语言学论文哪里有？笔者认为从认知角度研究诗歌中的隐喻和转喻翻译还有很多工作要做。本文只是对徐渊冲唐诗英译中隐喻翻译的初步研究。如果我们能对不同译者的翻译文本进行比较研究，比较他们的翻译差异和偏好，并探索其背后的认知基础，必将对诗歌中隐喻和转喻翻译的研究带来更多的启示。
Chapter One Introduction
1.2 Research objective and significance
The thesis takes the metaphors in Tang poetry and their English translations as the research object. By referring to the relevant metaphor identification methods at home and abroad, the metaphors in the original texts of Tang poems are identified, and their corresponding translations are also found out at the same time, and finally, the corpus is constructed. The small corpus contains original metaphors and their English translation counterparts. The source of the corpus is the Version of Classical Chinese Poetry: Tang Poetry (I & II) Translated by Xu Yuanchong (Tang Poetry for short). And the choice of the translation version is mainly based on the following considerations: the background of the national strategy of the Belt and Road; the popularity and acceptability of the translation version of Tang poetry.
Based on the primary principle of ECL and relevant research results, in this thesis, quantitative analysis on the data of the corpus is presented, and at the same time, qualitative analysis with some examples in the corpus is also given in detail. The purpose of the research is to answer the following two questions:
(1) When translating metaphors in Tang Poetry, what translation methods does the translator adopt? And what are the proportions of them?
(2) Is the translator’s choice of different translation methods related to the experience and cognition of the source and target language readers? If there is relevance, then how are they related?
Chapter Three Theoretical Framework
3.1 Embodied Philosophy
Embodied Philosophy is a new Non-objectivist Philosophy established on the criticism towards Objectivist Philosophy Theory, emphasizing the fundamental role of bodily experience and subject-object interaction in cognitive processing and language expression. Unlike Objectivist Philosophy Theory, Embodied Philosophy highlights the importance and pivotal role of human beings. In 1999, Lakoff and Johnson published their Philosophy in the Flesh—The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought, officially using the term “Embodied Philosophy”. As the book’s name suggests, Embodied Philosophy poses a serious challenge to the western tradition of Objectivism.
In the first chapter of the book, Lakoff and Johnson (1999, p.3) explicitly present the main ideas of Embodied Philosophy:
(1) The mind is inherently embodied. (2) Thought is mostly unconscious. (3) Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
Firstly, the mind is inherently embodied. The mind is the product of bodily experience. Our concepts, categories, reasoning and mind are not purely spiritual products, nor are they the objective reflection of external reality, but actually and inherently rely on our bodily experience. Different from the Objectivism of mind-body dualism, which holds that subject and object can be separated, the embodied mind emphasizes the interaction between subject and object, and people’s bodily experience plays an important role in the formation of the human mind. “Concepts arise from, and are understood through, the body, the brain, and experience in the world. Concepts get their meaning through embodiment, especially via perceptual and motor capacities” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p.497). Perception of reality is the basis of cognition, and cognition is the basis of language. Thus, the primary principle of ECL is established, that is to say, “Reality-Cognition-Language”. The two basic elements of cognition are basic-level categories and kinesthetic schemas, both of which are generated through the interaction of the human brain and body with the external world, and thus can be directly understood. Other concepts and categories are indirectly recognized through metaphors. Numerous concepts form the conceptual structure of human beings, which is represented by the semantic structure, and the semantic structure drives or promotes the formation of syntax and language (Y. Wang, 2007, pp.6-7).
Chapter Five Analysis of English Translation of Metaphors in Tang Poetry
5.1 Linguistic level translation
5.1.1 Complete literal translation
“Complete literal translation” means directly translating the literal meaning of the vehicles in the original Chinese metaphors in Tang Poetry into English. For example:
[1] 君不见高堂明镜悲白发，朝如青丝暮成雪。（《将进酒》李白）
Jun bu jian gao tang ming jing bei bai fa, zhao ru qing si mu cheng xue. (Invitation to Wine Li Bai)
Do you not see the mirrors bright in chambers high
Grieve o’er your snow-white hair though once it was silk-black?
