A Comparative Analysis Of The Original And Simplified Versions Of The Great Gatsby From The Perspective Of Legitimation Code Theory

The original and simplified versions of the same English novel are firmly related both in content and language,but they also demonstrate remarkable differences between each other.It is generally acknowledged that the original version is undoubtedly more difficult for English learners to understand than the simplified versions in language and information conveyed.The various simplified versions are drafted and published for an English novel because learners of English as a second or foreign language,more often than not,have limited ability to understand the original version.The simplified versions,though changing the information and language delivered by the original version and thus causing the loss of some artistic and/or aesthetic effect expressed by the original version,are necessary and helpful for low-level English learners to broaden their horizon in the target language and culture.Therefore,a comparative study of the original and simplified versions of literary works is valuable for the development of English learners’ reading ability.On the other hand,with the development of modern technology,corpus linguistics has revolutionized the way of language studies.With the help of corpus tool,the studies on language can be more objective and more accurate.Thus,the corpus tools of PowerConc and Readability were adopted in the present study for a comparative analysis between the original and simplified versions of The Great Gatsby to ensure the objectivity of data collection and statistical analysis.The results indicated that the original and simplified versions of English novels have different purposes and intended readership,and so they are different from each other in many aspects,such as lexical density,nominalization and grammatical intricacy,and are in turn of great pedagogical significance.Then the Legitimation Code Theory proposed by Karl Maton was employed to illuminate the pedagogical implications of the original and simplified versions of literary works,especially to the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in China.Inspired by Legitimation Code Theory,this thesis interpreted the differences between the original and simplified versions of The Great Gatsby in lexical density,nominalization and grammatical intricacy.The sociocultural theories,particularly the notion of zone of proximal development and the scaffolding theory,were then applied to illustrate how to assist adaptors to retell better simplified versions for English novel readers at different levels,with an ultimate goal to facilitate the development of the reading competence of English learners in the Chinese context.