语言和文化关系的认知解释与翻译的可译性

The Relationship between Language and Culture from the Cognitive Perspective and Its Implication for Translatability

在语言和文化关系的传统认识上,有两种相反的观点。这两种观点都是片面的,其不足之处在于它们都把语言和文化看作两个孤立的个体。从人类的认知角度来看,语言和文化都是人类认知能力的外在表现。人类认知的本质决定了语言和文化的性质和它们的关系。语言和文化不是彼此决定的关系,某一语言和文化的结合是历史的、偶然的产物。人类认知能力是无限的,无限的认知能力赋予人类语言以无穷创造性,人类语言可以跨越文化的界限,实现对它文化的理解和接纳。这种对语言和文化的理解构成了翻译可能性的坚实理论基础。

Traditionally there are 2 opposite views on the relationship between language and culture. Culture determinism believes that language is the expression and embodiment of culture, so a culture determines how people think and speak in that culture. Language determinism believes that language controls thinking, and the culture of a speech community is the collective thinking pattern and thinking habit of all its members. The 2 views are both incomplete and the reason lies in the fact that both of the 2 views look at language and culture as 2 isolated entities. From the cognitive perspective, both language and culture can be seen as the external expressions of the human cognitive ability. The nature of human cognition determines the nature of language and culture and their relationship. Language and culture do not determine each other. The combination of a particular language and a particular culture is historical and arbitrary. The human cognitive power is boundless and boundless human cognitive power give human language infinite creativity. Human language can travel across the boundaries of different cultures to understand and simulate other cultures. This perspective to the relationship of language and culture provides the most solid theoretical basis for translatability between different languages.