Differences In Cross-Language Image-Encoding And Their Implications For The English Translation Of Chinese Classical Poetry-A Cognitive Approach

According to A. Paivio's Dual Coding Theory, imagery system is a cognitive system that is interconnected to verbal system in a parallel manner. Verbal system processes linguistic information while imagery system encodes, stores, transforms and retrieves specific object or temporal information, with its representation similar to perception. Both systems can be activated by relevant stimuli and information can be exchanged between them. This is the psychological foundation upon which we conduct analysis on image encoding. Moreover, Kosslyn has put forward a hypothesis, stating that mental imagery, consisting of two representations, namely, deep and surface, share similar structures with linguistic representation. Surface representation refers to a picture like representation stored in short-term memory, while deep representation in long-term memory is information that can be applied to the emergence of surface representation. It must be noted that deep representation can be further classified as abstract proposition functioning to explain cognitive object. Based on these two hypotheses, we can assume the existence of such a process: mental imagery can be transferred from surface representation to deep representation, where mental image is transfer into verbal codes and linguistic expression is achieved. If we assume the universality shared y human beings in the process of transferring mental image from surface to deep representation, we can analyze how the referential process, image's linguistic encoding, might differ cross-linguistically. Chinese classical poetry is characterized by the juxtaposition of images without encoding the logic relations among them, which leads to a dynamic stream of images by consecutive image's linguistic encoding. Due to the lack of spatial relation, our reading perspectives are divergent and interdependent, without referring to the spatial location of the former image, while we are linguistically encoding the same images in English, German or French, we must select one image as the reference, to which spatial relation among other images can be organized. Compared with European languages like English and French, Chinese has shown distinction in the coding of image. In Chinese classical poetry, for example, the coding is aimed at the combination, juxtaposition and overlapping of the image, regardless of their natural and logical relations (especially their spatial relation). When coding proceeds, single images appear continuously, and form a dynamic image flow. As a result of the absence of their spatial relation, perspectives employed in reading these poems are separated and interdependent, thus it is unnecessary for the reader to take the spatial location of the preceding image as the reference point to gain impression of the next image. For the same image combination, when coding in English, spatial relations must be added, that is to say, the spatial location of some particular image must be chosen as the reference point to organize the other images. This thesis, based on the related researches on the mental imagery from the field of cognitive psychology and comparative analysis conducted on the variations between source texts and target texts, points out that the image transference in the process of translation is a result of different cognitive angles adopted by translators leading to different construals. A comparative analysis on the ST and TT in light of image schema and perspective is a demonstration of different constraints imposed by English and Chinese in terms of image-encoding and construal, which will be beneficial to translation studies.