perspectives ofcontext of situation and context of culture. Just in this sense, the thesis attempts tocompare the cohesion in its broad sense from the perspectives of context of co-text,context of situation and context of culture. It is a new and difficult point for the thesis.Teahouse is one of Lao She's greatest works and Chinese classic dramas. Thedrama reflects almost fifty-year historical changes in China's history from the lateQing Dynasty to the pre-liberation period through the portrait of the fate of a teahouseand the folks from the lowest who frequent the teahouse. It should be especially notedthat Lao She, as "Great Master of Language", has made outstanding achievements andcontributions to literary language. In the play Teahouse, he creates not only colloquiallanguages with unique characteristics but also a complete, specific and historicalcontext within the limited stage space and time. The speech of every character is inkeeping with the particular social-historical context as well as his individual context.In this great work, context and cohesion are fully reflected. Just in this sense, thethesis adopts Teahouse and its English version as the research data.From the perspective of context, the thesis attempts to make a contrastive studyof cohesion in its broad sense. It summarizes the similarities and differences betweenChinese and English cohesive relations, and inquires into the reasons for thedifferences. The purpose is to provide keen insights and references for translatologyand translation practice, further test the applicability and practicability of SFG tocontrastive text analysis, and improve and strengthen the notions of context andcohesion so as to provide new research angles for the related fields.The thesis consists of six parts, including the part of introduction, four chapters,and the part of conclusion.The part of introduction presents the relationship between context and cohesion,the purpose and the research method of the thesis. It is a contrastive study of cohesionbetween Teahouse and its English version.Chapter One is literature review, including the review of the study of cohesion,contrastive linguistics and contrastive text linguistics both at home and abroad. And italso briefly comments on the significance of the thesis.Chapter Two is theoretical support. First, it traces the development of contexttheory in SFG. Second, it states the cohesive ties respectively from the perspectives ofcontext of co-text, context of situation and context of culture, and the relationshipbetween contrastive text analysis and cohesion. Third, it introduces something aboutthe drama Teahouse and its English version. Finally, the analytic approach of thethesis is defined.Chapter Three is a contrastive study of explicit intra-textual cohesion from theperspective of context of co-text. The thesis focuses on two cohesive devices: Ellipsisand Conjunction. From the contrastive study, we sum up the similarities anddifferences as follows. First, both Chinese text and English text employ the cohesivedevices of ellipsis and conjunction. Second, nominal ellipsis in English text is oftenreplaced in the form of reference. Third, there is more verbal omission in English text.Under the same circumstances, Chinese text usually repeats the same verb. Fourth, themost common ellipsis in Chinese text is the omission of subject. Fifth, Chinese textadopts covert conjunction, leaving out conjunctive elements;while English is overtwith conjunctive elements remained in most cases. Based on the above analysis, weprobe into the reasons for the differences in order to provide insights and referencesfor translatology and translation practice.Chapter Four is a contrastive study of implicit cohesion between text and context.From context of situation and context of culture, the thesis makes a contrastive studyof Formal presupposition exophoric cohesion and Missing link cohesion. By thecomparison, we have noticed that there are many cases of formal presuppositionexophoric cohesion and missing link cohesion in the source text. Yet, the target textemploys the way of amplifying some related background knowledge to clear up theconfusion and puzzlement of the English audience. In this way, it is reasonable torepresent the vivid contextual effect of the source text.In the conclusion part, the thesis summarizes the implications from the foregoingcontrastive studies. First, cohesion between Chinese and English texts has similaritiesand differences as well. Neither similarities nor differences can be neglected in thecontrastive study of languages. What is most important is to probe into the reasonsunder the surface, just as Lu Shuxiang has ever said, "It's easy to point out thesimilarities and differences. But it is rather difficult to find the reasons behind them,which is the ultimate purpose of contrastive study" (Yang Zijian, 1990: Inscription).Second, concerning the differences in cohesion between Chinese and English, atranslator must have a deep understanding of the cohesive devices both in the sourceand target texts. And he should take into full consideration of context of situation andcontext of culture to represent the original vivid contextual effect of the source text.Third, context of co-text, context of situation and context of culture all constitutecohesive relations with a text. Therefore, the contrastive study of cohesion can bemade from the three perspectives, not limited only to context of co-text. Fourth, SFGapplies to contrastive study between Chinese and English texts as well as to textanalysis in one language. And it is, no doubt, applicable to contrastive studies ofChinese drama and its English version.The thesis is a tentative study of cohesion between Chinese text and English textfrom the perspectives of context of co-text, context of situation and context of culture.Due to the limited level, it is far from thorough. And the author sincerely hopes to getinstructions and suggestions from all the experts so as to make a more deep andpenetrating study in the related fields in the future.