On The E-C Translation Of Expressions Encoding Coextension Path In Fictive Motion

As a special kind of motion event,fictive motion uses dynamic linguistic forms to describe static objects.It was Talmy who first made a pioneering research on fictive motion.Different from real motion event,fictive motion bears its unique characteristics.At the same time,in terms of English and Chinese fictive motion expressions?FMEs for short?,there is much difference in the surface structure,which often causes problems in language transference.In addition,the study on the translation of FMEs is still in its infancy now.This study centers on coextension path,a common kind of fictive motion,with an eye to elaborate on the features and rules governing the translating of FMEs from English to Chinese.Based on empirical data,this study looks into English and Chinese FMEs through comparison.In line with frame semantics,the study delves into three frames of FMEs,which are Pass Frame,Vertical Movement Frame and Shape of Path Frame.And the three frames may be realized very differently in English and Chinese.As to the realization of these three frames,there is much difference between English and Chinese FMEs,for English the syntactic pattern being typically NP₁+V?+prep.?+NP₂ and NP₁+V?+prep.?+NP₂+NP₃ and for Chinese the syntactic pattern being NP1+V+V_??+NP2 and NP+V.Then,semantic analysis is employed to compare English and Chinese FMEs in the three frames.In the end,the study investigates the translation of coextension path in fictive motion based on the above comparative analysis.Below is a list of basic findings that I have made in the study.Firstly,English FMEs,more often than not,use simple present tense while Chinese do not have explicit tense markers.Secondly,as a key element,a careful semantic analysis of motion verbs is necessary in translating FMEs.Thirdly,English path information can be expressed by Chinese path verbs or directional verbs and English manner information can be expressed by Chinese manner verbs or analytical expressions in E-C translation.Lastly,proper English manner verbs should be chosen to encode the complex manner information in translating Chinses FMEs.The study finds that remaining dynamicity is a basic principle in translating English and Chinese FMEs.In other words,FMEs should be also translated into FMEs,otherwise this dynamicity will be non-existent.Furthermore,this study also suggests that a comparative semantic analysis plays an important role in translating FMEs.