Constraints Of Subjectification Equivalence To The Source Textual Comprehension And Translation

"Meaning" has been the key and hot topic talked about and studied by philosophers, linguists, translators, psychologists and sociologists in the world all the time. In fact, both language and language translation has a very long history since human beings came into being, that is, where there is language, there is translation. The traditional translation statements or theories (prior to the 21st century) in China and the western countries have made great contributions to translation practice with a more than 2000-year history. Up to now, many translators, at home and abroad, still have a dialectical attitude towards the traditional translation statements or theories regarded as the "motto" or "norm" of translation. However, we are convinced that the traditional translation statements or theories have their own historical limitations because of the historic and translator's cognitive context.Cognitive linguistics, since it came into being, has been involved in cognitive science and closely related with philosophy, psychology, anthropology, computer science and neuroscience. Now cognitive linguistics has become a new paradigm within linguistics, which subsumes a number of distinct theories and methods. In about 30 years, cognitive linguistics has made great achievements to such important fields as categorization, conceptual metaphor, metonymy, polysemy, iconicity and grammaticalization (Wen Xu, 1999,2001). Recently, some theories of cognitive linguistics have been employed in translation studies and practice with a brand new perspective by some translators and scholars, say, Sun Yaxin (2001), Wang Bin (2001,2002), Xia Jiasi & Shi Wen (2004), Wang Yin (2005,2007), Xiao Liming (2005), Song Desheng (2005), Xiao Kunxue (2006), Qin Furong (2007), Yin Fulin (2007), Sandra Halverson (2003), etc.However, on the basis of the subjectivity/subjectification theory in cognitive linguistics, few scholars or translators have an analysis on strategies of dealing with the source text with subjectivity/subjectification employed by translators in the process of translation. Therefore, this dissertation has applied the cognitive linguistic theory into translation studies and put forward the working hypothesis -"subjectification equivalence" in translation. With a comparative analysis on the English versions of Li Bai's poems -A Farewell to a Friend (Songyouren), Drinking Alone Under the Moon (Yuexiaduzhuo) and A Trader's Wife (Changganxing), this dissertation has explorations on constraints of the "subjectification equivalence" on the textual comprehension and translation. Behind the dissertation are five objectives that we consider vital:1) to offer a different and brand new way for translation studies and practice.2) to avoid the vagueness of the traditional translation statements and theories.3) to offer a more objective evaluation standard and system on the comprehension of the source text and the representation of the target text instead of a casual and empirical evaluation.4) to rethink the ontology, methodology, epistemology and axiology of the traditional translation statements and theories.5) to promote the Chinese traditional cultures and let more westerners learn and know more and better about China.This dissertation consists of seven chapters:Chapter 1 serves as the introduction. In this chapter, the author briefly introduces the main objectives, significance, main contents, working hypothesis, research methods and the structure of the full dissertation.Chapter 2 deals with the traditional translation statements and theories on meaning. In this chapter, based on rethinking of the traditional translation statements and theories on meaning, the author deems that cognitive linguistics can be applied into translation studies and practice. Chapter 3 discusses cognitive linguistics and translation studies. In this chapter, the working hypotheses, research objectives, theoretical principles of cognitive linguistics are mainly illustrated by the author who also explains how some scholars employ such cognitive linguistic theories as conceptual integration, cognitive domain and construal in the translation studies and practice.In Chapter 4, the subjectivity/subjectification of meaning is analyzed in detail. Firstly, views on construal of cognitive linguistics are explored by the author, then who thinks that construal itself is a kind of subjectivity indeed and calls it "subjective construal", and finally who deals with the subjectivity/subjectification of meaning from six main dimensions concerning scope, perspective, prominence, specificity, affect and modality respectively.In Chapter 5, the author discusses the "subjectification equivalence" in translation. Subjectivity/objectivity and subjectification in translation are mainly explained by the author who also puts forward the working hypothesis-"subjectification equivalence" in translation, that is, the comprehension of the source text and the representation of the target text are both constrained by the "subjectification equivalence" in translation.Chapter 6 is an empirical study of the "subjectification equivalence" in translation from the following two aspects:1) In the process of comprehension of the source text, translators, consciously or unconsciously, have been constrained by the "subjectification equivalence", that is, six dimensions of the subjective construal concerning scope, perspective, prominence, specificity, affect and modality.2) In the process of representation of the target text, translators, consciously or unconsciously, have been constrained by the "subjectification equivalence" and tries to achieve the "subjectification equivalence", deliberately or indeliberately.Chapter 7 is the conclusion and discussion. The major conclusions and limitations are summarized, and the implications for translation studies, practice and teaching and suggestions for future research are offered in this chapter.On the basis of construal and subjectivity/subjectification theories and a comparative analysis on 10 English versions of A Farewell to a Friend, Drinking Alone Under the Moon and 9 English versions of A Trader's Wife, we came up with the following four main findings:1) Subjectivity exists in every language. Strictly speaking, where there is no subjectivity, there is no language. In fact, construal itself is a kind of subjectivity, therefore, we call it "subjective construal" concerning six dimensions (scope, perspective, prominence, specificity, affect and modality). If we want to understand speakers'/writers' real meaning of the utterances or texts, we had better do it by means of the six dimensions, otherwise we cannot understand speakers'/writers'real meaning because all utterances or texts given by the speakers/writers must be inevitably involved in the six dimensions of meaning.2) The relationship between the six dimensions is very complicated, in other words, the relationship between them is that they are interrelated, interacted, mutual independent and cannot be separated.3) In the process of comprehension of the source text, translators, consciously or unconsciously, have been constrained by the "subjective construal".4) In the process of representation of the target text, translators, consciously or unconsciously, have been constrained by the " subjectification equivalence" and try to achieve the "subjectification equivalence", deliberately or indeliberately.Generally speaking, the process of translation, in a broad sense, is a process in which translators try to achieve the "subjectification equivalence" to the source text. In other words, translators had better understand and reproduce the source and target text via the six dimensions of the "subjective construal", and we can also evaluate the target text by way of the six dimensions because all texts must be inevitably involved in the six dimensions of meaning.