A Study On The English Version Of The Book Of Poetry From The Perspective Of Prominence

The emergence of The Book of Poetry opened the door for Chinese classic poems.It is the oldest existing anthology in china and it is also regarded as the beginning of the history of Chinese poems.The Book of Poetry collected 311 poems which were written during the period from 11th to 7th centuries BC,and it showed the social life of Zhou dynasty which lasted about five hundred years.As one of the "Five Classics"and a history literature,The Book of Poetry plays a vital role in studying Chinese literary history and Chinese culture,and it also attracts many sinologists to conduct research on it because of its value.Domestic and western scholars have been studying the translation of the Book for nearly hundreds of years and many well-known translations have been produced.Each of these translations is worth reading and studying due to the fact that they are all excellent works.Nowadays,domestic scholars have studied the English translation of The Book of Poetry from diverse perspectives,including the introduction of The Book of Poetry or the study of English translations with different theories.However,fewer of them were written from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.Some scholars employed theories of cognitive linguistics to analyze the English translation of The Book,but their researches are only limited to the discussion of vocabulary and rhetoric.Currently,there are three research viewpoints in cognitive linguistics namely"experiential view"," prominence view" and "attentional view".This thesis analyzes the English translation of The Book of Poetry with image schema theory,figure-ground theory and the relation of "profile and base",which are derived from the prominence view.It aims to prove that analyzing the original from the perspective of prominence can guide the translation practice and produce better translations.In the thesis,Wang Rongpei's English version of The Book of Poetry will be used as an example in order to discuss that the image schema theory,figure-ground theory and the relation of "profile and base" can fulfill a function in choosing appropriate words,organizing sentences and conveying underlying meaning in the translation process.The research questions are listed as follows:first,how is the prominence view reflected in the Wang Rongpei's version of The Book of Poetry?Second,what are the advantages shown in the Wang Rongpei's version of The Book of Poetry in the prominent perspective?Third,are Image Schema and other theories under the prominence view feasible in guiding WangRongpei's translation of The Book?After the analysis of Wang Rongpei's English translation,it is found that the image-schema theory,the figure-ground theory and the profile-base relation are feasible in analyzing the original poems in translation.This means that the translator can identify the prominent meaning of a word with the help of "profile-base" relation.The context is the base and the unique meaning of a word that matches the context is the profile concept.This can help the translator to choose the appropriate word in translation.In addition,it is widely acknowledged that prepositions can form image schemas in cognitive linguistics,and these image schemas can create mental pictures in readers' minds,especially when they are reading poems which are usually written with the skills such as blending the feeling and the environment.For this reason,translators can translate the image schema contained in the original poem with appropriate prepositions and this can show artistic conception and can help target readers empathize with the poet.When it comes to sentences,the Figure-Ground theory can help the translator arrange sentence structure according to the prominence order.This means that the translator can use some special sentences which can emphasize the Figure,so that readers can understand the primary and secondary information.In a word,it is instructive to the translation practice if the translator can analyze the original text from the perspective of prominence because this can improve efficiency and accuracy of translation.