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[Abstract] This paper, based on the model of cohesion proposed by Halliday and Hasan, attempts a systematic discussion of lexical cohesion in the process of E-C/C-E translation from two major aspects: reiteration and collocation. Besides, some tentative translation strategies are proposed to compensate for the gap of information between English and Chinese.
[Key words]lexical cohesion translation reiteration collocation
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion refers to “relations of meaning that exist within a text, and that define it as a text.” It is Halliday who for the first time classified cohesion into two types: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. The author repeats the same lexical item, uses a relevant one or a set of items which often co-occur in certain context. All these same or relevant lexical items altogether assure the continuity of the topic of a discourse and consequently cohesion is obtained.
This paper aims to launch a tentative study at the latter, that is, lexical cohesion and the strategies that might be exploited in its translation. In translation, the various lexical chains in an English text may sometimes be reproduced in a Chinese one, but more often, their equivalents are difficult to find. Then, some remedial strategies have to be employed so as to make up for the lost information.
1. Reiteration and its translation
Halliday and Hasan （1976) divide lexical cohesion into two groups: reiteration and collocation.Reiteration does not necessarily mean full repetition of the same lexical item, but also those morphologically different and semantically close ones, including: a synonym or near-synonym; a superordinate; and a general word.
1.1 Full Repetition
Generally speaking, repetition is tended to be avoided in speaking or writing. Fowler and Fowler (1954), in their The King’s English, say, “…the repetition…is more or less abnormal.” This claim may go somewhat too far.Nevertheless, it reminds the reader that the use of repetition implies some special account, such as for the rhetorical reasons.Repetition is not always objectionable. From famous writers to common speakers, and from Shakespearean poetry to a casual doggerel, direct repetition can be so easily met across.
Full repetition, in which a word or phrase with the same form and the same meaning occurs repeatedly in the same text, is the most direct type of lexical reiteration.In the following, the word bear in 1) is repeated twice, while沉默in 2) is even for four times,
1) Alice met a bear. The bear was bulgy.
2) a. 沉默呵，沉默，不在沉默中爆發，就在沉默中灭亡！一鲁迅《记念刘和珍君》
b. Silence, silence! Our nation will perish if not breaking out in the silence.
As it goes further, repetition of the same word not only functions as cohesive ties in a text, but also carries over attitude or emotions of the speaker or the writer.As in 2), repetition of 沉默（silence) for four times indicates Lu Xun's deep hatred for the prosecution imposed by the reactionary regime Kuomintang upon the armless university and college students, and his call upon people to rise in struggle. The lexical items in full repetition not only have a cohesive power, but also can convey the speaker's attitudinal connotation. The same word or phrase may be used a few times in sequence when the speaker is too happy or sorrowful, angry or excited, to utter something else. And in the following example,
3) a. Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
一Shakespeare: Hamlet
b．您在读些什么，殿下？
都是些空话，空话，空话。(Zhu, 1978）
Hamlet responded with words for three times, which implies not only simple repetition but also his impatience.In the Chinese version, Mr. Zhu Shenghao renders them just as they are in the English one.Thus, the attitudinal meaning in ST has vividly been carried over to TT.The general tendency is that English speakers attempt to use synonyms or substitutes instead of full repetition, while their Chinese counterparts are accustomed to repeat the same word or phrase.For example,
4) a．火车上看书的看书，聊天的聊天。
b. On the train some passengers are reading, and others are chatting leisurely.
Here in the Chinese version, the verbal group看书acts as predicate when used alone, but it becomes a nominal group and can also function as subject when it ends with the Chinese suffix的. In English there is no such a device and therefore, this kind of repetition has to be sacrificed.
1.2Synonymy or Near-synonymy
A synonym or near-synonym is not the same as full repetition especially in form or part of speech. For example, “die” in English may be expressed by words or phrases such as “to pass away, kick the bucket, decease,” while in Chinese, there are expressions like走了, 老了, 去世, 逝世, 升天, 斃命, 咽气, etc. This inevitably leads to another question: register, but it will not be taken into account owing to the fact that the focus of the present thesis is on the cohesive power of synonyms. The translator should make a choice from the synonyms as the target text requires so as to achieve better cohesive effect. For example,
5) a. Accordingly…I took leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is perfectly easy.(Halliday＆Hasan, 1976)
b．然后……我就告辞了，准备去爬山。那座山很容易爬.
