A Corpus-based Study Of The Translations Of Discourse Marker Well In Desperate Housewives

This thesis mainly analyzes the pragmatic functions and situation of the translations of discourse marker(DM) well in Desperate Housewives Season One and its Chinese version roundly and systematically by using corpus approach based on Discourse Analysis Theory.On the basis of the corpus retrieval conclusion, it is found that well appears 446 times in the corpus with 422 of them appearing as a discourse marker and 316 which account for 74.88% are not translated at all. To sum up, well occupies for a very large proportion in American television work Desperate Housewives Season One as a discourse marker which is comparative with it as an adjective and an adverb.However, it is easily ignored in the process of translating. This thesis analyzes DM well respectively from the perspectives of discourse-constructing, pragmatic, and interpersonal functions along with its sub-functions in detail.Finally, this thesis sums up the miss of translations of DM well based on Discourse Analysis Theory.In addition, it makes detailed explanations and corrections of the miss of translations of discourse marker well which seriously impacts on the transmission of subtitle information and expressions of the functions.And then this thesis draws a conclusion that discourse marker well is frequently used as a turn-taking, an emotion indicator and an explanation lead-in marker in Desperate Housewives Season One. Its translation situation is generalized as follows: discourse marker well is easily ignored as a filler which used to connect a context, an explanation lead-in and is used to express direct emotions and state objective realities. In this case, the miss of translations of well makes little influence on the coherence in the contexts. On the contrary,it should be translated based on the contexts under the circumstances of expressing complicated emotions,diverse viewpoints, implied meanings or as an individual ingredient or a clause which is used to reply the prior utterance. In this case, the miss of translations of DM well has a great influence on the audience in understanding the subtitle information and the emotional expressions of the characters.