Representation Of Iconic Syntactic Structures In Chinese-English Prose Translation

Literary forms,as has been widely acknowledged,not only carry profound implied meanings but also serve as an important yardstick against which the aesthetic values of a literary work are measured,and should therefore be fully understood and properly represented in the target text in literary translation(prose translation included).However,as an important dimension of literary forms,syntactic forms,which,as cognitive linguists hold,can mirror a writer's conceptual structures such as order of perception,force of emotion,attitudes,etc.,do not receive enough attention they truly deserve in prose translation practice and studies.This thesis is intended to study the representation of iconic syntactic structures(syntactic structures whose syntactic forms are motivated,conforming to the principle of syntactic iconicity)in C-E prose translation,so as to provide some guidance for the representation of syntactic forms in C-E prose translation from the perspective of syntactic iconicity.This research selects iconic syntactic structures from modern Chinese essays and their famous English versions as research material,and adopts text analysis and comparative analysis as research methods.The research is conducted in the following steps: first,three types of iconic syntactic structures(order iconic syntactic structures,distance iconic syntactic structures and quantity iconic syntactic structures)are sorted out and categorized respectively based on the principles of order iconicity,distance iconicity,and quantity iconicity;second,the main types of textual devices contributing to iconicity of these syntactic structures are analyzed;third,the methods employed by famous translators to deal with these textual devices are analyzed and evaluated from the perspective of syntactic iconicity;fourth,the tendencies for translators to deal with iconic syntactic structures in terms of form and meaning are generalized;finally,some suggestions on the representation of syntactic forms in C-E prose translation are given from the perspective of syntactic iconicity.This study shows that syntactic forms of many syntactic structures are motivated,having their implied meanings and intended effects,while in the representation of iconic syntactic structures in C-E prose translation,it is common for translators to neglect the implied meanings and intended effects of the syntactic forms of the source text,or to mechanically preserve the syntactic forms of the source text without making adjustments.The principle of syntactic iconicity can offer a new and illuminating perspective to help translators better represent the syntactic forms of the source text in literary translation.It can help translators understand the implied meanings and the intended effects of the syntactic forms of the source text and then choose proper syntactic forms(including making adjustments when necessary)to represent them in the target text,thus enabling translators to fully preserve the aesthetic effects of the source text including both the form and the content.This research can provide some practical guidance on the representation of iconic syntactic structures in C-E prose translation and offer translators a new perspective to understand and represent syntactic forms of the source text in C-E translation of other literary genres,thus enabling translators to better represent both the form and the content of the source text in translation practice.Besides,through a detailed analysis of examples,it also provides objective and practicable methods to carry out translation appreciation and criticism from the perspective of syntactic forms,and offers food for thought on how the theory of iconicity can be applied to translation studies.