In example 5), “ascent” and “climb” are apparently synonymous in the English version, while in the Chinese one, the two words are all translated into the same character 爬.
In conclusion, if the translator is not sure which in the set of synonyms is preferable, he may just turn to another device一repetition for help, and this strategy does work in many cases.
1.3Superordination
Superordination is a relation of inclusion when pairs of words belonging to the same: ordered series co-occur in a text and they exert a cohesive force.The lexical items: with a common superordinate are called co-hyponyms. From a lexical point of view, cohesive relation can be anaphorically set up between a superordinate and its hyponyms or between hyponyms themselves. For example, the relation between “child” and “boy” is superordination. If “child” occurs in one sentence and then “boy” in the next, the effect is cohesive, just like the following example:
6) There is a child climbing the tree. The boy’s going to fall if he doesn’t care. (Halliday＆Hasan, 1976)
In superordination each form consists of one general item (like “vehicle”) and a number of specific ones (like “car”, “train” and “airplane”). In the study of cohesion, there is no restriction on which of them should appear earlier.They contribute to cohesion so long as the items occur in the same instance of discourse, which is clearly illustrated in the examples given below,
7) a.“……我这终身唯一的亲爱的，就是这朵枯萎的白玫瑰和这本书！
……
“吴夫人！我选中了你！我想来你也同意！这朵花这本书的历史，没有一刻不在我心头！．．…”一茅盾《子夜》
b. “There is only one thing I’ve treasured all my life: this book with its faded rose…”
“Madam Wu, I’ve chosen you to look after them, and I hope you won’t refuse them. I can never for one moment forget how I came by the book and the rose.”(Xu, 1957)
Here, Mr. Xu rendered the superordination between白玫瑰and花into another type of cohesive device that has been mentioned in 1.1一full repetition of the same lexical item “rose.” When the sentence is translated into Chinese, it is better to retain the same kind of lexical chain and render them still as the relation of superordination.
1.4General Word
General word refers to the class of general nouns, which are the generalized notions denoting “human”, “place”, “event” and so on, such as people, man; thing, object, stuff; creature, animal; place; affair, matter, business;, idea and the like in English; and人, 东西, 地方, etc. in Chinese.They are an important source of cohesion, especially in speech. It can be concluded from the following examples that a general noun in cohesive function is almost always accompanied by the demonstrative item the, which indicates the use of the general noun is anaphoric:
8) a．一What shall I do with all this crockery?
一Leave the stuff there; someone’ll come and put it away. (Huang, 1988)
b．這些瓦片怎么办？
别管它，会有人来清理的。（或：别多管闲事了，会有人来清理的。）
9) a. Can you tell me where to stay in Geneva? I’ve never been to the place.
b．能告诉我到日内瓦后该住哪儿吗？我从没去过那里。
In addition, these examples seem to indicate that speakers tend to substitute a general word in English with reference, like它and那里．
In Chinese, the general nouns are also used anaphorically on most occasions.The lexical item东西has a particularly strong reference power.The nouns are sometimes preceded by a demonstrative pronoun这/那. For example,
10) a．他自己拿起那烟灯，跑到花厅右角的一张桌子边，打开一个文书箱，把大束的田契，借据，存折，都望口袋里塞……忽然一片呐喊声象从他们脚边爆出来。曾沧海一慌，手里的东西都落在地下。一茅盾《子夜》
b.…while he himself took the opium-lamp and went over to a desk in the corner of the room, where he opened a deed-box and took out a large sheaf of land-deeds, IOUs and passbooks and stuffed them in his pockets…一Suddenly there was a noise of shouting which seemed to come from just behind them. Tseng Tsang-hai dropped the papers in terror and ran towards the back room.(Xu, 1957)
These three examples (from 8 to 10) show that in many cases English general nouns can not accordingly be rendered into Chinese counterparts and vice versa. They have to be translated by virtue of other ways, such as ellipsis and reference. It is for certain that they can be accordingly rendered into TT just like what they are in ST if the naturalness of TT is not taken into account.
