A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Abstract Nouns And Its Application To Translation Practice

The abundant use of abstract nouns is one of the most typical characteristics of the English language. The formation of abstract nouns has much relation with the language itself and other influential factors. The frequency of the use of Chinese abstract nouns is quite low compared with that of English. Furthermore, there exists a remarkable difference in the form of English and Chinese (abbreviated as E & C hereinafter) abstract nouns.Previous researches on abstract nouns are usually focused on those of one language, or on the translation of them from one language to another. The contrastive studies of abstract nouns between different languages are also found done by some scholars, but usually on quite a general level. A comprehensive contrastive study of abstract nouns between different languages is rarely seen. And also those researches on the translation of abstract nouns usually inadequately take into consideration the differences of abstract nouns between different languages when formulating translation strategies, which may lack comprehensiveness.Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a research on the contrastive study of E&C abstract nouns and on the translation strategies of abstract nouns from English to Chinese. The study on the translation strategies of abstract nouns should take into consideration of the difference of abstract nouns in different languages.Abstract nouns are to express abstract concepts. The human cognition of abstract concepts is mostly the result of conceptual integration. But the "Basic Diagram of Conceptual Integration" by Fauconier & Turner is inadequate in showing the participation of the conceptualizer in cognization. The "Cognitive Reference Point Model" by Langacker shows well the participation of the conceptualizer in the cognization of a new concept, but its defect is the inadequate consideration of the several different input spaces. Therefore, this thesis makes an integration of those two models to give a new "Cognitive Conceptual Integration Model" which takes adequate consideration of the participation of the conceptualizer,the relations among the different input spaces, and the influences of the conceptualizer’s language and thinking style on the integration of abstract concepts and their expressing method.This thesis makes a comprehensive and detailed contrastive study between the E&C abstract nouns from three aspects:morphologically, semantically and functionally. Since the formation of abstract nouns in different languages has much to do with their respective word-formation processes, a contrastive study of the E&C different word-formation processes is made before finding a reference for the different forms of abstract nouns in the following contrastive study. Then the contrastive study of E&C abstract nouns is made in detail both morphologically and semantically, the analysis of which includes the contrastive study of their different usages. In expressing the same pack of abstract meanings, the English language usually chooses to condense the meanings with the use of abstract nouns, which the Chinese one to extend those with comparatively concrete expressions. All these phenomena reflect the weak boundedness of the Chinese language and the strong boundedness of the English language, which further reflects the relation between human cognization of abstract concepts and the different thinking styles of people using different languages. The frequent use of English abstract nouns and the rare use of Chinese abstract nouns, the trend of condensation of English and the trend of extension of Chinese, the discreteness of English and the continuum of Chinese, and the boundedness of English and the unboundedness of Chinese all coincide with one another.The research on E-C translation strategies of abstract nouns is conducted in detail with reference to Ming Li Chang by Yang Bi, a Chinese version of Vanity Fair. And the translation strategies commonly employed in translating each subtype of abstract nouns are all exemplified by samples from the novel. Then after the analysis of the translation in detail, the statistics of the frequencies of different kinds of strategies is made which reveals the common trend of English to Chinese translation of abstract nouns-Extension, which is either morphologically or syntactically. The strategy of extension in E-C translation of abstract nouns further verifies the English boundedness and the Chinese unboundedness. Meanwhile, this chapter also gives the analysis of the common functions of those translation strategies, including Concretization, Generalization and Aesthetic Effects with which the pursuit of Chinese language aestheticism of antithesis is realized.In the conclusion of this thesis, the main findings, limitations and future expectations are given in hope of further progress in this field of research.