| This thesis gives a tentative analysis of the methodology of cognitive grammar from the aspect of meaning construction and transfer of imagery, which would be really beneficial and instructive to interpret the classic David Copperfield. This thesis is based on Langacker’s and Lakoff’s cognitive grammar theory, which stresses that conceptual structure in language study is motivated by cognition and based on the human experience to define the cognitive content and imagery construal.There are three basic tenets of cognitive grammar, iconicity, figure and ground and encyclopedic, which can better explain the non-independence and the conceptual semantic characteristic. This study intends to approach Dong Qiusi’s and Zhang Guruo’s translation of David Copperfield to interpret the various phonetic, lexical and syntactic differences from a cognitive perspective by employing the theory of iconicity, figure-ground and encyclopedic of cognitive grammar models, therefore, providing a concrete evidence of the utility of cognitive grammar. Cognitive grammar emphases that linguistic structures correspond to conceptual structures and all linguistic structures are cognitively motivated. Most of the previous studies on David Copperfield are, to a great extent, characterized by an inclination to confine their scope of attention to either purely syntactic or semantic aspect. However, the relationship between translation theory and linguistics is a close and intricate one. Concerned about the iconicity, this thesis mainly focuses on the quantity of iconicity, the study of duplication of nouns, verbs and adjectives alike in David Copperfield, interpreting the quantity accumulation in the domain of concepts, image construal and the limitation of semantic study by employing the theories in cognitive grammar, so as to discuss the semantic and syntactic functions of the duplication of words. From the perspective of figure-ground, this thesis aims to illustrate the practical and contextual meaning of passive voice in David Copperfield as well. A multitude of disparities are demonstrated through a series of typical case studies from various aspects to upgrade translation research to a new level. Translators should take courage and confidence, for it means to come up with a scheme for recreating and discovering.The complete and panoramic expression of the language does not only lie in the conceptual content demonstrated, but also in the cognitive method participated in and the imagery constructed in the text. The difference among translation versions is dynamic and open. To be concise, it is the product of cognition. Grammar does not only express meaning but also itself serves as part of the meaning in linguistic study. Whereas, when the meaning is investigated, our goal is to find the ways meaning interacts with and delineate the world by the assistance of human’s perception and conception. Many topics that were traditionally dealt with as linguistic phenomena are illuminated in a new cognitive light.Through theoretical and practical examples in David Copperfield, this thesis presents the following arguments:translation should be based on cognitive level, not just on the language level; translation should convey the original conceptualization of the portrayed scene(including the concept of content and image structure) rather than simply convey the objective content of the original text.This theory can certainly make a profound and objective interpretation of translation. Introducing translation to the level of cognition study can explore the deep root reason of conceptualization and achieve the real equivalence between the source language and the targeted language. The introduction and application of cognitive grammar is of great significance to the classification and integration of translation practice and strategies, which does not only facilitate the comprehensive understanding and mastery of the practical scientific techniques, but also makes some contribution to the discipline of translation study... |
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