Particularly, those general nouns referring to human beings, like “idiot, devil, fool, dear” convey an attitudinal meaning.For example,
11) a. Henry’s thinking of rowing the Atlantic. Do go and talk to the wretched fool．
12) b. The little girl’s father died and the poor little creature has to do everything by herself.
[Key words]lexical cohesion translation reiteration collocation
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion refers to “relations of meaning that exist within a text, and that define it as a text.” It is Halliday who for the first time classified cohesion into two types: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. The author repeats the same lexical item, uses a relevant one or a set of items which often co-occur in certain context. All these same or relevant lexical items altogether assure the continuity of the topic of a discourse and consequently cohesion is obtained.
This paper aims to launch a tentative study at the latter, that is, lexical cohesion and the strategies that might be exploited in its translation. In translation, the various lexical chains in an English text may sometimes be reproduced in a Chinese one, but more often, their equivalents are difficult to find. Then, some remedial strategies have to be employed so as to make up for the lost information.
1. Reiteration and its translation
Halliday and Hasan （1976) divide lexical cohesion into two groups: reiteration and collocation.Reiteration does not necessarily mean full repetition of the same lexical item, but also those morphologically different and semantically close ones, including: a synonym or near-synonym; a superordinate; and a general word.
1.1 Full Repetition
Generally speaking, repetition is tended to be avoided in speaking or writing. Fowler and Fowler (1954), in their The King’s English, say, “…the repetition…is more or less abnormal.” This claim may go somewhat too far.Nevertheless, it reminds the reader that the use of repetition implies some special account, such as for the rhetorical reasons.Repetition is not always objectionable. From famous writers to common speakers, and from Shakespearean poetry to a casual doggerel, direct repetition can be so easily met across.
Full repetition, in which a word or phrase with the same form and the same meaning occurs repeatedly in the same text, is the most direct type of lexical reiteration.In the following, the word bear in 1) is repeated twice, while沉默in 2) is even for four times,
1) Alice met a bear. The bear was bulgy.
2) a. 沉默呵，沉默，不在沉默中爆發，就在沉默中灭亡！一鲁迅《记念刘和珍君》
b. Silence, silence! Our nation will perish if not breaking out in the silence.
As it goes further, repetition of the same word not only functions as cohesive ties in a text, but also carries over attitude or emotions of the speaker or the writer.As in 2), repetition of 沉默（silence) for four times indicates Lu Xun's deep hatred for the prosecution imposed by the reactionary regime Kuomintang upon the armless university and college students, and his call upon people to rise in struggle. The lexical items in full repetition not only have a cohesive power, but also can convey the speaker's attitudinal connotation. The same word or phrase may be used a few times in sequence when the speaker is too happy or sorrowful, angry or excited, to utter something else. And in the following example,
3) a. Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
一Shakespeare: Hamlet
b．您在读些什么，殿下？
都是些空话，空话，空话。(Zhu, 1978）
Hamlet responded with words for three times, which implies not only simple repetition but also his impatience.In the Chinese version, Mr. Zhu Shenghao renders them just as they are in the English one.Thus, the attitudinal meaning in ST has vividly been carried over to TT.The general tendency is that English speakers attempt to use synonyms or substitutes instead of full repetition, while their Chinese counterparts are accustomed to repeat the same word or phrase.For example,
4) a．火车上看书的看书，聊天的聊天。
b. On the train some passengers are reading, and others are chatting leisurely.
Here in the Chinese version, the verbal group看书acts as predicate when used alone, but it becomes a nominal group and can also function as subject when it ends with the Chinese suffix的. In English there is no such a device and therefore, this kind of repetition has to be sacrificed.
1.2Synonymy or Near-synonymy
A synonym or near-synonym is not the same as full repetition especially in form or part of speech. For example, “die” in English may be expressed by words or phrases such as “to pass away, kick the bucket, decease,” while in Chinese, there are expressions like走了, 老了, 去世, 逝世, 升天, 斃命, 咽气, etc. This inevitably leads to another question: register, but it will not be taken into account owing to the fact that the focus of the present thesis is on the cohesive power of synonyms. The translator should make a choice from the synonyms as the target text requires so as to achieve better cohesive effect. For example,
5) a. Accordingly…I took leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is perfectly easy.(Halliday＆Hasan, 1976)
b．然后……我就告辞了，准备去爬山。那座山很容易爬.
