A Study On English Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry From The Perspective Of Figure-Ground Theory

Cognitive linguistics is the synthesis of linguistics and cognitive science. It takes experiential realism as its philosophical basis, emphasizes the influence of experience on cognition and language and studies how the cognitive structures and their rules derived from experience influence language.Figure-ground theory reflects the relationship between language and cognition. Figure is the prominent part in cognition and focus of attention while ground is less prominent than figure and can be regarded as the cognitive reference. In linguistic expression, figure is usually put on the prominent position as the subject.Since 1870's, Chinese and foreign scholars have devoted themselves to the translation of classical Chinese poetry(CCP). However, they cannot agree with each other on the balance of sound, form and meaning. By awarding the status of figure or ground to different parts of the poem, we can have a better knowledge of the poet's cognition so as to produce a translation with proper linguistic form and give the same prominence to different parts of the poem as in the original text.By employing comparative analysis methods, this thesis applies figure-ground theory to the analysis of meaning, artistic conception and form of CCP and different translated versions. The conclusion is that figure-ground theory can help the translators get a better understanding of the original text, and instruct the translators to produce a translation equivalent to the original text both in meaning and in form. The figure-ground theory of cognitive linguistics provides a new method for CCP translation.