The Multiplicity Of Conceptual Blending In Literary Translation Process

The Conceptual Blending Theory, short for CBT, is put forward by cognitive linguists Fauconnier and Turner on the basis of the mental space theory in order to explain the dynamic process of meaning construction. Translation is also a kind of human being’s cognitive activity. Translation process is the dynamic process of meaning construction which involves the conceptual blending as well. Therefore, we can apply the conceptual blending theory into the studies of translation process. This theory can explain the relationship between the source language and the target language and the problem of creative translation reasonably, which provides a new perspective for the studies of translation.Translation is a complicated process which is influenced and restricted by many cognitive factors. The previous studies at home and abroad mainly concern on the application of conceptual blending’s four-space model into translation. They put forward that the two input spaces in translation process are the original text space and the translator’s space and the translation is the result of conceptual blending between these two input spaces. Based on the previous studies, this thesis argues that the source language and the target language are not isolated. The process of literary translation contains many input spaces and much interconnected conceptual blending. Thus the consideration of the conceptual blending between the original text space and the translator’s space is still not going far enough. The process of literary translation should simultaneously bring into mental space of the original text, mental space of the writer, mental space of the translator and mental space of the target readers.This thesis applies the multiple blends theory put forward by Fauconnier and Turner in 2002 to explain the process of literary translation by taking The Sound and the Fury as example and aims to explore the multiplicity of conceptual blending in literary translation process. This thesis points out that literary translation is that the original text’s space, the writer’s space, the translator’s space and the target readers’space all serve as input spaces of multiple blends, and they are connected by cross-space mapping, selective projection. During the process of literary translation, the translator takes three times of main conceptual blending to generalize the blend 1, the blend2 and the blend 3. The generalization of the blend 1 and the blend 2 serve as one input space of its next conceptual blending respectively. The emergent structure in the blend 3 is the final outcome of translation, signifying that the target text can be recognized and examined by the target readers and accepted by target society at the same time.The application of the multiple blends into the process of translation expands the four-space model’s application in the previous studies. Meanwhile, we can get a better understanding of the conceptual blending theory’s explanatory power on the dynamic process of literary translation. Analyzing the translation process from the perspective of multiple blends, we can further understand the nature of translation. Hopefully, this study can provide a theoretical framework for the translator to output the qualified and even the excellent translation.