[2] 沉舟侧畔千帆过，病树前头万木春。（《酬乐天扬州初逢席上见赠》刘禹锡） Chen zhou ce pan qian fan guo, bing shu qian tou wan mu chun. (Reply to Bai Juyi Whom I Meet for the First Time at a Banquet in Yangzhou Liu Yuxi) A thousand sails pass by the side of sunken ship; Ten thousand flowers bloom ahead of injured tree.
The “qing si (青丝)” in [1] refers to “black silk”. As we all know, the typical characteristics of silk are smooth, shiny and elegant. These characteristics can be obtained by people’s observation and touch. Therefore, the translator directly translates “qing si” as “silk-black”, which not only expresses this kind of meaning, but also enables the target language readers to perceive the color and other features of silk through their eyes and hands, thereby appreciating the blackness, smoothness and luster of the hair. This literal translation can provide readers in the target language with the most direct experience and perception, directly projecting the characteristics of “qing si” onto “black hair”.
5.2 Cognitive level translation
5.2.1 Replacing the vehicle of metaphor
Humans have subjective initiative and different cognitive abilities, so the differences between languages are formed (T. Y. Wang & Y. Wang, 2019, p.45). Different nationalities, even if they have the same experience, do not necessarily generate the same cognition. Therefore, there are differences in language expressions. “Replacing the vehicle of metaphor” refers to replacing the original vehicle of metaphor that is unfamiliar to the target language readers with a vehicle that the readers are more familiar with, namely, the conversion of vehicles in the same cognitive domain to conform to the target language reader’s experience and cognition. For example:
[5] 当君怀归日，是妾断肠时。（《春思》李白） Dang jun huai gui ri, shi qie duan chang shi. (A Faithful Wife Longing for Her Husband in Spring Li Bai) When you think of home on your part, Already broken is my heart.
[6] 所守或匪亲，化为狼与豺。（《蜀道难》李白） Suo shou huo fei qin, hua wei lang yu chai. (Hard is the Road to Shu Li Bai) Disloyal guards Would turn wolves and pards.
[5] comes from A Faithful Wife Longing for Her Husband in Spring by Li Bai, which describes a woman’s emotion of missing her husband in the army. The “chang (肠)” in “duan chang (断肠)” is translated as “(broken is) my heart”, replacing the image of “chang (肠)” (intestine) with the image of “heart”. Since there is no metaphorical meaning of “broken intestine” for “excessive worries” in English culture, the translator replaces the “intestine” image with the “heart” image which is commonly used by target language readers. There is no doubt that “intestine” and “heart” are different images, but from a cognitive perspective, the two have a relation of contiguity (i.e., nearness or neighborhood), because both “heart” and “intestine” are part of human organs. Just because of the differences in experience, the choice of words in the translation will consider target language readers’ experience.
Chapter Six Conclusion
6.1 Findings and implications
From the perspective of ECL, the thesis conducts a preliminary study on the translation of metaphors in Tang Poetry. ECL believes that language is formed based on people’s interactive embodiment and cognitive processing of the real world. Similarly, conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expression are also the results of “Embodiment and Cognition”, and the formation of metaphors in Tang poetry also follows the general process of language formation, including three phases (interactive embodiment, cognitive processing, and lexicalization) and three elements (the acquisition of experiential facts, the establishment of similar connections, and the consolidation of metaphorical expressions). Therefore, the formation process of metaphor can be described as follows: through interaction with the objective external world, people obtain direct or indirect experience, form concepts and store them in the brain, then associate them through their similarities, that is, projecting the characteristics of one thing onto another, and finally solidify this kind of connection through language expression.
The metaphors in Xu Yuanchong’s Tang Poetry are translated at three different levels, namely, the linguistic level, the cognitive level, and the realistic level. The linguistic level translation is a literal translation, and the translations on cognitive and realistic levels are free translation. Linguistic level translation refers to the translation that is directly based on the literal meaning of vehicles in metaphors, which can better convey the vocabulary expression style of the original text. Cognitive level translation means expressing the cognitive meaning of the original metaphor through the operation of the basic elements of metaphor, i.e., replacing the unfamiliar vehicle in the source language with the target language readers’ familiar one, translating the tenor of metaphor (replacing the vehicle by translating the tenor; supplementing the tenor when translating the vehicle), and translating the ground of metaphor (replacing the vehicle by translating the ground; supplementing the ground when translating the vehicle), etc., which helps to eliminate the ambiguity and uncertainty in the process of target language readers’ understanding.
reference(omitted)
