Coherence Study Of The Old Man And The Sea And Its Two Chinese Versions

Coherence is a major property of discourse and coherence research is an important area in discourse analysis. It helps us to better understand how discourse is constructed and how language realizes multi-functions at the discourse level. Therefore coherence research has not only theoretical significance but also great potential in applied linguistics. Coherence is the main factor to determine the structure of semantics especially in discourse-based translation. Discourse is the direct object and the final product of translation, so the process of translation can be said to be the process of recognition and reconstruction of discourse coherence. In translation, the realization of the discourse coherence is directly related to the successful communication and the choice of the strategy of the translation. Based on the full understanding of the coherence of the source text, the translator should reconstruct the coherence of the target text with various strategies.This thesis has five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces the significance, the aims and the methodology of the study. Chapter Two reviews the previous research on discourse coherence as well as cohesive devices theory home and abroad and the relationship between cohesion and coherence, which provides a clear theoretical understanding of coherence. It also proposes a theoretical framework on coherence in English and Chinese discourse from Halliday's systemic functional linguistics. Chapter Three focuses on the explicit coherence factors, especially grammatical, lexical cohesive devices as well as sound pattern and intonation. How do these coherence factors help to build coherent texts and how to deal with them properly in the process of translation is also discussed in great detail in this chapter. Chapter Four is about the other category of coherence factors-implicit coherence factors. Situational and cultural context are the main object of study in this chapter. Chapter Five makes a conclusion of the thesis and points out the contribution and limitation of the present study.