A Cognitive Linguistic Study On Li Wenjun’s Translation Of The Sound And The Fury

This dissertation makes a cognitive linguistic study on the main features of Li Wenjun’s Chinese version of William Faulkner’s long stream-of-consciousness novel The Sound and the Fury, the cognitive style reflected in Li Wenjun’s conceptualization of the original text, and the cognitive process of Li Wenjun’s operation as well, based on the following questions:1) What are the main features of the original text and those of Li Wenjun’s Chinese version respectively? How to make an analysis of the main features of the Chinese version from the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics?2) In light of the translator’s embodied cognition and the main features of his Chinese version, what aspects of the translator’s subjective initiative are reflected in his conceptualization of the original text? How to make an explanation from the perspective of cognitive linguistics?3) How to describe by using the basic theory and concepts of Cognitive Linguistics the dynamic cognitive process of the translator’s producing a version which is similar to its original text in both form and function while he as a translator places himself in the overlap of two different cultural contexts?The author of this dissertation presents his major viewpoints as follows:1) The translator’s CM together with his presupposed target text readers’CM decides the translator’s selection of his mode of representation, which is characterized by specified expressions, similar narrative style compared with that of the original text and a paratext in form of footnote. Specified expressions mean that the translator in his version represents some nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns at a higher level of specificity, and sometimes, informs his target readers of the underlined meanings of the original naration. Similar narrative style in the translator’s representation is reflected in the following aspects:imitating the sentence structure of the original so as to make figures different from one another in language style; taking two different forms of Chinese characters for the purpose of vividly representing the narrator’s stream of consciousness; using modal particles in order to represent the real subjective world of the figures. A paratext in form of footnote is produced for the purposes of arousing the target text readers’cognitive expectation by informing them of narration time, helping them get the typicality of ICM by adding details of the narrated events, supplement their propositional structure by providing some background information, structure a cognitive Gestalt by telling who the figure are and establish a propositional structure by introducing unfamiliar things, introducing a cognitive prototype to them by explaining cultural phenomena, and making the propositional structure clear by interpreting some words,.2) The translator’s subjective initiative decides his mode of representation, which is reflected in Li Wenjun’s Translation of The Sound and the Fury as follows: clearifying background information in conceptualization of the original text so as to provide or commplement information of reference points; profiling in cognitive domain through mapping and adjusting components of conceptual frames; following different figures’ narration in the original text or adjusting point of view while conceptualizing the original text through adding footnotes when necessary, which can provide the target text readers with information of reference points according to the presupposed target readers’ CM; making the narrative style of the original text salient by choosing appropriate discourse forms, such as using the similar syntax, diction, word order and text alignment format, so on and so forth; representating the original text at higher levels of specificity, which testifies to the fact that Li Wenjun has a thorough comprehention of the events narrated in the original text. In general, his translation represents different figures’ streams of consciousness. In other words, it is respectively correspondent to different narrators’ cognitive psychology.3) The translator’s conceptualizing the original text is a dynamic process of conceptual blending, consisting in the conceptual blending of the source text readers and that of the translator."Emergent structure" produced in the conceptual blending of the source text readers makes a cognitive foundation for the translator’s conceptual blending. The translator’s conceptual blending is conducted at three respective levels at least with important information of the author’s mental space (the preface to his text, the record of his being interviewed, etc.) and the source text readers’ comprehention of the original text, i.e., macro-conceptual blending, madhyamika-conceptual blending and micro-conceptual blending as well. In his micro-conceptual blending, the translator will map and adjust the framework components derived from his previous conceptual blendings in accordance with the presupposed information in the target text readers’ mental space.This dissertation presents to us a cognitive linguistic study on the main features of a Chinese version of an English stream-of-conscious novel, the translator’s cognitive style and his cognitive process of translation as well. This dissertation is a breakthrough of the existing literature translation studies, which may drop some hints for the discussion about literature translation of its kind. The author has to say that this study is to be futhered.