Metonymy In The Merchant Of Venice And Its Translation From The Perspective Of Event-domain Cognitive Model

Shakespeare’s plays have fascinated generations of readers both at home and abroad with their everlasting artistic charm and attracted lots of researchers’attention. The Merchant of Venice is the most popular play among the four comedies in China. It has attracted a lot of attention and affection since its creation.Shakespeare’s rhetoric has always been an essential part in the research of Shakespeare’s language. With the rise and development of cognitive linguistics, a trend of applying theories from cognitive linguistics to the study of Shakespeare’s plays has been formed. The thesis is going to apply Event-domain Cognitive Model proposed by Wang Yin to the analysis of metonymies in The Merchant of Venice. This model is proposed for the purpose of overcoming the inadequacies existed in the earlier cognitive models and has great explanatory power to metonymy.On the basis of metonymy classifications proposed by various scholars, the thesis classifies metonymy in The Merchant of Venice into13types. After a statistical classification of the metonymies of the play, the author attempts to employ the Event-domain Cognitive Model to examine metonymies in MV and find out this model has great explanatory power in any type of metonymy. Through representing the operation mechanism of metonymy, the model shows us the deep meaning of each metonymy and Shakespeare’s intention. Then the thesis explores the translation of metonymy by analyzing some typical examples and comparing five translation versions by Gu Zhongyi Liang Shiqiu, Zhu Shenghao, Cao Weifeng and Fang Ping. It is found that some improvements can still be made in the translation of metonymies of the play. Three suggested methods which are Full Reservation, Image-only Reservation and Free Translation for metonymy translation are provided to make a contribution to the translation of Shakespearean metonymy. The application of theories of Cognitive Linguistics into the study of Shakespearean works not only promotes the Shakespearean studies but also facilitates the development of Cognitive Linguistics.With the help of Event-domain Cognitive Model, we can observe the tenor, the vehicle and operational mechanism of metonymy visually which will lead us to the hidden meaning of the metonymy and thus pave the way for metonymy translation. With the assistance of a comparison study on five translation versions of the play, it hopes that this study will facilitate the study of Shakespearean rhetoric device and its translation.