翻译中的再概念化认知操作:以中国古诗英译为例

Re-Conceptualization Across Languages: Cognitive Operations in the Translation of Chinese Classical Poetry

翻译转换反映原文与译文在语言形式上的非对应性,其背后有何认知机制?根据认知语言学的语义观,意义理解是一个动态的概念化过程。翻译涉及原文理解的概念化、译者的再概念化操作和译文理解的概念化,其中的核心是译者的再概念化认知操作。以中国古诗英译为例,译者通过识解操作、隐喻操作、转喻操作、范畴化操作等进行概念重构,在源语言文化和目标语言文化之间建立概念对接,促进目标读者的理解。认知操作是译者翻译策略选择和翻译转换的内在认知机制,其外在表现为译文与原文语言形式的偏离。对译者认知操作的分析既可揭示翻译转换背后的深层认知机制,也有助于让译者的主体性成为翻译研究的重要关注点。

This article explores the cognitive mechanisms underlying translation shifts or departures from formal correspondence between the source text and the target text.Cognitive linguistics sees understanding as a dynamic process of conceptualization,within such a framework,translation is understood as a cognitive process that involves the translator's conceptualization of the source text meaning,his or her re-conceptualization of that meaning in the production of the target text,and the target readers'conceptualization of target text meaning.Of this process,the translator's cognitive operation of re-conceptualizing ST's meaning is the central part.In the translation of classical Chinese poetry,the translator may resort to construing,metaphorical,metonymic or categorizing operations to bridge the differing conceptualizations between the source and the target language cultures.The translator's cognitive operation is the cognitive mechanism underlying translation strategies and translation shifts and accounting for the linguistic non-equivalence between the source and the target text.An exploration of the translator's cognitive operation would not only reveal the underlying cognitive mechanism of translation shifts but also bring the translator's agency more sharply into focus in translation studies.