A Contrastive Study On Lexical Cohesion Between The Classic Of Tea And Its English Version

As The Classic of Tea is recognized as the earliest and most comprehensive monograph on tea in China and even in the world, its translation plays a vital role in transmitting traditional Chinese tea culture. Nevertheless, the research on The Classic of Tea and its English version is still limited, and there is still a long way to go to produce an English version as excellent as the original one. On the other hand, translation study has become increasingly associated with text linguistics as it tends to be more diversified and interdisciplinary. The basic unit of translation is no longer confined to words, phrases or even sentences. Instead, translators pay more attention to the text. As one of the seven criteria of the text, cohesion has been one of the hot topics in translation studies. However, lexical cohesion, which accounts for about40%of all cohesion, lacks systematic research, not to mention the study on lexical cohesive devices employed in The Classic of Tea and its English version, which remains a missing link.In an attempt to analyze the problems mentioned above, this thesis makes a detailed comparison between The Classic of Tea and its English version concerning the lexical cohesive devices. Specifically, in this essay the author aims to examine the similarities and discrepancies of the three major lexical cohesive devices in the two books, in order to seek for its inherent regularities in ancient Chinese and English. In addition, the thesis probes into the translation strategies which can be exploited to deal with those lexical cohesive devices. It is hoped that the present research may contribute to the study of lexical cohesion and translation of tea classics together with the contrastive study on ancient Chinese and English.Quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis are adopted as the main approaches of the thesis. First of all, quantitative analysis is exploited to compare the frequency and distribution as well as the total of the three types of lexical cohesive devices between The Classic of Tea and its English version. Moreover, quantitative analysis is put into use to illustrate the specific usage and critical functions of lexical cohesive devices with the help of a great many examples. Besides, the comparative method and document analysis are also applied to conclude the translation strategies for addressing various lexical cohesive devices in translation of tea classics.It is found that the lexical cohesive devices including repetition, synonym and antonym are effective cohesive devices in both ancient Chinese and English, which contribute to a cohesive and coherent text. Actually, those lexical cohesive devices are multi-functional alongside with their cohesive function. On the whole, repetition can be employed to emphasize certain lexical item, strengthen the language force and bring about a sense of rhythm; while synonyms are more beneficial in explaining the previous lexical items in an all-around way, demonstrating the subtlety of meaning and avoiding monotony by diversifying the expression. As for antonyms, they help produce a sharp contrast and vivid image. In short, The Classic of Tea and its English version are quite similar in the above aspects, whose distinction lies in the frequency and distribution of lexical cohesive devices.According to this contrastive study, more lexical cohesive devices occur in the English version whose repetition is three times as many as that in The Classic of Tea, and there are more repetition in the English version while more antonyms in The Classic of Tea. Furthermore, reduplication and four-character phrases of one or two pairs of synonyms or antonyms are common in ancient Chinese, which are rare in English. In additional to that, it is concluded that the translation strategy of retention, addition, conversion and omission can be utilized to cope with the lexical cohesive devices.