Analysis on Application of Cohesive Devices in C—E Translation

高燕鹏

【Abstract】This paper is an empirical study which investigated English-majored sophomores use of cohesive devices in performing C-E translation tasks in Yulin University.Through experimental analysis，the author comes up with three major findings，which can facility students C-E Translation.

【Key words】cohesive devices； C-E translation

1.Cohesive devices.According to Halliday and Hasan （1976），cohesion is regarded as one of the most influential techniques in text analysis in terms of its current appeal in applied linguistics.The presence of cohesive devices，conjunctions，ellipsis，substitution，reference and lexical cohesion，all help a text to be an efficient means of expression and understanding，and also to be more stable or economic.We can see that the explicit cohesive devices in texts can not only help a writer to express ideas clearly，but also to help a reader understand a text more easily.If we strike out these cohesive ties in any text，the meaning of the text will not be changed，but the organization of the text will be less efficient，leading，in turn，to difficulties for the reader to achieve understanding.

2.Research materials & subjects.This study was conducted in June 2014 at Yulin University among 60 English majors.They were sampled from 4 classes and they had studied English as their major for almost two years and they all did well in their exams.The reason for choosing English majors as participants is that they make fewer grammatical mistakes in their translating and their main problems in translating are cohesive devices.All the participants were doing classroom translating assignments and a Chinese text called （《老人與他的三个儿子》），was give to 60 participants to translate into English within 100min during which dictionary consulting is permitted.The materials are collected these 60 translation scripts，among which 48 texts are available for the research.

3.Data grouping.According to the application of cohesive devices in the translation scripts，the author groups them into 3 types.The author will use paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of the scripts as example to illustrate it.Type 1.The first type is that the scripts translated word by word with short sentences，without paying attention to the cohesive devices between sentences.An old man had 3 sons.The oldest son was an outstanding sailor，strong，brave，responsible and full of adventurous spirit.The old men really loved him and thought it was a glory to have this son as a father.This script is translated word by word； it includes all of the explicitly cohesive devices in Chinese version.Reference，substitution，conjunction and lexical cohesion are used in it.Although the script can transfer the meaning of the source text，it is not quite smooth and natural.The subject may not fully understand the difference between Chinese and English，beside the explicit devices，there are some implicit ones.

Type 2.The second type is that the scripts，with some certain cohesive devices between sentences，are smoother.The younger son was a miner who was willing to work hard until exhausted and was stronger than any other miners.Because he was honest，loyal and was glad to help others，miners，especially younger people，were like to make friends with him and consider it as a source of happiness.Compared with the first type，this script has better cohesive devices and the sentences are longer.It is not translated word by word，but reversed the sentence to make it smoother.These words in blank add by the translator as cohesive devices to make the script smoother.

Type 3.The third type is that the scripts，with the cohesive devices used consciously，are smooth and natural.An old man had three sons.The eldest was an excellent sailor—tough，brave，responsible and adventurous.The old man loved him very much； thinking to be having this son was the most glory as a father.In this script all the cohesive devices，reference，substitution，ellipsis； conjunction and lexical cohesion are used.Altogether there are 25 cohesive ties which make the script coherence both in structure and meaning.Compared with the above two types script，this one is the smoothest and most natural.

4.Result of the experiment.Through experimental analysis，the author comes up with the following major findings：1）use cohesive devices correlated significantly with English learners C-T translation proficiency.2）A significant difference is found in English learners awareness and use of cohesive devices in performing translation tasks.3）Cultivating leaners awareness of using cohesive device strategies in translation can also help them to achieve a better performance in English writing.

5.Conclusions.This is an empirical study.First the author puts forward a hypothesis：if the English learners are at the same language proficiency level，using cohesive ties properly helps them improve C-T translation quality.Then a short Chinese text is give to 60 participants to translate into English within 100min.Within these 60 samples，48 are available.Next，data analysis and sample grouping is carried out based on the theory.Finally get the results and implication.According to the use of cohesive devices ，the author finds that there are altogether three kinds of typical translation scripts.Those who apply cohesive ties correctly with awareness turn out to have high quality translations，which initially proves the hypothesis.