从框架理论看文学翻译中的语言模糊美及其磨蚀.pdf

硕士学位论文 m.d.thesis on fuzzy beauty and ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation: a cognitive framework perspective 从框架理论看文学翻译中从框架理论看文学翻译中的的语言模糊美语言模糊美及其及其磨蚀磨蚀 chen ruiping 陈瑞平陈瑞平 contents 独创性声明 . i abstract . ii 摘要 . iv chapter 1 introduction . 1 1.1 research background 1 1.2 research objective 3 1.3 research significance 3 1.4 definition of key terms 4 chapter 2 literature review 6 2.1 researches on fuzziness and fuzzy beauty 6 2.1.1 overview of the previous researches at home 6 2.1.2 overview of the previous researches abroad 10 2.2 domestic application of the western theories 15 2.3 summary 16 chapter 3 theoretical foundationframework theory . 18 3.1 the function of cognitive framework 18 3.2 cognitive framework and framework theory 19 3.2.1 development of the notion of framework in other fields 19 3.2.2 definition of framework in cognitive field 20 3.3 relevant terms of framework theory 21 3.3.1 default value in cognitive framework 21 3.3.2 framework rank and framework system 22 3.3.3 perspective of cognitive framework 23 chapter 4 research design 25 4.1 research questions 25 4.2 research methods 25 4.3 research procedures 25 chapter 5 analysis of fuzzy beauty and ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation 28 5.1 origin of fuzzy beauty on three levels in terms of framework theory 28 5.1.1 fuzzy beauty on the level of integrity . 28 5.1.2 fuzzy beauty on the level of permeability 29 5.1.3 fuzzy beauty on the level of indeterminacy . 30 5.2 analysis of aesthetic elements of literary fuzzy beauty . 31 5.2.1 beauty of precision . 32 5.2.2 beauty of conciseness 33 5.2.3 beauty of ambiguity . 34 5.2.4 beauty of openness in mind . 36 5.2.5 beauty of implicitness 38 5.2.6 beauty of image 38 5.3 analysis of ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation in terms of framework theory 39 5.3.1 affinity between translation and fuzzy beauty reservation . 39 5.3.2 cause of ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation 42 5.3.3 practical analysis of ablation of fuzzy beauty on four levels 46 5.4 summary 56 chapter 6 conclusion . 58 6.1 major findings . 58 6.2 limitations and suggestions 59 bibliography v acknowledgements x ii abstract fuzziness is the attribute of natural language, which functions well in enlarging linguistic capacity of language information and broadening the imagination space in understanding, achieving unique effects in linguistic expression. the ultimate target of literature is to enable readers to get aesthetic enjoyment in the process of reading, which makes fuzzy beauty an intrinsic aesthetic attribute of literary language. most of contemporary researches are confined to discussions of the origin of fuzziness, the relationship between precision and fuzziness, etc. within the scope of semantics; a few others discuss the communicative functions of fuzzy language from the perspective of pragmatics. few efforts have been made to explore the relationship between fuzziness and aesthetic functions of language from a cognitive perspective. despite some relevant researches, it is far from enough to unfold the universal law in this regard. hence fuzzy beauty is a very promising subject in the field of aesthetics, with not many achievements obtained. it is significant to probe into the deep cause of fuzzy beauty for the reason that fuzziness can activate various perceptible and reasonable activities in human mind, on which cognitive linguistics is based. cognitive linguistics deals with human perception and experiences to the outside world, on the basis of embodied philosophy. human thinking, cognition or concept exists as an intermediate link between language and reality, which makes cognitive perspective an accessible approach to fuzzy beauty. therefore, based on the above research background, this thesis intends to probe into phenomena of linguistic fuzziness from the cognitive perspective, focusing on analyzing how fuzzy beauty in literary language is generated in original chinese versions and ablated in translated english versions. the originality of this thesis lies in that it is for the first time that the issue of fuzzy beauty is studied in the perspective of framework theory. this thesis consists of six parts. part1 offers a general introduction to this thesis concerning research background, research objective and significance and definition of fuzziness and fuzzy beauty. part2 reviews relevant researches both at home and abroad and presents