Translator’s Subjectivity In Chinese Translation Of The Old Man And The Sea-from The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistic View On Translation

The Old Man and the Sea as the representative work of Earnest Hemingway is universally acknowledged among readers by its peculiar language features and rich textual implications. In recent years, the study of its Chinese translation gains much popularity including the study of language features and text style. However little attention is paid to the Chinese translation from the perspective of cognitive linguistic view on translation let alone the exact role translators play in the translation process. Therefore, on the basis of cognitive linguistic view on translation, by comparative study of the two Chinese translations of The Old Man and the Sea, this thesis concentrates on the deep understanding of its Chinese translation as well as on the study of translator’s subjectivity.The status of translator changes with the development of translation theory from a "mirror" to the "master" of the original text. Although the post-modernists lay emphasis on the initiative of translator, they tend to lead the translation study astray. Hence this thesis adopts cognitive linguistic view on translation to evaluate manifestations of translator’s subjectivity and restrictions on them. The paper is made up of five parts. The introduction outlines significance, objective and layout of the research, poses the research questions as well as generalizes previous studies on the translation and translator’s subjectivity. Chapter two serves as the theoretic foundation of this thesis. Comparative studies of Chinese versions of The Old Man and the Sea are conducted in the third chapter and in the fourth chapter. The last chapter draws the conclusion.The innovation of this thesis is to view translator’s subjectivity from cognitive linguistic view on translation and make reference to the early and latest published Chinese translation. It validates the feasibility of the study of Chinese translations from the perspective of cognitive linguistic view on translation and meanwhile provides a new perspective for the study of translator’s subjectivity.