| Frame semantics, a branch of cognitive linguistics, is a kind of way to discuss the relationship between language meaning and knowledge structure. The frame refers to the generalization of the knowledge which qualifies people to deal with the same situation. As people's specific experience and knowledge are reflected in the meaning of language unit, the adoption of frame semantics will structure the knowledge and form specific language models, which can activate all necessary knowledge and information in the communication. Therefore, in frame semantics, the translation process can be interpreted as a process in which the translator bases on the original frame of the source text, adopts his or her own experience and knowledge, builds up the same frame as much as possible with the original one and then seeks suitable target language to describe the situation. And the task of translation is to find out in the target language the linguistic expressions which help to activate the cognitive frames identical or similar to those in the source language.Based on this theory, this thesis attempts to explore some of the contributions of frame semantics to the translation of cultural elements in a classic Chinese novel Shui Hu Zhuan. Referring to Rejo's classification (2002a), this thesis tentatively assorts social frames rich in cultural elements into five subtypes:geographical origin frame, social status frame, interpersonal frame, institutional frame and religious frame. By comparing two English translated versions of the five types of social frames, the structural and cognitive differences for the same frame have been found between two translators; and some similarities and differences of cognitive structures between Chinese and English have been explored. Finally some suggestions are made, hopefully, to help deal with the problems posed by certain elements typical of a given culture when translated into another language in a different cultural environment. |
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