Thematic Analysis In Translation

Thematic structure is different from traditional grammatical structure. Theme is what the clause is about, and rheme is what the speaker says about the theme. Each clause has its own thematic structure and the overall choice and ordering of themes plays an important role in organizing a text. The thematic progression of a text is another way to achieve cohesion and coherence. By analyzing thematic structure of each clause and thematic progression in a text, we can find out how cohesion and coherence are realized. Therefore, thematic analysis is of high importance in translation, for it helps to achieve the correct understanding of the source text.This thesis is a tentative study on the application of thematic structure in translation. By employing research methodology of combining theory with practice, the thesis makes a comparison between the thematic structure in English and Chinese. On clause level, unmarked and marked conditions are discussed respectively. With the similarities and dissimilarities between English and Chinese, the thesis reveals reasons of replication and transference of unmarked theme in translation. As for marked theme, the thesis probes into the rhetorical esthetics of thematic structure and its corresponding translation approaches in terms of mood of clause, and discourse thematic progression pattern. Since marked theme has the effect of emphasis, contrast, sarcasm, cohesion, rhythm, end weight, etc, it is essential for the translator to keep in mind both the rhetorical effect of marked theme and target language expression so as to maintain the original flavor of a source text, consequently improving the quality of translation. In addition, the function of thematization and its corresponding translation strategies are to be discussed in the thesis; some pitfalls in the application of thematic theory in translation are illustrated and analyzed in detail as well.On discourse level, the thesis adopts Zhu Yongsheng's Patterns of thematic progression, namely constant theme pattern, constant rheme pattern, linear pattern and crossing pattern. Case study turns out that every text is made up of the combination of these patterns. Through the comparison of the thematic progression patterns in English and Chinese, the author concludes approaches in both E-C and C-E translation respectively in the perspective of thematic progression, which ensure, to a certain extent, the coherence of the target text.