A Comparative Study On Cohesion And Coherence In The Journey To The West From The Perspective Of Discourse Analysis Theory

Cohesion and coherence of discourse,as a complex linguistic phenomenon,relies on the combination of internal and external factors to realize its mechanism.The cohesive mechanism of discourse is usually manifested in the superficial structure of the discourse,so to speak,cohesion is the physical network of discourse and the mechanism of conspiracy,embodying the linguistic structure of the text and expressing the adhesion between the sentences in the form of language.From the perspective of form,the cohesion of text is mainly realized by means of surface structure such as vocabulary and grammar.The textual cohesion theory used in this study is the five cohesive means proposed by Halliday and Hassan: reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction and lexical cohesion.Coherence is one of the essential criteria to identify and measure discourse,and it is also a necessary condition for information transmission and smooth communication.This study utilizes Reinhart’s explicit coherence and implicit coherence theory.Explicit coherence is realized through grammatical and lexical means,which is the cohesion of the internal language.Implicit coherence is deeply hidden in text,and the fluency of the text is achieved through logical and semantic smoothness.Focusing on the theory of textual cohesion and coherence,the research questions in this paper mainly include the following three aspects:1.What are the differences between the two English versions of The Journey to the West in terms of cohesion and coherence mechanism?2.What are the reasons for the differences between cohesion and coherence mechanism in the translation process?3.How to effectively achieve textual cohesion and coherence in the translation process?Focusing on the above three questions,this paper explores the grammatical cohesion in the translation process through reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction,etc.,and analyzes the lexical cohesion in the translation process through reiteration and collocation.In terms of textual coherence,the explicit coherence mechanism is discussed through phonological coherence and syntactic coherence.The implicit coherence mechanism is discussed by reconstructing semantic coherence in situational context and reproducing textual coherence in cultural context.Based on the above analysis,this paper explores the similarities and differences between the two full translations in terms of textual cohesion and coherence,analyzes and summarizes the reasons for the differences,and makes recommendations on effective cohesion and coherence in translation.It is expected that this study has certain reference significance for textual cohesion and coherent research in translation and practice of classic translation.