The Contribution of Reference and Co-reference to Cohesion

The empirical research presented in this book is based on the hypotheses that it is possible to compare texts across languages on the basis of the cohesive devices used in them (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), and that translation causes shifts in the ways of referring in texts (e.g., Baker, 1992; Blum-Kulka, 1986) due to differences in the grammatical systems of the source and target languages. The first part of the book introduces the theoretical background of the study: cohesion analysis and translation strategies. In the second part, using Halliday and Hasan''s (1976) taxonomy for the analysis of cohesion, this study compares the translation strategies (Klaudy, 1994) that translators use in transferring referential cohesion (pronominal reference, demonstratives and comparatives) from an English literary text to its Spanish and Hungarian translations. The book intends to contribute to research in written discourse analysis and translation studies. It may be useful for translators, researchers in the field of applied linguistics, as well as teachers and students of translation, or anyone else who is interested in the discourse-level characteristics of texts.