A Cognitive Explanation Of Deviations In Arthur Waley's Translation Of The Analects

Making a ge neral review of t he history of t he Ana lects ' translat ion, altho ugh numerous versions have sprung up since the 16 th century, Arthur Wale y's version can always find its place among all the trans lation vers ions of the Ana lects, thus is attached great importance by translators and linguists. Although studies on Arthur Waley's translat ion of t he Ana lects have achieved a lot, they mere ly concentrate on either making comments on the qualit y and style of Waley's translat ion or seeking for reasons to exp lain his misinterpretation fro m the externa l perspective. Few probe into the essential cognitive motivation behind the deviations in Waley's translation.As is known to all, translat ion is an activity t hat the trans lator recodes and rewrites the source text, so every piece of trans latio n work will more or less reflect the translator 's subjectivity. It is the reason that makes translat ion versions different from each other. Actually any developme nt is the end product of both externa l cause and internal cause while the interna l one is the root. Therefore only taking the translator 's subjectivity into account can deviat ions occurring in trans latio n be feasib ly expla ined. And construal style is one of the most significant components of the translator 's subjectivity.Throughout Waley's translat ion of t he Analects, alt hough Waley endeavors to be fa ithful to the source text as well as make his translat ion understood easily, he has made some deviations occur, constrained by his construal style s. They can be divided as:(1) semant ic disparity;(2) synthes ization o f events belonging to different backgrounds;(3) change of the expressions'(clauses') relationship;(4) change of the relations hip between events and e vent partic ipants;(5) change of the cla use subjects;(6) alteration of t he pronouns;(7) alteration o f the figure- ground alignme nt;(8) shift of the leve l of specific ity; etc. Taking deviat ion as a sticking point, this thes is explores how translator's subjectivity works on the understanding of the source text as well as on the translat ing process in s uch dime nsions as scope, perspective, figure- ground alignment and specific ity w it hin the fra mework of the princ ip les of construal. Among them,(1) and(2) belo ng to the scope deviat ion while(3),(4),(5) and(6) perspective deviation.(7) comes to figure- ground deviation and(8) is specificity deviation.compared wit h previous stud ies on it, this thes is made a new attempt to probe into the in- depth cognit ive mot ivat ion taking place in the inner world of the translator, which addresses some proble ms left asking for explanat ion It is proved that princ ip les and met hodologies of cognit ive linguist ics contr ibute a lot to the developme nt and application of trans latio n theories since they can address almost all the issues in translation.