A Study On Cognitive Semantic Change In C-E Translation

Since Nida’s translation theories were given birth,"equivalence" has been not only one of the central issues of translation studies, but also one of great translators’ pursuits when they translate classic literatures. However, as is proved by some classic translation theories, such as Nida’ translation theories:formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence and functional equivalence, total equivalence is and will never be achieved in translation. Now that translation can’t achieve total equivalence and there will always be some semantic or structural differences between the source text and its corresponding translation, it may illustrate that semantic change occurs in C-E translation. Based on the diversity of cognitive structures between the original text and the target text, this research aims to dig out the features of cognitive semantic change in C-E translation from the perspective of translators’ cognitive construal. Through an in-depth analysis of classical translation examples, this research further probes into the reasons that cause the semantic change.Semantic change refers to the meanings of the words in the original texts coming into change in the target texts to adapt to the change of inner context of the texts and communicative context out of the texts. It is a cross-lingual and synchronic semantic change, based on the translator’s subjectivity who acts not only as the language user but also as the interpreter. The purpose of semantic change is to promote the original text’s expressiveness in the target language and to deepen the target text readers’ understanding of the original text. This study selects one of contemporary Chinese writers Wang Anyi’s novel《长恨歌》 and its English version entitled The Song of Everlasting Sorrow:A Story of Shanghai as the subject. Meanwhile, the research takes the theory of cognitive linguistics as the theoretical framework and makes a comparative reading on the two versions of the novel. In this context, the representative examples are sorted out under the category of three aspects of construal abilities so as to facilitate the discussion of the features of cognitive semantic change in C-E translation.The finding of the research is that, the characters of semantic change in C-E translation are diversified. Based on the theory of cognitive linguistics, the semantic change in C-E translation mainly reflects in three aspects, i.e. the scope, the perspective and the salience. Specifically speaking, the semantic change in the scope displays by metonymic approach and metaphorical approach. The semantic change in the perspective shows in four aspects:the shift in time and space, the shift in subjectivity and objectivity, the shift of viewpoints and the shift of affect. The semantic change in the scope reflects in the shift in trajector and landmark. Moreover, by studying the motivations behind translators’translation approaches and translators’ backgrounds, this research also singles out the main factor that influences the occurrence of semantic change, that is, the diversity of cognitive structures between two different languages. As is all known, translation involves not only the translators, but also the original text writers and the target text readers, whose cognitive mechanisms are distinctive. During the process of translation, translators’strategies may be influenced by their own cognitive mechanisms and their considerations for the target text readers’cultural backgrounds and so on.The first and foremost implication of this research is that it proves the necessity and the significance of studying cognitive semantic change in C-E translation in terms of three aspects of construal abilities. What’s more, literary translators can get some inspiration from this research to cultivate their construable abilities in the translation of literature works to some extent.