| Report on the Work of the Government(RWG)is an official document of the government in the People’s Republic of China.It is the easiest and most effective way for the international community to understand the development of China.Translating RWG is an important task to display the image of the country,promote national ideology,and enhance the confidence of the outside world to the development of China.Expressions with Chinese characteristics(ECCs)are widely used in RWG,which has important influences on the translation of RWG.Since 2007,some scholars begun to study the English translation of ECC in publicity materials,but the scope of study was very limited.Since 2010,the scope of research gradually was expanded,mainly including linguistics,translation and culture.However,these researches mainly focus on translation strategies,and few of them analyze the translator’s cognitive process.In recent years,conceptual integration theory(CIT)gets more attention,and it is widely used to analyze cognitive activities.The basis of CIT is conceptual metaphor theory and mental space theory.Conceptual metaphor theory proposes the conception of mapping between source and target domains.Mental space theory believes that various connectors connect the mental spaces created by people,and when they use language,these connectors make cross-space mapping possible.On this basis,Fauconnier(1997),Fauconnier & Turner(1996)and Fauconnier & Turner(2002)proposed CIT.CIT is a theory that explores the process of meaning integration.It holds that human beings can establish mental spaces through thinking,and then integrate new meaning through mapping and merging of mental spaces.Conceptual integration is done in four basic mental spaces: input space I,input space II,generic space,and blend space.Through cross-space mapping,the common and abstract frame in the two input spaces is projected into the generic space.The mapping of two input spaces has partial selected attribute.When input space I and input space II are projected into the blend space,the emergent structure is generated by composition,completion and elaboration.In the emergent structure,a new meaning is created.Based on mental spaces’ organizational frames,the basic concept integration networks are divided into four types: simplex network,mirror network,single-scope network and double-scope network.In the simplex network,one input space contains a specific frame and its roles,and the other input space only contains elements,so the cross-space mapping matches the roles to the elements.In the mirror network,all mental spaces have the same organizational frame.In the single-scope network,two input spaces have different organizational frames,but only one input space’s frame is projected into the blend space.In the double-scope network,two input spaces also have different organizational frames,but both organizational frames are projected into the blend space.This thesis intends to study translator’s cognitive process in the ECC translation from the perspective of conceptual integration.The ECCs involved in this thesis are selected from the Chinese version of the 2018 RWG and its corresponding English version.Chinese version and English version of the RWG are both downloaded from Xinhua News Agency website(www.xinhuanet.com).After analysis,translator establishes four mental spaces in the process of ECC translation: the original ECC space,the translator space,the generic space and the translated ECC space.The original ECC space and the translator space project a common,abstract frame into the generic space through cross-space mapping.Then under the constraints of the generic space,the elements in the original ECC space and translator space are selectively projected into the translated ECC space,in which the emergent structure is generated by composition,completion and elaboration.In the emergent structure,the translated ECC is created.In the analysis of the cognitive process of ECC translation,the author finds that the original ECC space and the translator space have their own organizational frames,while the simplex network only has one input space with organizational frame,so the simplex network is not suitable for ECC translation,and the other three concept integration networks are suitable for all ECC translations.After analysis,it is found that there are four types of cognitive processes of ECCs translations.The ECC translation using mirror network is the simplest.In this type,two input spaces have similar organizational frame,and the translated ECC realizes both formal and conceptual equivalence.The ECC translation using single-scope network has two situations.In this type,the frame of the original ECC space and the frame of the translator space are respectively projected into the blend space.The former translation result realizes formal equivalence,and the latter result realizes conceptual equivalence.The ECC translation using double-scope network is the most complicated.In this type,two input spaces have different organizational frames.Both the linguistic form of the ECC in the original ECC space and the conceptual equivalence elements in the translator space are projected into the blend space.Through this method,the translated ECC realizes both formal and conceptual equivalence.Based on CIT,this paper makes translator’s cognitive process during translation be presented intuitively,which is conducive to translating from a more macro perspective.It also provides translators with certain suggestions on translation thinking,thus promoting the development of ECC translation. |
