翻译策略二分法的认知研究.pdf

河南大学 硕士学位论文 翻译策略二分法的认知研究 姓名：李方方 申请学位级别：硕士 专业：英语语言文学 指导教师：李淑静 2011-03 v 摘 要 直译与意译一直以来就是中西翻译史上争论不休的话题。千百年来，翻译学家们从 定义、分类、社会功能及作用等各个层面对翻译策略进行了描写性或规定性的研究，为 人们进行翻译实践提供了有益的指导；现代语言学派林立，语言学家、尤其是语用及认 知语言学家对众多不同的翻译策略提出不同的解释方案，具有一定的创新性和解释力。 纵观这些理论研究， 目前还没有一个广为接受的理论来从认知层面解释不同翻译策略的 内在机理。 本研究旨在探讨不同翻译策略在进行翻译时所遵循的内在机理。语料来源于英汉、 汉英翻译教程及英汉谚语典故词典， 在所搜集的语料基础上采取了定性分析和溯因推理 的方法。本文提出了一种新的翻译策略分类，即：基于外延传承的翻译和基于内涵传承 的翻译。 此研究的理论基础来源于徐盛桓提出的外延内涵传承说， 该假说是一个动态的、 开放的、不断发展的理论体系，其中类层级结构和外延内涵传承说贯穿全文，将作为一 个有机的整体应用于本研究。 众多学者从不同角度对翻译下了定义， 我们从中提炼出一个核心思想翻译是替代 的一种形式。在翻译中用目的语 b 代替源语 a，可以抽象为 a 是 b。此外，我们认为， 发生在语言表达层面的表达形式之间的相互替代是以两个相互替代的表达形式所指称 的概念/范畴之间的互动为基础的。 根据徐盛桓的外延内涵传承说， 知识在人类大脑中是以类层级结构的形式组织起来 的，人们对任何一个事物的认识都是把它假设存在于类层级结构中一个适当的位置，且 上下范畴之间具有外延内涵的传承关系。鉴于此，我们才能在认识上将两个相关的概念 暂时等同起来， 从而使两个表达形式得以相互替换， 这就是翻译之所以可能的原因所在。 基于外延传承的翻译正是直观地利用了两个相关概念的外延的传承关系， 实现了源语到 目的语的替代；而基于内涵传承的翻译，则需重新建立一个以两个相关概念的相似点为 上位范畴，这两个相关概念为其内涵的下位类的类层级结构，这时两个相关范畴归为同 一个类并继承了这个更高层级的类的内涵，完成了源语到目的语内涵的传承。虽然两者 传承的过程有所不同，但都涉及到对相关范畴暂时的相互认定，实现了翻译中源语到目 的语的转换。 全文包括六个章节。第一章是引言部分，主要介绍本文的研究对象、研究的核心问 vi 题及研究意义，说明了语料的收集和研究方法，并勾勒出全文的框架。第二章是文献综 述， 首先介绍国内外所经常提及的翻译策略， 重点对直译/意译与归化/异化进行了回顾， 论述了翻译策略的研究现状并指出其不足。基于此，本文拟用外延内涵传承说对翻译策 略进行分析。第三章是理论框架。集中介绍了类层级结构与外延内涵传承说及其密切相 关的心理模型、常规关系、相邻相似关系，为翻译策略的研究提供了理论基础。第四章 通过对翻译定义及不同翻译策略的介绍，提出了我们对翻译定义的理解，并在此基础上 对翻译策略重新进行了划分，得出是翻译是替代的一种形式，并以此来发掘翻译策略的 内在机理。第五章从外延内涵传承角度对不同翻译策略的内在形成过程进行分析，揭示 翻译的内在机理是源语与目的语外延内涵的传承。通过语料分析，得出直译与异化属于 基于外延传承的翻译，意译与归化是基于内涵传承的翻译。第六章总结了全文的研究成 果，指出了研究的不足之处及其应用性。 关键词关键词：翻译策略，二分法，外延内涵传承说 i abstract literal translation and free translation have always been a controversial topic in the translation studies, in china and abroad. for centuries, translators have never stopped their working for giving descriptive or prescriptive delineation of various facets of translation strategies so as to offer guidelines for translation practice. modern linguists, pragmatists and cognitive linguists in particular, probe into this old issue by proposing different linguistic approaches, with which the translation strategies have been expounded. however, few has given satisfactory account or got wide recognition from the cognitive perspective up to now. our key theoretical goal is to inquire into the inner mechanisms of different translation strategies. a qualitative and introspective method adopted in our study is based on a considerable amount of data selected from englishchinese or chineseenglish translation coursebooks as well as proverb dictionaries. then, we bring out a new division of translation strategies, that is, denotation inheritance-based translation and connotation inheritance-based translation. guided by the principles of cognitive linguistics, the present study emerges from xu shenghuans theory of the inheritance of denotation and connotation, which, as a dynamic and open system, mainly consists of two organic parts, namely, type hierarchy structure and inheritance of denotation and connotation, with this being responsible for the account of the inner mechanisms of translation strategies. on the ground of a large variety of definitions of translation from various aspects, translation is considered to be a type of substitution. the substitution of the source language item a with the target language b can be abstracted as one formulaa is b. the substitution or switchover of words/expressions on language level is backed up by the mental interaction of concepts/categories represented by concerned language forms. ii according to xus inheritance of denotation and connotation, knowledge in mental models is organized in type hierarchy structure, in which events and entities are presumed to take a particular place of their own and all supercategories and their subcategories are in an inheritance relation in terms of connotation or denotation. thats why the two concerned concepts/categories can be conceived to be identical temporarily in cognition so that the substitution on language level turns out to be possible. by the direct application of the inheritance relation in denotation inheritance-based translation, the substitution of the source language with the target language is realized in the form of denotation inheritance. as for the connotation inheritance-based translation, a new type hierarchy structure needs to be established with the two concerned concepts as the subcategories and one of their similar connotations as the supercategory. this being the case, the two concerned concepts are classified into the identical supercategory and inherit the connotations from it. in a word, although the two kinds