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Babel
Vol. 62:3 (2016) ► pp.456–469

Definiteness and the meaning reconstruction in English – Chinese translation

Discourse analysis has drawn people’s attention to micro levels in the discourse. This means that some subtle issues that were ignored in the past may carry with them some implicit meanings when looked at in the context. In this regard, topicality in Chinese usually indicates definiteness, whereas this definiteness is signaled by articles, pronouns in English texts. The difference between the two systems can result in problems in translation if not handled properly. Therefore it should be stressed that the management of theme-rheme structures should be dealt with much care from micro text levels, along with an interpretation of the macro intention of the text, so that the translation process should be highlighted. By incorporating the model of discourse analysis, the interaction between the original and translation can be realized.
Keywords: definiteness, word order, text, translation, topicality
Published online: 29 November 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.62.3.05zha
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