A Contrastive Study Of Nicknames Translation In Shui Hu Chuan From The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistics

Nicknames are one kind of special addressing terms. Nicknames are named with a sense of humor and satire on the basis of people’s appearance, character, specialty, physiological features, and special experiences, etc. As a special form of address, they are a phenomenon of both language and culture, and they represent their distinct national cultures and customs. Nicknames are not only used by people in their daily life, but also can be found in many literary works. However, scholars at home and abroad don’t attach too much importance to the researches on nicknames, for nicknames haven’t been regarded as a mainstream in today’s linguistic field.As one of the four classics in Chinese literature, Shui Hu Chuan has profound significance for literature, and reflects the national culture and custom at that time. In the novel, there are108heroes and heroines with their own nicknames. Shui Hu Chuan has the largest quantity of nicknames in ancient Chinese novels. It is these nicknames that can vividly describe the images of these characters in the novel which also leave a deep impression upon readers. Shui Hu Chuan, which enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad, arouses more and more scholars’interests and gradually becomes a hot topic in research field. Owing to its distinct folk cultures, lively characters, vivid descriptions, Shui Hu Chuan is regarded as a precious corpus for language studies. Its two English versions translated respectively by Buck and Shapiro are highly representative and have a great value in literary and cultural research.Since the1980s, cognitive linguistics has increasingly developed, for which the research on metaphor and metonymy has been carried out from the cognitive perspective, rather than rhetoric perspective. Metaphors We Live By written by Lakoff&Johnson in1980is the landmark of researches on metaphor. Since then, the research on metaphor has stepped into a new era. In cognitive linguistics, metaphor emphasizes a cross-domain mapping from the source domain to the target domain. Metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to the other conceptual entity, the target, within one idealized cognitive model. In the process of cognition, experience and cognitive ability of people play an important role. This thesis attempts to classify these nicknames of108heroes and heroines in Shui Hu Chuan from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, and analyze their construction and features with some specific examples. Based on the conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory, the author of this thesis illustrates the construction and working mechanism of these nicknames and finds out the cultural factors which exert great influence upon the choices of the source domain. On the basis of the cognitive study of these nicknames, the author gives a descriptive analysis of nicknames translation in Buck’s and Shapiro’s versions and summarizes their priorities in choosing translation strategies. Then through the contrastive studies of their different translations of these nicknames, the author points out the similarities and differences of translation strategies between the two translators.After a careful analysis of these nicknames and their English translations, the author draws a conclusion that the application of these nicknames in Shui Hu Chuan is a phenomenon of both cognition and culture. The modes of metaphor and metonymy exist in the construction and interpretation of the nicknames. In the process of constructing and interpreting these nicknames, the choices of the source domain are inevitably influenced by specific national culture to some extent. So nicknames are affected by the cognitive mode and cultural mode. Based on the cognitive study of these nicknames, the author further discusses nicknames translation in Buck’s and Shapiro’s versions. From the above discussion, we can conclude that nicknames are not only a phenomenon of language, but also a phenomenon of cognitive and culture. As for nicknames translation in Shui Hu Chuan, the two translators strive to use different translation strategies to accurately transmit the exotic flavor of these nicknames in the original novel. In order to make the translated text readable and smooth, Buck is inclined to employ the domesticating strategy when dealing with these nicknames; while in Shapiro’s translation, foreignization is the dominant translation strategy and domestication plays a complementary role. And Shapiro’s translation is regarded as a good combination of foreignization and domestication, which makes his version more fluent and more readable. In translation practice, translators should balance the relationship between the foreignizing strategy and the domesticating strategy to accurately transmit these culture-loaded words for the target-language readers. They should not only accurately convey the source-language culture, but also make the translated version readable and smooth. This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One is an introduction. Chapter Two gives a brief introduction of cognitive linguistics, metaphor and metonymy research at home and abroad, and also summarizes these researches on the English versions of Shui Hu Chuan and on nicknames translation of Shui Hu Chuan. Chapter Three covers the research data, the research methodology and layout of this thesis. Chapter Four makes a tentative study on the108nicknames oi Shui Hu Chuan from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, including the classification and the working mechanism of these nicknames. Chapter Five gives a descriptive analysis of nicknames translation in Buck’s and Shapiro’s versions and summarizes their priorities in translation strategies. Chapter Six concludes the major findings and its limitations of this study.