The Topological Shift Of Translation At Word,Phrase And Sentence Levels

Topology is a discipline which studies the basic property of geometrical graphics after continuous transformation. George Steiner, the first scholar who facilitates the identification of topological transformation, puts forward the idea of cultural topology which explains that culture also has the property of topological transformation. In light of the common cognition of humans, the meaning that a linguistic sign carries sometimes overlaps with that of another linguistic sign. With translation interpreted as a process of topological shift from one language to another, the overlapped meaning and logic which prove unchangeable could be redeemed as the basic property of topological shift in translation.The thesis starts from the evaluation of topological shift of point and line, and proceeds with translation extended at levels of word, phrase and sentence. The author makes comparison between topological shift and translation, trying to indicate that words, phrases and sentences of SL have the entire or portions of their meanings and logics overlapped with those of TL. Identical with topological shift of point and line, the unaltered meanings and logics are supposed to be the basic property in translation. Except for a comparative study of different concepts, the thesis makes an attempt to classify the translation of words, phrases and sentences with an extensive survey of examples so that a better interpretation of translation at microscope levels could be reached by means of topological shift of point and line.With detailed analysis of examples, it could be concluded that the shift between two languages takes place on the condition that they have same semantic cores and logics. Although structures of source words, phrases and sentences have been greatly deformed in translation, the main significances of them are still identical. Thereby, we are enabled to discover that translators by dint of topological conversion of point and line could easily reach the semantic cores and logics of source words, phrases and sentences with which target linguistic forms could be structured. On the one hand, the target text would display effectiveness for its equivalence with ST; on the other hand, the deformed parts would adhere to rules of TL and disclose gaps of cultural conventions. In addition, translators, while capable of arriving at relatively satisfied translation, should exert his or her creativity in translation on the premise that central meanings and semantic logics of the source text keep unalterable.