A Study On Image Transmission In English Translation Of Tang Frontier Fortress Poems From The Perspective Of Frame Theory

Frame theory is an important theory in cognitive linguistics.Charles Fillmore is the key representative in the field of frame theory study.He(1992:75-102)believes that frame is the knowledge structure that exists in memory representing the objective reality which is suitable for representing the knowledge and beliefs that are specific and appear frequently.The meaning of language mostly depends on the cognitive frame,and linguistic expression is the trigger to activate the cognitive frame or the anchor to stabilize the cognitive frame.Poetry is the essence of the language,and image is the soul of the poetry.Image carries the connotation of the poem and the emotion endowed by the poet,which are important and difficult in poetry translation.How to transmit the image in the English translation of poetry has become a hot topic in the translation field.Tang frontier fortress poem has a long history with rich and unique images,which is significant for the study on English translation of Chinese poetry.There are culture differences between different nations and countries,the interpretation and division of the same linguistic expression can also be diverse.These will cause differences in frame activation.The real task of image transmission is to find the image expression in the target language that can activate the same or similar cognitive frame as the original one in the source language.At present,scholars at home and abroad have done many researches on image transmission in poetry translation,but most of them are concentrated on the perspectives of comparative literature,reception aesthetics,linguistic and so on.There are few studies on Tang frontier fortress poem based on the frame theory of the cognitive linguistics.The thesis tries to apply frame theory of cognitive linguistic into the image transmission in the English translation of Tang frontier fortress poems through the analysis of frame differences activated by the linguistic expression in the image transmission under visual frame,emotional frame,geographical frame and social frame,discussing how to transmit the image and confirming that frame theory has some explanatory power to the English translation of Chinese poetry.Research findings: frame theory has great power in guiding image transmission in English translation of Chinese poetry.The translator has to be conscious of the differences of the frame in the source language and target language and finds the linguistic expression in the target language that can activate the same or similar cognitive frame as the original one in the source language,realizing the image transmission in poetry translation.Through the analysis of image transmission in English translation of Tang frontier fortress poems,the thesis summarizes the translation principles of frame modification,frame addition,frame explanation,frame annotation which provides some enlightment for poetry translation.