A Comparative Study Of The C-E Translations Of The Book Of Songs At Lexical Level Based On The Categorization Theory

As a Chinese cultural carrier,ETCC(English translation of Chinese classics)has become an important method to urge Chinese culture to go into the world.Based on the theory of categorization in cognitive linguistics and by combining relevant theoretical translation knowledge,this paper conducts an exploration into the two classical versions translated by Wang Rongpei and James Legge of The Book of Songs.By resorting to Langacker’s formula as an evaluating mechanism,this paper aims to answer the following questions: What are the main causes leading to the two translators’ nonequivalent translations? Aiming at the non-equivalent phenomenon of lexical categorization in the process of translating The Book of Song,what strategies have the two translators taken? Through this study,what new strategies of translating Chinese classics can be concluded?First of all,cognition-based translation at lexical level appears to be in code-switching form.As a matter of fact,it is essentially a cognitive category transplantation process.As the form of the cognitive category,lexical category can be divided into super-ordinate,basic and subordinate categories at lexical level respectively.Secondly,according to Langacker’s formula,if “S” stands for lexical category of the original text,“T” stands for lexical category of translation text,then S>T,meaning over-translation;S=T means equivalent translation;S<T is equal to under-translation;S≠T indicates misinterpretation.Thirdly,the discrepancy caused by the Chinese and western cultures may bring about nonequivalence and deficiency in category and no equivalence in cultural meaning which results in no total equivalence in the process of lexical translation.Because of all this,the research employs quantitative and qualitative methods and makes a comparison between Wang Rongpei’s translation and James Legge’s one,and then several strategies concerning the process of lexical category translation are explored.The chapter one of this paper is an introduction,including the following 5 parts: the background of this thesis,the research target,the research ideas and research methods,the research significance and the organization of the thesis.The chapter two is Literature review about categorization theory and The English Translation of the Book of Songs at home and abroad,and points out the deficiencies of the interdisciplinary research between the categorization theory and the English translation of the Book of Songs.The chapter three sketched out the theoretical framework of lexicon categorization.This chapter can be divided into two parts: the introduction of lexical categorization theory,and the translation theory of lexical categories.The chapter four classifies lexical items of the Book of Songs and compares Chinese translator’s translation strategies with Western translator’s;the chapter five is the conclusion of this paper.It summarizes the research findings,points out some deficiencies of this research and prospects for future research.