On The E-C Translation Of English Polysemy From The Perspective Of Frame Theory

Polysemy has been a popular topic of discussion in linguistics.Previous research has mainly drawn on the theory of conceptual metaphor and of categorization,focusing on the generation mechanism of polysemy and its implications to language teaching.As regards to the translation studies of English polysemy,most of them are conducted from the perspective of context theory,with few by drawing on frame theory.The translation of polysemous words is difficult due to the complexity and multiplexity of their meanings.This report intends to analyze the English-Chinese translation practice of polysemous words with resort to the frame theory,with a view of improving the accuracy of polysemous words in translation.The source text of this report is taken from the academic monograph Nature,Society,and Justice in the Anthropocene.The original text is refined in language,compact in logic,abstract in content,and more notably,employs a large number of polysemous words,which increases the difficulty in translation.This report is guided by the frame theory,and the translation of polysemous words falls into two types:translation operation under ideal frame and nonideal frame,the latter of which is further divided into internal operation,frame level adjustment and frame transplantation,thus revealing the guiding role of frame theory in the translation of polysemous words.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Frame theory can provide insight on translation of polysemy.It can be taken as a guidance whether the translator can activate the same or similar frame with the source language through the expression in the target language,for the purpose that reader can understand the content of the original.Translation guided by cognitive frame theory seeks to frames that correspond to the source language to the maximum extent,and thus can better convey the original author’s intention.(2)Vocabulary can activate frames,which in turn can restrain the range of lexical meanings.In this light,frame theory is applicable to improving the accuracy of the translation.(3)In terms of translation practice,literal translation is applicable under ideal frames,while free translation,replacement and annotation are mostly adopted under nonideal frames.This report explores English polysemy translation with the guidance of frame theory,which provides a new perspective for the study of polysemy translation and is of value in improving the accuracy of polysemy translation.