the originalities of the present study, focusing on the theories of gestalt and reception aesthetics as well as domestic application to the relevant theories, pointing out something in common and limitations to lay the foundation for a new perspective of this study. part3 elaborates the development of the notion of framework and explains the key relevant terms about framework theory. part4 deals with the research design of this thesis, including research questions and research methods and research procedures. part5 launches a thorough discussion and practical analysis of the origin of fuzzy beauty, main aesthetic elements of fuzzy beauty and ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation by applying the theoretical iii tool, which consists of the core part of the thesis. eventually, the conclusion of the study is drawn in part6, including certain limitations of the thesis and the prospect to further research. key words: fuzziness; fuzzy beauty; cognitive framework; c-e translation; ablation iv 摘摘 要要 模糊是语言的自然属性，它扩大了语言表达的信息容量，拓宽了语言表达的想象空间，在语言 表达中具有特殊效应。文学语言的模糊性逸出诸多美学元素，最终实现文学语言的审美效应，故模 糊美成为文学艺术的内在美学属性之一。 目前对模糊语言的研究主要在于模糊的起源，模糊与清晰的关系，或是从语用学的角度讨论模 糊语言的交际功能，但从认知语言学的角度对模糊性及其美学功能的关系的探讨较少， 尽管在模糊语言学及其相关领域内已经有许多研究，但是目前的研究还不足以揭示其内在的规 律。因此，模糊美仍旧是一个新兴的研究课题。由于语言的模糊性能激活人脑的知性和理性的各种 活动，因此从认知学的角度探讨语言的模糊美极具意义。认知语言学以体验哲学为基础，讨论人对 外部世界的感知和体验。认知语言学认为人的思维，认知和概念是联系语言和现实的中间环节，从 认知视角分析语言的模糊美成为有效的途径。 基于以上研究背景，本文旨在从认知框架理论的新视角探讨语言的模糊美，着力于理论和实例 分析汉语文学语言在原文中的模糊美及其在英语译文中的磨蚀。本文的创新点在于从认知框架理论 的新视角探讨语言的模糊美。 本文共分六个部分：第一部分为序言，介绍本文的研究背景和研究目的及意义，并对语言的模 糊性和模糊美做了界定。第二部分综述语言模糊性和模糊美在国内外的研究现状，重点介绍国外的 两个可供解释语言模糊美现象的基本理论：格式塔心理学和接受美学，并涉及到国内对此理论的发 展应用。最后通过对比当前理论的共性，指出当前研究之局限性，为本研究的可行性提供依据。同 时，简要论及本文的理论依据，即创新点。第三部分详述本研究的理论基础, 即框架理论，涉及基 本概念的发展和其它相关概念。第四部分简要介绍本论文的研究设计, 包括研究问题，研究方法及 研究过程。第五部分为本论文的核心部分。首先运用框架理论对语言模糊美的成因进行理论解释， 然后对文学语言模糊美的美学元素以及汉语文学语言的模糊美在英语译文中的磨蚀进行具体的实例 分析。第六部分为结论部分, 涉及本研究的不足以及对未来研究的展望。 关键词：关键词：模糊； 模糊美； 认知框架；汉英翻译； 磨蚀 chapter 1 introduction 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 research background what is beauty? how many grains of sand consist of a heap? and how tall is tall? maybe it is not easy to give a precise definition, for there is no clear-cut boundary between heap and non-heap, for example. thus when precise words cant convey certain meanings, fuzzy words play an important part. fuzziness is commonly applied in practical language. it seems that fuzziness and precision are paradoxical phenomena in practical language, and people tend to worship precision and avoid fuzziness, assuming that only by means of precise wordings can the beauty of language be achieved. eubulides1 people commonly deem four things result in fuzziness: uncertainty of the boundary between the objects, the convergence of the linguistic symbols, ineffable sufficiency of the objects and different comprehension of different social roles to the wordings. as kant（1952）put it, “fuzzy concepts are more powerful than precision concepts in human expression beauty is beyond our description and we are not always able to express what we want to say”. of megarian school in 400 bc is considered to be the first person to observe the characteristics of fuzziness underlying the natural languages, who put forward the reputable sorities paradox, while charles sarder peirce is often considered as the originator of the notion of fuzziness in language. it is confirmed by english scholar i.a.richards (1999)that fuzziness and precision are like two sides of a coin in language, which suggests that fuzziness is the attribute of natural languages. 2 fuzzy language can arouse readers rich imagination and association. it makes the mood of literary works full of connotative beauty and wonderful nuance, building a bridge for readers to fully use imagination and aesthetic capability, which optimize the expression effect. fuzzy beauty has a short history in the field of aesthetics, but it plays a more and more important role in aesthetic study of literary works. literature expressed by aesthetic language is vivid and emotional. this leads to the fuzziness of literature. fuzzy beauty, which is flowing, active and changeable, has its unique aesthetic value. it is a comprehensive display of the culture and the aesthetics. generally speaking, fuzzy beauty has three characteristics, i.e. indeterminacy, integrity and permeability. in the process of appreciating literary works, the application of fuzzy language can mobilize the aesthetic subjects positive activities and can arouse readers rich 1 eubulides of miletus was a philosopher of the megarian school who lived in the 4th century b.c. he was most famous for inventing the forms of several famous paradoxes, such as the liar paradox, the sorties paradox, etc. 2 毛荣贵，2005. 