of translation strategies differ in the inheriting processes, they both come down to the temporary identity of the two concerned concepts, which makes translation done. the thesis is incorporated into six chapters: chapter one is an introduction. in this chapter, we mainly introduce the topic of this thesis, raise the key research questions and set the guideline of this research, and then illustrate the methodology, data collection and the organization of this paper. chapter two reviews related studies on translation strategies both at home and abroad. on carefully examining the previous studies, we state the necessity for the present study in the summary of this chapter. chapter three shows the theoretical framework of our study in this paper. based on xu shenghuans theory of type hierarchy structure and the inheritance of denotation and connotation, we attempt to form the theoretical foundation for our analysis in this paper. iii chapter four revisits the definitions of translation and classifications of translation strategies given by previous scholars and then offers our view on the definition of translation and raises a new classification of translation strategies. under close observation, the translation is considered as a type of substitution, which can be taken as the breakthrough to dig out the inner mechanisms of different translation strategies. chapter five aims to uncover the underlying cognitive mechanisms of different translation strategies on the ground of the inheritance of denotation and connotation. it concludes that literal translation and foreignizing translation are attributed to be denotation inheritance-based translation while free translation and domesticating translation belong to connotation inheritance-based translation. case studies are also embraced in this chapter. chapter six, the concluding remarks, presents a summary of this study together with the major findings, limitations and implications for further studies. key words: translation strategies, the dichotomies, inheritance of denotation and connotation theory 关于学位论文独创声明和学术诚信承诺 本人向河南大学提出硕士学位申请。本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文是本人在导 师的指导下独立完成的， 对所研究的课题有新的见解。 据我所知， 除文中特别加以说明、 标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包括其 他人为获得任何教育、科研机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同事对 本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。 在此本人郑重承诺：所呈交的学位论文不存在舞弊作伪行为，文责自负。 学位申请人（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 关于学位论文著作权使用授权书 本人经河南大学审核批准授予硕士学位。作为学位论文的作者，本人完全了解并同 意河南大学有关保留、使用学位论文的要求，即河南大学有权向国家图书馆、科研信息 机构、数据收集机构和本校图书馆等提供学位论文（纸质文本和电子文本）以供公众检 索、查阅。本人授权河南大学出于宣扬、展览学校学术发展和进行学术交流等目的，可 以采取影印、 缩印、 扫描和拷贝等复制手段保存、 汇编学位论文 （纸质文本和电子文本） 。 （涉及保密内容的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书） 学位获得者（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 学位论文指导教师签名： 201 年 月 日 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 lead-in remarks in the translation studies, whether in china or abroad, in the ancient times or nowadays, the central problem has always been around the translation strategies, such as whether to translate literally or freely, to be source-language-oriented or target-language-oriented. it has been argued since the translation study appeared. being a ubiquitous social and linguistic phenomenon, translation is the replacement of the content of one language (source language) by equivalent material in another language (target language). it is a type of substitution. recently, some scholars and linguistics have done many researches on translation strategies. their researches are carried out from social linguistic, pragmatic and cognitive perspectives, basing on which we would like to make a tentative study on the translation strategies from the cognitive point of view. this paper, on the ground of type hierarchy structure and the inheritance of denotation and connotation theory, which is developed on the basis of mental models, stereotypical relations and two dimensions of proximity and similarity, aims to explore the inner mechanisms of different translation strategies. on the one hand, since our basic view lies in that the substitution of the source language with the target language operated on language level is actually backed up by the interaction of concerned concepts or categories in mental models, this research would convert the static study of translation strategies in terms of language to their underlying cognitive mechanisms, which would be an efficient supplement to the static descriptions of the