A Study On English Translation Of Humor In Fortress Besieged From The Perspective Of Image-Schema Theory

Cognitive linguistics, as a new approach to language studies in the past thirty to forty years, believes human cognition has a profound influence on language. Theory of image-schema, as an important part in cognitive linguistics, is being paid more and more attention to, due to its research on language from perspective of deep cognition. According to image-schema theory, human beings perceive not only single matters, but also relationships among them. By repeated organization of these relationships, image-schema is formed, and thus endows human experience with complete structure. In cross-cultural communication, translation functions as an important part. According to theory of image-schema, human understanding toward the world holds some similarities at the same time of differences. That is because common experiences human beings get from the objective world have helped them form common image-schemas. It is this point that makes translation possible. As a result, image translation is an important aspect in translation of literary works. However, in cross-language and cross-cultural communication, some images are the same, while others are not:one image with different expressions, or one expression containing different images. As a result, when translating images, translators should not treat them uniformly, but perceive the image to the bottom and adopt certain methods accordingly. Humors are soul of language and carrier of culture. In understanding humors, the essential part is to understand images contained in them. Fortress Besieged, as the only novel composed by Ch'ien Chung-shu, is with everlasting taste. Humors in this novel are exact and piercing and have won universal praise. In this thesis, humors in Ch'ien Chung-shu's Fortress Besieged and in Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao's translated version are taken as examples, to explore the explanative ability of image-schema theory in the process of image translation, by analyzing the translated version from three aspects of image transmission, image transformation and image re-actualization. Further more, guidance on translators of this exploration is also revealed, that is, translators'task is to realize image representation to the utmost in the target language. Only if translators accomplish their abilities in both language and culture in both source and target environment, can they combine various factors, represent images appropriately, and promote cross-cultural communications more effectively.