A Comparative Study Of The Translation Of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

Schema Theory is an important theory in linguistics. Schema is the organizational structure of knowledge about the nature and society in the mind, and it is the basis of people’s cognition and understanding about the world. According to Schank, schema helps people deal with natural language so that they can understand the text well. Because when there is no corresponding schema appearing in the source text, the translator will automatically use the stored knowledge in his mind about the text to fill up the default schema, thus he can have a comprehensive understanding of the text. This thesis attempts to use Schema Theory to explore the translating process of Li Qingzhao’s ci-poems from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, aiming at proving that Schema Theory is a powerful theory in the translating process of poetry. Through the comparative analysis of some examples, we find that schema plays an important role in source language decoding and target language re-encoding. By full activation of the schemata in the translator’s mind and cognitive reasoning, the translation can be quicker, more comprehensive and accurate. This study can offer a new perspective for the translations of Song Ci.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction of the background, motivation, aim, significance and structure of the thesis. Chapter Two reviews the previous studies about translations of Chinese classic poetry and Li Qingzhao’s ci-poems. Chapter Three is the theoretical foundation of the thesis. It introduces the origin, the classification and significance of Schema Theory, analyzes the feasibility of applying Schema Theory into the translating process and discusses the research design of the thesis. Chapter Four is the main part of the thesis. It chooses some typical ci-poems of Xu Yuanchong and Mao Yumei’s versions as the research objects, analyzes the decoding and re-encoding process of the translation of Li Qingzhao’s ci-poems and puts forward some strategies which can help target language readers activate the related schemata. Chapter Five makes a conclusion of the thesis. It concludes that to properly decode the schemata in the source text and re-encode them successfully in the target language, the translator should not only possess abundant corresponding schemata, but also be able to activate them. In the translating process, the translator can use the method of domestication, noting, and omission to fill up the schema default and avoid schema conflict, so that the related schemata of the target language readers can be successfully activated. Thus, the aim of cross-culture communication is realized.