Welcome to Francis Academic Press

Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2024, 7(2); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070223.

A Contrastive Study on the Cohesive Devices of English and Chinese Novels——A Case Study of Flipped

Author(s)

Xiran Tong

Corresponding Author:
Xiran Tong
Affiliation(s)

School of English Studies, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, China

Abstract

Cohesion is a very important factor to form a text. The effective use of cohesive devices can make readers correctly understand text. Cohesive devices in Chinese and English is very different. Doing comparative research between the two languages, we can know about the distinction in Chinese and English. An excellent literary work must be closely related to the words it uses. The author would inevitably use a large number of cohesive devices to connect these words into easy to understand paragraphs in order to express characters’ emotions. Flipped, an American movie has received high praise ever since it was released. The film was based on the novel of the same name authored by Wendelin Van Draanen. The novel was also a resounding critical success, yet it is ignored by the public. This article, based on the English original of Flipped by contemporary American writer Wendelin Van Draanen[2] and its only Chinese version, translated by Chen Changge[3], adopts Halliday’s cohesion theory[1] as the theoretical foundation to study the cohesive devices in the second chapter of this novel. A systematic understanding of the cohesive devices of this youth literature can not only fill the gap in linguistic research on contemporary best-selling novels, but also facilitate readers’ understanding of this novel.

Keywords

Contrastive Study in Chinese and English, Cohesive Devices, Flipped

Cite This Paper

Xiran Tong. A Contrastive Study on the Cohesive Devices of English and Chinese Novels——A Case Study of Flipped. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2024) Vol. 7, Issue 2: 169-175. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070223.

References

[1] Halliday, M., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. 

[2] Van Draanen, W. (2001). Wendelin Van Draanen. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.

[3] Van Draanen, W. (2018). Flipped. Translated by Chen, C. Jiangxi: Baihuazhou Literature and Art Publishing House. 

[4] Zhao, Y. (2020). Comparison of English and Chinese news discourse cohesion and analysis of translation strategies. Overseas English, (22), 74-75.

[5] Qi, Y. (2014). A comparison of discourse cohesive devices of third person anaphora in English and Chinese: Focus on third person anaphora in some bilingual news discourses. College English (Academic Edition). (02), 214-220.

[6] Xie, S. (2021). A Contrastive Study of Grammatical Cohesive Devices: A Case study of Patent Law and Its Chinese Translation. MA Thesis. Chongqing: Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

[7] Zhou, Y. (2016). A Contrastive Study of Lexical Cohesion in English and Chinese Legal Texts and Their Mutual Translation. MA Thesis. Chongqing: Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

[8] Jiang, Z. (2016). A Comparative Study Between Chinese and Thai Leaders’ NewYear Speeches. PhD Dissertation. Changchun: Jilin University.

[9] Peng, M. (2016). The Contrastive Analysis of Cohesive Devices in English and Chinese Oratorical Texts—A Case Study of Chinese and American Leaders’ Oratorical Text. MA Thesis. Jinan: Shandong Normal University.

[10] Chen, Y. (2016). Study on Cohesive Devices Between English and Chinese Text from the Interactive Perspective Based on Self-built Economic Corpus. PhD Dissertation. Changchun: Jilin University.

[11] Xu, W. (2015). A corpus-based contrastive study of linking adverbials in English and Chinese literary works. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, (02), 214-224.

[12] Yin, F., & Hu, Y. (2010). Comparison and translation of cohesion mechanisms in English and Chinese scientific discourses based on corpus. Foreign Languages Research, (03), 87-92.

[13] Zhao, A. (2020). The application of contrastive analysis of English and Chinese discourse cohesion in English writing teaching. Survey of Education, (18), 143-144. 

[14] Wu, L. (2006). A Study of Cohesion Translation of the Border Town. MA Thesis. Shanghai: East China Normal University.

[15] Liu, H. (2020). The Study on the Convergence Means of Flowing Sentences Based on the Comparison between Chinese and English—Taking Lao She’s Camel Xiangzi as An Example. MA Thesis. Kunming: Yunnan University.

[16] Yang, C. (2008). A Comparison of Discourse Cohesion in Dream of A Dream of Red Mansions and Its English Translation. MA Thesis. Haerbin:Heilongjiang University.

[17] Hu, S. (2017). A Study on English-Chinese Translation from the Perspective of Cohesion Theory: A Case Study of Yang Bi’s Chinese Version of Vanity Fair. MA Thesis. Haikou: Hainan University. 

[18] Meng, Z. (2015). A Contrastive Study of Grammatical Cohesive Devices in Vanity Fair and Yang Bi’s Chinese Translation. MA Thesis. Yinchuan: Ningxia University.

[19] Yan, Z. (2014). A study on the differences in logical cohesion between English and Chinese discourses: Taking Great Expectations as an example. Journal of Shanxi Normal University (Social Science Edition), (S4), 146-148.

[20] Ma, Q. (2008). A Comparative Study on Textual Cohesive Devices of the Three Chinese Versions of Jane Eyre. MA Thesis. Wuhan: Central China Normal University. 

[21] Zhang, L. (2015). Cohesion in the Subtitle of House of Cards and Their Chinese Translation. MA Thesis. Changchun: Jilin University.

[22] Cao, Y. (2012). The Contrast of Cohesion Between Chinese and English in Dialogues of Harry Potter Films. MA Thesis. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University.

[23] Huang, Y. (2013). A Study of the Guiding Role of Skopostheorie in Children’s Literature Translation— A Case Study of the Chinese Version of Flipped. MA Thesis. Hohhot: Inner Mongolla University.

[24] Chen, Y. (2019). Film subtitle translation from the perspective of ecological translation studies: A case study of Flipped. PR Magazine, (11), 248-249.

[25] Luo, L. (2017). Exploration of film subtitle translation guided by functional equivalence theory: A case study of the film Flipped. Journal of Zhoukou Normal University, (04), 93-96.

[26] Wang, T. (2019). An analysis of conversational meanings in the film Flipped based on the principles of cooperation and politeness. Journal of Lanzhou Vocational Technical College, (02), 130-132.

[27] Wei, K. (2022). An analysis of conversational meanings in Flipped from the perspective of cooperative principles. English on Campus. (46), 187-189.

[28] Michael MacCarthy. (1991). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. 

[29] Zhu, Y., & Zheng, L. (Eds.). (2001). A Contrastive Study of Cohesion in English and Chinese. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 

[30] Zuo, Y. (1995). The Differences in cohesive devices between Chinese and English discourses. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, (03), 37-42.

[31] Zhang, D. (2000). The cohesive function of non-linguistic features. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages, (04), 21-25.

[32] Xu,Y. (1996). A comparative analysis of the main cohesive devices in English and Chinese languages. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, (04), 1-6.

[33] Xu, L. (2012). Exploration of the cohesive function of repetitive translation method. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, (06), 86-95. 

[34] Wang, J. (2003). Cohesive devices in discourse topic shifting. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, (09), 8-11.

[35] Scott, A., Kristopher, K., & Danielle, S. (2016). The development and use of cohesive devices in L2 writing and their relations to judgments of essay quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 32, 1-16. 

[36] Afnan, B. (2016). Cohesive devices in written discourse: A discourse analysis of a student’s essay writing. English Language Teaching, (7). 

[37] Afzaal, M., Hu, K., Chisti, M. I., & Imran, M. (2019). A study of pakistani English newspaper texts: An application of Halliday and Hasan’s model of cohesion: a discourse analysis. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9 (5).