An Analysis Of Non-Linguistic Category Transformation In Translating Administrative Terms Of The Qin Dynasty Into English

Ancient Chinese administrative terms,as an indispensable component of the key terms of Chinese thought and culture,are the epitome of the political systems of ancient dynasties,characterized by unique historical and ethnic features,and dynamic development.Administrative terms of the Qin Dynasty are the products of centralized political systems of the Qin Dynasty,which are characterized by non-linguistic categories,and translating such terms into English involves the process of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural transformation of non-linguistic categories in which category misplacement or category vacancy is the main challenge for translators to rise up to.How to accurately interpret and translate the Qin administrative terms for the sake of enhancing target-text readers’ cognition of them is one of the core research subjects in the translation studies of ancient Chinese administrative terms.Michael Loewe,a well-known British Sinologist who won the prestigious Award for Outstanding Contributions to China Studies 2021,has written many monographs on the history of the early Imperial China,especially the Qin and Han dynasties.His monograph A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin,Former Han and Xin Periods(221 BC-AD 24)contains biographical information on more than six thousand historical figures who lived between 221 BC and AD 24;The Men Who Governed Han China: Companion to A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin,Former Han and Xin Periods is the supplement and perfection of A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin,Former Han and Xin Periods;The Government of the Qin and Han Empires:221 BCE-220 CE expounds the structures and operations of the governments of the Qin and Han dynasties;The Cambridge History of China,Volume 1,The Qin and Han Empires,221 BC-AD 220 and its companion China’s Early Empires: A Re-appraisal give a comprehensive account of the systems,literatures and arts,social forms,ideological belief,etc.of the Qin and Han dynasties.The above five monographs enjoy high reputation on sinology study,and the English versions of the Qin administrative terms in these monographs are comprehensible and accessible to target English-speaking readership,which are extremely valuable for translation studies of administrative terms.Based on the category shift perspective in the Cognitive Translatology and the construction mechanism of definitional templates of conceptual categories in Frame-based Terminology,this paper,taking the English versions of the Qin administrative terms collected from the above five monographs created by Loewe as the research object,exacts conceptual parameters of category members contained in the definitions of target language categories by consulting authoritative dictionaries,confirms these conceptual parameters with en Ten Ten Corpus(2020)as the general corpus and Sketch Engine’s Word Sketch as the analytic tool,and constructs the definitional templates of the English translations of the administrative terms of the Qin Dynasty.By comparing the semantic information of categorial members encoded in the definitional templates of the English translations of the Qin administrative terms with the categorial semantics or functional elements contained in the conceptual frames of the source administrative term categories,this paper explores the transformational model and frame construction mechanism of non-linguistic categories in translating the Qin administrative terms into English.The results have shown that three situations arise in the transferring process,i.e.,category correspondence(a corresponding equivalent target language category exists),category misplacement(a different hierarchical target language category exists),and category vacancy(no equivalent target language category exists).And four models are adopted by Loewe in the non-linguistic category transformation in translating the Qin administrative terms into English,i.e.,converting the source administrative term category with an equivalent target language category,restructuring categorial hierarchy of the source administrative term category in the target language,searching for a similar target language category in the target language to replace the source administrative term category approximately,and reformulating a new category in the target language to create an association with the source administrative term category.These transformational models involve a series of cognitive operations including equivalent conversion,hierarchical conversion,approximative adjustment,prototypical salience,holistic explication,and transplant,of the conceptual frame of the source administrative term category.It’s worth noting that semantic components codified in conceptual relations “ranks＿at” and“has＿function” are the key factors in influencing transformational models for category misplacement and category vacancy,which effectively reflects the influence of hierarchical bureaucratic establishment that appointed administrative terms according to their functions in ancient China on the translation practice.This research proves that translating administrative terms is a complex cognitive process and reveals that the cognitive mechanism of category transformation in translating administrative terms lies in the match of prototype categories between the source administrative term category and the target language category,and the effective construction of cognitive frames of conceptual categories.