A Study On Lexicalization Patterns Of Motion Events In Chinese-English Translation

Motion events have been a heated topic in the domain of cognitive semantics.In recent years,scholars both in China and abroad have conducted studies on motion events from the perspectives of lexicalization typology,expressions,language acquisition as well as translation.Nevertheless,research on lexicalization patterns of motion events in Chinese-English translation mostly focuses on case analysis and relatively comprehensive studies are few.In view of this,with the help of data collected from Chinese novels and their translated versions,this thesis attempts to explore the lexicalization pattern shift of semantic elements Manner and Path in the translation of motion events.This thesis has yielded the following findings:(1)Firstly,although,in most cases,lexicalization patterns of Manner and Path in Chinese originals are consistent with those of Manner and Path in target texts,there are following ways of conversion.The lexicalization pattern of Manner in original texts tends to be converted from[Motion +Manner] to [Motion+Path],[Motion+Cause],[Motion+Figure] as well as other conflation patterns,among which the lexicalization pattern [Motion+Path] is the most representative one.The lexicalization pattern [Motion+Path] in original texts is apt to be changed into [Motion+Manner],[Motion+Manner+Path],[Motion+Path+Ground] and other conflation patterns,of which the lexicalization pattern[Motion+Path] is the most pervasive one.Secondly,Chinese shows certain characteristics of satellite-framed languages.Finally,in the process of translating motion events,symmetries are mainly ascribed to people’s common experiences and capabilities for categorization as well as the similar lexicalization patterns of motion events in original texts,while asymmetries are mainly related to different ways of conceptualization and lexicalization typology of these two languages.To sum up,this thesis can not only objectively explain the regular lexicalization pattern shift of Manner and Path,but also shed light on the Chinese-English translation of the two semantic elements.