On Explicitation And Implicitation In Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration

Translation study has long been original text-based and pays less attention to the translation process and the translator, and the main arguments lie in the relationship between"literal translation"and"free translation","alike in appearance"and"alike in spirit". It is until the 1990s that the role played by the translator was emphasized in its cultural turn. Translation study has overcome the limitations of the traditional dualistic model and seeks a dynamic and extensive perspective by means of the philosophy of language, which is consistent with the experiential view of cognitive linguistics, so it's sensible and legitimate to unfold the mental mechanism of translator's initiative from a cognitive perspective.Meaning is called up by language signs, and there are explicit meaning and implicit meaning. Semantic value behind language signs is called default value. As a result, explicitation refers to the process of introducing default value into the target language. On the contrast, implicitation is to render some explicit information of the source text into default value in the target text. Both of them are common in literary translation. Which translation strategy is adopted depends on meaning communication rather than gains or losses of language signs.Conceptual integration is an ubiquitous cognitive activity, and it's an on-line meaning construction process in the blending space, including selective projection, composition, completion and elaboration. Similarly, translation is also a selective and creative activity. In a sense, conceptual integration theory can be applied to explain the translation process. The present study structures a translation process model according to conceptual integration network model proposed by Fauconnier & Turner, and then it is integrated into the analysis of translation examples in Wolf Totem. By means of figures and qualitative analysis, the corpus is approached in order to explore the cognitive motivation of explicitation and implicitation, and how default value is dealt with as well.