A Cognitive Approach To C-E Translation Strategies

By integrating cognitive science, especially cognitive linguistics and psychology with translation, cognitive studies of translation, as a new paradigm, aims to explore the cognitive process of translation, thereby discovering the nature of translation. With the structure “V+qi+NP+lai” as a case study, the thesis endeavors to probe into cognitive translation strategies within the theoretical framework of construction-chunk approach, hoping to shed some light upon the development of cognitive studies of translation.Originating itself from Construction Grammar and Chunk theory, construction-chunk approach is employed to interpret Chinese simple sentences, which are conceived as a sentence construction in turn(Su & Lu, 2010). This thesis views “V+qi+NP+lai” as a construction with a fixed form and meanings, and makes a thorough analysis of the construction, including its components, constructional meaning, formation mechanism and subjectivity by virtue of CCL on the basis of Construction Grammar. According to Su(2012b), the construction can be subclassified into two different subtypes as per its different constructional meanings and segmented chunks: Class A “(NPa)—XP—V+qi+NP+lai(le)” with the chunk chain of “subject—background—action”, which means some action is beginning and will continue; Class B “(NPa) —V+qi+NP+lai—WP” with the chunk chain of “subject—circumstance—feature”, which implies that the subject has some special features under certain circumstances. Based on Su’s research, the thesis intends to refine the classification by putting forward Class C “(NPa)—V+qi+NP+lai—VP”, which means sequential movements with the chunk chain of “subject—accompanying action—main action”.Following the construal of “V+qi+NP+lai”, the translations by Lyell and Yang retrieved from the parallel corpus of Lu Xun’s Stories, serve as the target texts for further analysis. By integrating metonymy and linguistic empathy into the analysis of translation process, the thesis elaborates on the translation strategies on a cognitive basis. Results show that cognitive translation of the construction involves two procedures and two translation units, that is, translation of the sentence as one translation unit and translation of the construction as the other one.The thesis puts forward a cognitive model for translation procedures:(1) identify which category the construction belongs to by scrutinizing its internal chunk chain in the first place and figuring out which role the construction plays in the sentence construction;(2) base the choice of specific strategy on a syntactic-semantic analysis of each category;(3) weigh and polish its translation after interpreting the sentence from cognitive angles, such as metaphor, metonymy, empathy, etc., and(4) then translate and polish.It arrives at the following results: a) translation is far from a mechanical code-switch process, it involves complicated cognitive activities based on experience and interaction with the physical world; b) the cognitive approach helps broaden the scope of translation studies by viewing translation as a cognitive process that covers both the syntactic/semantic analysis and the cognitive interpretations; c) the translator is supposed to take into account diversified perspectives, such as metaphor, metonymy, empathy and the like in the process of translation.