translation strategies. on the other hand, this research would raise a new classification of translation strategies and validate the reasonableness based on xus theory. on dichotomies of translation strategies: a cognitive perspective 2 1.1.1 key research questions on the basis of the elaborate studies on the definitions of translation and the dichotomies of translation strategies, the design features of translation indicate that it is a type of substitution. thus, translation is a substitution of the source language with the target language. since the substitution between two different language forms is backed up by the interaction of the concerned concepts or categories in mental models, the substitution operated on language level can be accounted as the shift of concepts or categories on ideational level. the dichotomies of translation strategiesliteral translation and free translation, semantic translation and communicative translation, foreignizing translation and domesticating translation, etc are only the terms given by scholars basing on different theoretical foundations. with more and more notions advanced, the debates over them have been going on innumerous rounds all the time along. according to zhang meifang (2004), literal translation and foreignizing translation are close to the source language, while free translation and domesticating translation are close to the target language. so here wed like to ask: (1) are literal translation and foreignizing translation attributed to the same matter while free translation and domesticating translation of the same kind? (2) what are the inner mechanisms of different translation strategies? 1.1.2 methodology in this thesis, a qualitative method is applied based on the data we have collected till now. this being an analytical research, the experimental statistics have not been provided. additionally, the theory of type hierarchy structure and the inheritance of denotation and connotation are adopted, which is developed on the basis of mental models, stereotypical relations and two dimensions of proximity and similarity. since they are conducted by xu shenghuan from the cognitive point of view, this research tends to be introspective. chapter one introduction 3 1.1.3 data collection the data are mainly collected from some coursebooks on englishchinese or chineseenglish translation, modern chineseenglish dictionary as well as proverb dictionaries, etcbesides the formal written language, the informal or spoken forms are also embraced. 1.2 translation strategies: origin and motivation literal translation and free translation have always been the controversial topic in the translation history, both in china and abroad. in china, the argument of literal translation and free translation can be traced back to the translation of the sanskrit buddhism scriptures into chinese by an shigao and zhi qian. till 1960s and afterwards, the western scholars have continuously put forward other dichotomies of translation strategies, such as nidas “formal equivalence” vs. “dynamic equivalence”, which is consistent with “literal translation” vs. “free translation” in essence (zhang meifang, 2004: 2); houses “overt translation” vs. “covert translation”; gutts “direct translation” vs. “indirect translation”; tourys “adequacy” vs. “acceptability”; and also newmarks “semantic translation” vs. “communicative translation” and venutis “foreignizing translation” vs. “domesticating translation”. the notions of these translation strategies seem to indicate that the translation theorists are attempting to construct a dichotomy construction to talk over this issue. in china, more and more scholars begin to set foot in the study of translation strategies. zhang meifang (2004) firstly gives a brief account of the dichotomies between literal translation and free translation, semantic translation and communicative translation, foreignizing translation and domesticating translation, which are frequently mentioned in the translation studies. the article analyzes the main features of these three pairs of translation strategies and summarizes the differences of them. it points out that literal translation, on dichotomies of translation strategies: a cognitive perspective 4 semantic translation and foreignizing translation have one matter in common, that is, they are close to the source language; free translation, communicative translation and domesticating translation are close to the target language. nevertheless, the author merely illustrates the