A Study On The Translation Of Plant Metaphors In Two English Versions Of A Dream Of Red Mansions From The Perspective Of Cognition

A Dream of Red Mansions,as one of greatest classic novels in China,has its significant place in literature both at home and abroad.It is not only a literary masterpiece but also an encyclopedia of China’s federal society,appealing to various aspects of studies.In contemporary time,the study on English translation based on the materials of Chinese classics draws more attention than before.A Dream of Red Mansions has countless metaphors in it.Since 1970 s,it has been well recognized that the metaphor is not only a rhetorical device,but a cognitive method,which is commonly shared by human beings.The use of metaphor and its translation present human’s cognitive features.This thesis mainly focuses on the plants images in A Dream of Red Mansions,and their translation in two versions: A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang,and The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes and John Minford.This thesis first collects as many typical plant metaphors as possible,and tries to figure out what metaphor types exist in this system.The writer of this thesis sorts out two types of main metaphors in the original novel---Human Is Plant and Family Is Plant.Based upon their distinctive features,subcategories are classified into fifteen.Then,the corresponding translations for each plant metaphor are listed in two English translations respectively.Based on the metaphor translation theory of Newmark,the thesis makes a comparative analysis of all the translations of plant metaphors selected in this two versions and tries to explain the reason why the different translators dealt with the plant images in different ways.Finally,this thesis tries to explain the cognitive reasons for different translators’ behaviors.It also analyzes the cognitive factors from Lakoff’s conceptual metaphor theory in the aspects of geography,social belief and customs,and historical or literary allusions.Similar cognitive environment with the original author drives Yang Hsien-yi,to translate the plants literally without too much interpretation and compensation;while Hawkes,based on a totally different cognition and taking his target readers’ cognition into consideration,makes some interpretation and compensation or replacements of the images in metaphor.Translation is a main vehicle of culture transmission,and translator is the key player in the translation activities.In the process of translating metaphors,cognition affects translators’ behaviors.The striking features of the two English translations in style demonstrate the translators’ subjectivity influenced by cognitive factors and translation strategies.