认知对等及其认识论意义

Cognitive Equivalence and Its Epistemological Significance

形式、意义或功能对等的理想诉求在现实翻译中遇到了诸多难解的问题,皆因其结构主义语言学理论基础本身存在着缺陷。本文提出的"认知对等"指人类的认知图式在不同的语言里所共享的本体性特征。该概念牢牢把握语言的本质特征和认知的基本规律,在认识论上强调主观与客观、一般与个别、静态与动态的有机统一,因而具有理论上的自洽性和解释上的内在一致性。现实翻译中的不对等系由认知的主体性和同样具有主体性的文化因素所致,认知主体识解的参与导致概念化方式的差异,从而产生不对等。认知对等的价值在于阐明了本体论层次的认知对等是翻译行为的逻辑起点。由于认知对等,人类才有实现有效交际的可能。

The ideal pursuit of formal or functional equivalence in translation has been a conundrum for translation theorizing,in that its theoretical prerequisites are derived from structuralist linguistic theory which is,in itself,deficient in separating form from meaning. The paper instead advocates"Cognitive Equivalence"and defines it as the ontological commonalities or cognitive schemas across languages. This concept achieves an explanatory consistency for both translation practice and theorizing,for it is based on the Cognitive Linguistics view that language consists of an inventory of conventional symbolic units, and thus unifies the subjective and objective, the general and the individual,the static and the dynamic in translation. The paper also points out that inequivalence results from the translator’s cognitive subjectivity which leads to conceptualisation differences in construal and ways of expression. The theoretical advantage of Cognitive Equivalence lies in the fact that it has expounded the root cause for formal or functional inequivalence and clarified the logic of plausibility in translation,which paves the way for efficient communication across languages and cultures.