In example 5), “ascent” and “climb” are apparently synonymous in the English version, while in the Chinese one, the two words are all translated into the same character 爬.
In conclusion, if the translator is not sure which in the set of synonyms is preferable, he may just turn to another device一repetition for help, and this strategy does work in many cases.
1.3Superordination
Superordination is a relation of inclusion when pairs of words belonging to the same: ordered series co-occur in a text and they exert a cohesive force.The lexical items: with a common superordinate are called co-hyponyms. From a lexical point of view, cohesive relation can be anaphorically set up between a superordinate and its hyponyms or between hyponyms themselves. For example, the relation between “child” and “boy” is superordination. If “child” occurs in one sentence and then “boy” in the next, the effect is cohesive, just like the following example:
6) There is a child climbing the tree. The boy’s going to fall if he doesn’t care. (Halliday＆Hasan, 1976)
In superordination each form consists of one general item (like “vehicle”) and a number of specific ones (like “car”, “train” and “airplane”). In the study of cohesion, there is no restriction on which of them should appear earlier.They contribute to cohesion so long as the items occur in the same instance of discourse, which is clearly illustrated in the examples given below,
7) a.“……我这终身唯一的亲爱的，就是这朵枯萎的白玫瑰和这本书！
……
“吴夫人！我选中了你！我想来你也同意！这朵花这本书的历史，没有一刻不在我心头！．．…”一茅盾《子夜》
b. “There is only one thing I’ve treasured all my life: this book with its faded rose…”
“Madam Wu, I’ve chosen you to look after them, and I hope you won’t refuse them. I can never for one moment forget how I came by the book and the rose.”(Xu, 1957)
Here, Mr. Xu rendered the superordination between白玫瑰and花into another type of cohesive device that has been mentioned in 1.1一full repetition of the same lexical item “rose.” When the sentence is translated into Chinese, it is better to retain the same kind of lexical chain and render them still as the relation of superordination.
1.4General Word
General word refers to the class of general nouns, which are the generalized notions denoting “human”, “place”, “event” and so on, such as people, man; thing, object, stuff; creature, animal; place; affair, matter, business;, idea and the like in English; and人, 东西, 地方, etc. in Chinese.They are an important source of cohesion, especially in speech. It can be concluded from the following examples that a general noun in cohesive function is almost always accompanied by the demonstrative item the, which indicates the use of the general noun is anaphoric:
8) a．一What shall I do with all this crockery?
一Leave the stuff there; someone’ll come and put it away. (Huang, 1988)
b．這些瓦片怎么办？
别管它，会有人来清理的。（或：别多管闲事了，会有人来清理的。）
9) a. Can you tell me where to stay in Geneva? I’ve never been to the place.
b．能告诉我到日内瓦后该住哪儿吗？我从没去过那里。
In addition, these examples seem to indicate that speakers tend to substitute a general word in English with reference, like它and那里．
In Chinese, the general nouns are also used anaphorically on most occasions.The lexical item东西has a particularly strong reference power.The nouns are sometimes preceded by a demonstrative pronoun这/那. For example,
10) a．他自己拿起那烟灯，跑到花厅右角的一张桌子边，打开一个文书箱，把大束的田契，借据，存折，都望口袋里塞……忽然一片呐喊声象从他们脚边爆出来。曾沧海一慌，手里的东西都落在地下。一茅盾《子夜》
b.…while he himself took the opium-lamp and went over to a desk in the corner of the room, where he opened a deed-box and took out a large sheaf of land-deeds, IOUs and passbooks and stuffed them in his pockets…一Suddenly there was a noise of shouting which seemed to come from just behind them. Tseng Tsang-hai dropped the papers in terror and ran towards the back room.(Xu, 1957)
These three examples (from 8 to 10) show that in many cases English general nouns can not accordingly be rendered into Chinese counterparts and vice versa. They have to be translated by virtue of other ways, such as ellipsis and reference. It is for certain that they can be accordingly rendered into TT just like what they are in ST if the naturalness of TT is not taken into account.
Particularly, those general nouns referring to human beings, like “idiot, devil, fool, dear” convey an attitudinal meaning.For example,
11) a. Henry’s thinking of rowing the Atlantic. Do go and talk to the wretched fool．
12) b. The little girl’s father died and the poor little creature has to do everything by herself.