A Contrastive Study Of Thematic Progression Patterns In English And Chinese Popular Scientific Texts

The thesis makes a contrastive study of thematic progression (TP) patterns between English and Chinese popular scientific texts. It aims at finding out similar and different choices of TP patterns adopted in English and Chinese popular scientific texts, and examining the underlying factors contributing to the similar and different choices of TP patterns. Halliday's theme theory and Dane's thematic progression theory are the theoretical framework of the thesis.Based on TP patterns proposed by scholars, home and abroad, a model of analysis for the thesis is achieved, including such six TP patterns as Parallel, Continuous, Alternative, Derivative, Concentrated and Non-specific TP pattern. The corpus is composed of 10 Chinese and 10 English popular scientific texts, which are selected randomly from two popular scientific books. English popular scientific texts are selected from a book entitled Science and Technology Digest. Chinese popular scientific texts are chosen from a book entitled "Shi Jie Zhi Zui "(World Record).The major findings include four aspects as below:First, parallel and continuous progression patterns are the ones which occur most frequently. The frequency sequence of TP patterns in English popular scientific texts goes as parallel > continuous > concentrated > alternative > derivative > non-specific while in Chinese popular scientific texts the sequence is continuous > parallel > alternative > concentrated > non-specific > derivative.Second, there are more elliptical themes in Chinese popular scientific texts than in English popular scientific tests.Third, the dominant pattern in Chinese popular scientific texts is continuous progression pattern while the parallel progression pattern occurs most frequently in English popular scientific texts. In English popular scientific texts, concentrated progression pattern occupies higher proportion than alternative progression pattern. However, in Chinese popular scientific texts, the sequence is reversed.Fourth, there are more non-specific progression pattern in Chinese than in English.How the similar and different choices of TP patterns in Chinese and English popular scientific texts occur can be explained in such three aspects as communicative functions, linguistic features, and ways of thinking.First, popular scientific texts function to offer information, so parallel and continuous TP pattern are most frequently used. This accounts for the similar choices of TP patterns;Second, as Chinese is a paratactic language and has a loose sentence structure, this accounts for the frequent ellipsis of themes.Third, Chinese people tend to think in a spiral way, emphasizing images and meaning rather than logic; while western people prefers a linear way with logic. Therefore, Chinese language tends to adopt more continuous TP pattern to construct texts.These findings can inspire some implications. The contrastive study will help to further understand the different cultures and ways of thinking between China and western countries. Besides, the study will better facilitate the teaching and writing of popular scientific texts as well as translation of texts. Moreover, as thematic progression is an effective device to construct texts, it is helpful to learn how it works in the texts in order for the readers to better understand the texts.