第一章“模糊综述” ， 翻译美学 ，上海交通大学出版。 on ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation: a cognitive framework perspective 2 imagination and association by the enlightenment and suggestibility. the readers can understand and grasp the connotative meaning. to a certain degree, literary fuzziness makes it liable to express complex feelings and profound rules for the reason that indeterminacy of works and the blank of meanings leave enough space for readers to think and imagine and the readers are expected to fill up the blank of meanings caused by fuzziness. fuzzy beauty enlarges the artistic range and leaves unlimited space for readers to ramble. it is more and more significant to study the value and the effect of fuzzy beauty in literary appreciating. with the development of fuzzy linguistics, more and more researches have been conducted on the fuzziness of language. contemporary studies on fuzziness were summarized by chen zhian et al (1997) into three classifications: researches on basic theories, including nature, causes and mechanism of fuzziness, as well as relationship between fuzziness and precision; researches on the methodology, covering qualitative and quantitative analysis and to what extent it can be transferred into operational mathematical model; applicable researches, with emphasis on qualitative analysis of linguistic elements with fuzzy characteristics and that on the correlation between fuzziness and other humanities as well as social sciences （qtd. in wang and wu 296. at the first level, it is agreed generally that fuzziness is one of natural characteristics of language, but views on the causes and mechanism of fuzziness remain divided. at the second level, studies are mainly concerned with applied mathematics and computer science. the third level is confined to the fields of semantics, categorization, pragmatics, etc. nonetheless, gratifying achievements have been made in all the three levels, with more weight laid on the first two. generally speaking, the westerners mainly researched linguistic fuzziness from the quantitative perspective, for instance, zadeh 3 3 l.a. zadeh published his seminal work on fuzzy sets in 1965 in volume8 of information and control, in which he detailed the mathematics of fuzzy set theory. the publication of this thesis is generally regarded as the beginning o modern fuzzy theory and professor zadeh is also renowned as the founder of modern fuzzy theory. (1965), originator of the quantitative research into fuzzy linguistics. after zadeh, joanna channell began to classified and analyzed fuzzy language, applying fuzzy to pragmatic field; while home researchers conducted the relevant research from the qualitative perspective and have achieved abundant fruits, esp. in the field of contrast analysis based on chinese. the book fuzzy linguistics by wu tieping (1999) is the foundation stone in fuzzy linguistics in china and yang guangrong (2001) classified the methodologies of fuzzy linguistics into quantitative and qualitative methods. besides, translation aesthetics by mao ronggui (2005) attached the importance of fuzzy beauty in translation. chapter 1 introduction 3 however, most comments and studies lack fundamental and further study on the causes of fuzziness or aesthetic fuzzy beauty in this field. despite some relevant research, it is far from enough to unfold the universal law in this regard. hence fuzzy beauty is still a very young subject in the field of aesthetics, with not many achievements obtained. foreign researches mainly focus on semantic aspect of fuzzy language, rather than on its aesthetic effect. with the development of fuzzy linguistics at the end of the 1980s, there has been a new approach to fuzzy aesthetics. actually, the beginning of fuzzy aesthetics was marked by the publication of fuzzy aesthetics, written by wang mingjv (1992) and the concept of fuzzy beauty is formally adopted and becomes the main object of fuzzy aesthetics research with uncertainty as its main c haracter. in short, most of contemporary researches are confined to discussions of the origins of fuzziness, the relationship between precision and fuzziness, etc within the scope of semantics; a few others discuss the communicative functions of fuzzy language from the perspective of