《道德经》的核心概念及隐喻的英语表述分析

An Analysis of English Representation of the Key Concept and Its Metaphors in Daodejing

以所搜集的《道德经》84种英译本,构成了一个同质的微型语料库;以王弼通行本为主要源文本,适当参照其他新发现的版本,基于概念隐喻理论框架,应用语料库短语学分析方法,试图回答以下3个研究问题:1)通过索引分析,观察语言隐喻的运用型式和意义,英译文本中针对源文本的核心概念"道"构建了哪些隐喻和意象?2)这些隐喻和意象及其所解释的概念,与源文本相比,存在何种联系与差异?3)译语文本中的隐喻在体系上展现的关系如何?通过分析发现,英译文本通过重构valley(s)(河谷)隐喻,并与其他重构的隐喻如river(s)、abyss、vessels、mother、gateway、water等,试图解释"道"这一概念的语义属性特征,即"初始""空无"以及"创生、虚静、无为"。隐喻意义与词语搭配型式形成共选关系,二者不可分割。

A homogeneous mini-corpus of 84 translated English texts of Daodejing was constructed,in parallel with the source text( Wang Bi's version) and with reference to other newly found versions,in an attempt to answering three research questions: 1) What metaphors and imageries are created in the translated texts corresponding to the key concept Dao in the source text,in concordance analysis for observing the patterns of their use? 2) What meaning associations and differences are displayed between the newly created metaphoric images together with their conceptual paraphrases and their counterparts in the source text? 3) To what extent are the metaphors and images related in the translated texts? It has been found from analysis that the translated texts successfully established meaning associations and paraphrase of Dao,and presented it as 'origin,void,birth,and tranquil ',through re-metaphorization of valley( s) together with other concomitant metaphors such as river( s),abyss,vessels,mother,gateway,water.Metaphoric meanings are closely associated and co-selected with the patterns of the lexical collocations,neither being approached in isolation.