A Study On Two Translations Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Motion Event Lexicalizaiton Patterns

Talmy(2000) proposed the binary typology of Satellite-framed and Verb-framed languagesbased on the lexicalization patterns of motion events. According to him, languages in the world can be generally classified into two main typological groups, that is, verb-framed and satellite-framed, in terms of how path, the core schema of a motion event, is expressed linguistically. Verb-framed languages tend to put the path information of the event into the verb whereas satellite-framed languages encode it mainly in particles or “satellites”. Motion event expressions are influenced greatly by the lexicalization pattern of a certain language. Satellite-framed languages generally have more manner expressions and express path of motion in detail. Verb-framed languages, however, mostly express less manner and path information.This is an issue that translators are supposed to deal with during translation. Slobin(1996, 2005) found in his research thatwhen translatinga satellite-framed language into a verb-framed language, translators tend to omit the manner verb or manner expression, and meanwhile reduce the number of Path segments or break up the complex description into smaller units by adding a new motion verb.When translatinga verb-framed language into a satellite-framed language, translators are more likely to add manner and path information.This paper takes Hong Lou Meng and its two classic translations as a case study. Based on 120 samples of motion events in Hong Lou Meng, together with their correspondent translations, a quantitative study of the motion events descriptions in the two translated versions and the original work is conducted. The results are as follows: 1) There are differences in the lexicalization patterns of motion events between the two translations and the original. The original work follows the lexicalization pattern of Chinese as more manner information are expressed by manner adverbials and path information by path verbs. Hawk’s translation obviously features the lexicalization patterns of English, whereas Yang’s translation also shows certain characteristics of lexicalization patterns of English. 2) Differences in the lexicalization patterns of motion events also exist between the two translated versions. The variations concerning the strategies in translating motion events between the two translated versions show that the lexicalization pattern typology of translators’ mother tongue could influence their translation behavior. 3)Meanwhile, several translation strategies are summarized, in terms of how path and manner information are rendered respectively, based on the study of motion eventstranslations in Hong Lou Meng.