pragmatics. efforts which have been made to explore the relationship between fuzziness and aesthetic functions of language from a cognitive perspective are far from enough. therefore it is significant to probe into the deep cause of fuzzy beauty for the reason that fuzziness can activate various perceptible and reasonable activities in human mind, on which cognitive linguistics is based. cognitive linguistics deals with human perception and experiences to the outside world, on the basis of embodied philosophy. human thinking, cognition or concept exists as an intermediate link between language and reality, which makes cognitive perspective an accessible approach to fuzzy beauty. 1.2 research objective based on framework theory, the thesis is aimed at interpreting the origin of fuzzy beauty, main aesthetic elements caused by fuzzy beauty, and analyzing practically the ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation. hopefully, some enlightenment will be gained in appreciating and conveying fuzzy beauty in the literary description. in order to highlight the production of fuzzy beauty, the ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation is analyzed, while the reservation of fuzzy beauty in translation is ignored. hence the emphasis of the thesis will be placed on literary fuzzy beauty originated from fuzziness instead of the issue of translation. 1.3 research significance microscopically, the thesis focuses on demonstrating the inner mechanism of fuzzy beauty caused by on ablation of fuzzy beauty in literary translation: a cognitive framework perspective 4 fuzziness in light of framework theory, so that the issue of fuzzy beauty can be approached from a more powerful point view, which provide a new perspective for the readers in literary appreciation; the thesis ultimately explains why it is difficult to capture the sense of fuzzy beauty of the chinese literary wordings in translation, which in turn inspires translators to make every effort to reserve fuzzy beauty in literary translation. linguistic expressions in target language should be adjusted correspondingly to convey both the original information in source text and display the sense of fuzzy beauty. macroscopically, the thesis introduces framework theory to fuzzy beauty, which provides a new perspective for us in this field; framework theory intensifies our understanding of the value of fuzzy beauty in literary aesthetic, which is a pioneering attempt in the area; the theory applied in literary translation broadens the scope of fuzzy beauty on one hand, and urges us to reconsider the standard of aesthetic equivalence on the other hand. both theoretically and practically, the great significance of the study exists in its possible impetus on researches on literary creation and appreciation, literary translation and even aesthetic standard. 1.4 definition of key terms it is advisable to survey the definitions of fuzziness, the linguistic phenomenon, to interpret fuzzy beauty later. vagueness has a philosophical origin while fuzziness seems to be widely used in artificial intelligence, especially after zadeh （1965） proposed fuzzy sets theory. charles sarder is often considered as the originator of the notion of fuzziness in language, his entry for vagueness in the 1902 dictionary of philosophy and psychology is as follows：a proposition is vague when there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether, had they been contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them as excluded or allowed by the proposition. by intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of any ignorance of interpretation, but because the speakers habits of language were indeterminate (748). crystal (1991: 148) considered fuzzy as “a term derived from mathematics and used by some linguists to refer to the indeterminacy involved in the analysis of a linguistic unit or pattern. the author of this thesis favors the description of vagueness (fuzziness) by kempson (1977: 127-128) a. referential vagueness, where the meaning of a lexical item is in principle clear enough, but it may be hard to decide whether or not the item can be applied to certain objects; b. indeterminacy of meaning, where the meaning of an item itself seems indeterminate; c. lack of specification in the meaning of an item, where the meaning is clear but is only generally chapter 1 introduction 5 specified; d. disjunction in the specification of an items meaning, where the meaning involves an either-or state