A Construction-Frame Approach To The Syntactic-Semantic Transformation Between Song Ci And Its English Versions

Translation studies have been shifted from products to processes since Cognitive Linguistics(CL)emerged in the 1980 s,emphasizing mutuality between source language(SL)and target language(TL).As a vital branch of CL,Construction Grammar(CxG)fully depicts translators' mental space,through which translation processes could be substantially described theoretically and experimentally besides its adaptability to intra-linguistic studies.To advance the semantic aspect of CxG,?ulo(2013)proposed that Frame Semantics,an intrinsic semantic model in CxG,should be protruded and thereby a Construction-frame approach(CFA)was brought forth which relatively completely interprets the syntactic-semantic transformation between SL and TL from top to bottom and bottom to top.Previous CFA-based studies,however,still need be advanced regarding two aspects: 1)they lacked in the interpretation of patient topicalization construction;2)they were always confined in English,German and Spanish as SL,rarely with Chinese as SL.Therefore,this research project is of much importance and necessity.This research investigates syntactic differences,semantic divergences and relations during English translation processes of Chinese patient topicalization construction(CPTC)under the framework of CFA-based translation analysis model,combined with language materials from 300 Song Lyrics(Xu,2017).To examine the theoretical hypotheses above,a questionnaire and translations in real are conducted as well.The results prove that: firstly,CFA contributes to the interpretation of C-E translations,which is of availability and reversibility;secondly,CPTC and its translations embrace three syntactic transformation modes,i.e.,topical retention,replacement and embedment.The semantic divergences of CPTC and its translations could be depicted through their frame and frame elements(quantity,location and representation).The divergent frames between CPTC and its translations could be linked by mono-relation,di-relation or multi-relation hierarchies;thirdly,the empirical data indicate that 1)topical replacement transformation is the primary syntactic transformation mode between CPTC and its English translations;2)syntactic differences between CPTC and its English translations are mainly caused by emotional salience and discourse coherence;3)CPTC and its English translations are always semantically divergent due to different cognitive background and language complexity,which could be linked through multi-relation hierarchy as usual;4)As for the translation of Song Ci,translators should not only consider C-E pragmatic contexts for distributing suitable syntactic structures,but pay attention to semantic frame and frame elements evoked in SL and adequately annotate the TL frame so that TL could be properly integrated eventually.Last but not the least,this thesis can benefit cross-linguistic studies regarding CFA and extend studies on external publicity translations of Chinese classics by cognitive approaches.