A Contrastive Study On Category Of Two English Versions Of Animals,plants And Minerals’ Names In The Classic Of Mountains And Seas

The Classic of Mountains and Seas contains a rich collection of animals,plants and minerals’ names.This book has been translated into multi-national languages,in which the English version is widely circulated.Different translators make use of different category levels and prototypes to deal with the names of animals,plants and minerals in The Classic of Mountains and Seas;however,existing translation studies of this book in home are majorly based on perspectives of structural linguistics and cultural views without employing contrastive studies on category.The cognitive category theory is to be adopted to explore the differences of category levels and prototypes among the names of animals,plants and minerals in two English versions.Among the five English versions of The Classic of Mountains and Seas,the two latest full translations are selected: one of them,published in 1999,is translated by the famous American sinologist,Anne Birrell.And the other one,published in 2010,is translated by Wang Hong,who is an expert on translating Chinese classical books.After collecting and sorting the names of animals,plants and minerals in two English versions of The Classic of Mountains and Seas,this thesis analyzes 178 examples at large by adopting quantitative and qualitative methods.The study finds that:(1)among the 178 translated names analyzed,the two translators have distinct cognitions on variety,shape and geographical distribution of animals,plants and minerals in The Classic of Mountains and Seas.There are 111 examples with different prototypes;(2)among the remaining 67 examples,Wang Hong’s English version is nearly three times as large as Anne Birrell’s in terms of the usage ratio of the superordinate levels.These differences are not only due to the essential difference between Chinese and English scholars when classifying things,but are deeply influenced by factors such as cultures,national geographical environments,property attributes,cognitive category of language perceptions between male and female,formation of English words and Chinese characters,and the degree of Chinese proficiency between two translators.This thesis contains six chapters.The first chapter deals with the background and significance of the research,putting forward research questions,and summarizing the framework of this thesis.The second chapter is the literature review,briefly introducing the research history of The Classic of Mountains and Seas,and classifying the research status of the English translation of The Classic of Mountains and Seas,pointing out that the previous researchers rarely discuss the perspective of cognitive category.The third chapter details the theory of cognitive category.The fourth and fifth chapters,starting from the category theory,are the main parts,which compare and analyze the differences of category levels and prototypes among animals,plants and minerals’ names in the two English versions,and take a broad view of deeper reasons.The sixth chapter is the conclusion,pointing out the inadequacies of this study and the problems that need to be resolved.