similarities of them, failing to make a deeper exploration on the commonness of the sorted two groups of translation strategies. yin fulin (2007) makes a tentative study on literal translation and free translation from the cognitive point of viewconceptual blending theory and holds that “there is no demarcation between literal translation and free translation in the blending model because both literal translation and free translation are the results of subjective picking-up in conceptual blending.” after the operation of the blending, the more lexical concepts constructions and image concepts constructions in target language retain, the more possible literal translation is; the less lexical concepts constructions and image concepts constructions in target language retain, the more possible free translation is. the article interprets the mapping from the source language to the target language in translation from the cognitive perspective, but lacks sufficient grounds of arguments of the mapping mode. based on the present studies, this thesis attempts to probe into the inner mechanisms of different translation strategies from xu shenghuans theory of inheritance of denotation and connotation and argues that the shift between the source language and target language in translation is actually the inheritance of denotation or connotation. 1.3 organization of the paper this research draws quantities of insights from the achievements of type hierarchy structure and inheritance of denotation and connotation. it is incorporated into six chapters: chapter one is an introduction of the thesis. in this chapter, we mainly introduce the topic of this thesis, raise the key research questions and set the guideline of this research, and then illustrate the methodology, data collection and the organization of this paper. chapter one introduction 5 chapter two reviews related studies on translation strategies both at home and abroad. on carefully examining the previous studies, we state the necessity for the present study in the summary of this chapter. chapter three shows the theoretical framework of our study in this paper. based on xu shenghuans theory of type hierarchy structure and the inheritance of denotation and connotation, which is the extension of mental models, stereotypical relations and two dimensions of proximity and similarity, we attempt to form the theoretical foundation for our analysis in this paper. chapter four revisits the definitions of translation and classifications of translation strategies given by previous scholars, offering our own view on the definition and classification, considering translation to be a type of substitution and taking substitution as the breakthrough. chapter five aims to uncover the underlying cognitive mechanisms of translation strategies. based on the theory of inheritance of denotation and connotation, we conclude that literal translation and foreignizing translation are attributed to be denotation inheritance-based translation while free translation and domesticating translation belong to connotation inheritance-based translation. case studies are also embraced in this chapter. chapter six, the concluding remarks, presents a summary of this study together with the major findings of the thesis, limitations of the present study and implications for further studies. on dichotomies of translation strategies: a cognitive perspective 6 chapter two literature review 2.1 introduction this chapter is towards translation strategies. firstly, it discusses the definitions of two pairs of translation strategiesliteral translation and free translation, foreignizing translation and domesticating translation, and then compares them at the aspect of a similar dichotomy of translation strategies. it also probes into the disputes over the two pairs of translation strategies in history. finally, the author presents the current studies on these two pairs of translation strategies. 2.2 key terms there are four notions to elucidate: literal translation, free translation, foreignizing translation and domesticating translation. 2.2.1 definitions of literal translation and free translation literal translation and free translation place a great deal of emphasis on the study of the form and content of the source language. they pay much attention to the differences of the grammatical structures and linguistic characteristics between the source language and the target language. it is widely acknowledged that literal translation and free translation are two basic