A Comparative Analysis of Lexical Items as Means of Cohesion in English and Chinese Text开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Cohesion can be divided into grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. Lexical items as means of cohesion play an important role in the coherence of Chinese and English texts. Because of differences between Chinese and English thinking patterns and structures of languages, there exist some differences between Chinese and English lexical cohesion. The differences and similarities of lexical cohesion lead to difficulty in the study of language. A comparative analysis of Chinese and English lexical items as means of cohesion can help to analyze the differences and similarities of the use of lexical cohesion between Chinese and English. In the analysis of Chinese and English texts, the research is more significant, which contributes to the understanding the similarities and differences in English and Chinese so that it is conducive to cross-cultural communication, such as in translation and language teaching.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

1. Introduction2. Cohesion, Coherence and Text2.1 The Definition of Cohesion and Coherence 2.2 The Concept of Text3. Comparison Analysis of Lexical Cohesion in Chinese and English 3.1 Reiteration3.1.1 The same word3.1.2 Synonym3.1.3 Superordinate3.1.4 General Word 3.2 Collocation4. Suggestions for Translation and Language Teaching5. Conclusion

3. 国内外研究现状

Many scholars have researched the lexical cohesion from different perspectives.Halliday and Hasan (1976) firstly put forward the framework of cohesion and listed the classification of cohesive devices. They pointed out two ways of creating cohesion in a text: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. They further classified the lexical cohesion into reiteration and collocation. Reiteration refers to repetition, substitution and paraphrase. Collocation refers to rules on how the words come together. Hoey (1991) said that lexical cohesion is the only type of cohesion that regularly forms multiple relationships (though occasionally reference does so too). That is to say, the study of cohesion in text is largely to the study of lexical cohesion in text. Lexical cohesion plays a dominant role in texts. Michael Hoey(2000) thinks that lexical relations are the most part of cohesive studies, so what he concernsmost is how lexis functions in texts as cohesive device. Generally he describes the relations from the two perspectives of repetition and paraphrase, each subcategorized into simple and complex package. Hoey (2000) holds that lexical cohesion is the only type of cohesion that regularly forms multiple relationships though occasionally reference does so too and takes lexical cohesion as the dominant mode of creating texture. He gives a much more detailed analysis and amends Halliday and Hasan#8217;s framework of lexical cohesion as; simple repetition, complex repetition, simple paraphrase, complex paraphrase, superordinate/hyponym and co-reference.Based on Halliday and Hasan#8217;s research and other scholars#8217; contribution in cohesion, HuZhuanglin (1994) developed the findings in coherence and cohesion on the special feature of Chinese language. He classified the lexical cohesion into five main types, repetition, general word, similarity, quality of classification and collocation.

4. 计划与进度安排

This paper is based on the framework of lexical cohesion proposed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). In comparison of English and Chinese, we try to find the similarities and differences of lexical cohesion between the two languages and conclude some suggestions for translation and language teaching.Firstly, we define some critical concepts such as cohesion, coherence and lexical cohesion. Lexical cohesion is restricted to the extent of reiteration and collocation. In this part, these words will be explained and illustrated in detail.Then, we will compare two types of lexical cohesion-reiteration and collocation, in English and Chinese. Five types of reiteration will be discussed in detail. In this part, many examples of Chinese and English will be employed to analyze the differences and similarities.After analyzing the lexical cohesion, some practical strategies will be proposed to translation and language teaching.In this study, what is important is the comparative study. The examples that are used should be typical and distinctive so that we can draw clear conclusions and give effective suggestions. The attention on this part does help to the whole study.

5. 参考文献

M.A.K.Halliday Hasan. Cohesion In English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001.MichaelHoey.PattensofLexisinText.Shanghai:ShanghaiForeignLanguageEducationPress, 2000.张德禄．英语的衔接［M］．北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2007：261． 胡壮麟．语篇的衔接与连贯［M］．上海：上海外语教育出版社，1994：115． 朱永生，郑立信，苗兴伟．英汉语篇衔接手段对比研究［M］．上海：上海外语教育出版社，2001：152． 黄国文．语篇分析概要［M］．长沙：湖南教育出版社，1988：125． 周红云．衔接在功能语篇分析中的应用[J].外语与外语教学，2006，(10)：22-24.