体认语言学视域下的“一点”英译研究--以霍克思、闵福德《红楼梦》英译本为例

English Translations of“Yidian”from the Perspective of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics:A Case Study of Hawkes and Minford’s The Story of the Stone

汉语量词“点”表示不定小量,在历时演变中发生语义泛化。在“一点”量名结构中,“一点”较少突显名词所指事物的属性;而相应的英语表达可突显事物的多维属性。本文依据体认语言学的核心原则“现实—认知—语言”,以霍克思、闵福德《红楼梦》英译本中“一点”的英译为例,探究译者的认知过程。研究发现,在“现实—认知—语言”的翻译再建构中,译者对原文的语境内外关系进行重新评估(现实),按译语规约对名词所指事物的某种(些)属性进行有意识突显(认知),使译文(语言)有了新的认知特征。

In the“yidian-NOUN”construction,the imprecise-small-quantity quantifier“dian”has been generalized whereas the corresponding English expressions denote some salient characteristics of the things to which associated nouns refer.Grounded on the kernel principle(Reality-Cognition-Language)of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics,this paper investigates the embodied-cognitive nature of“dian”and its English counterparts.Based on the renditions of“yidian-NOUN”constructions from The Story of the Stone,the paper explains how the above principle can be applied to illustrate the translators’cognitive re-construction.It is found that by reassessing the context of the original text,the translators took some attribute of the thing to which an associated noun refers as perceptual salience following the target language convention;hence the translated text is tinged with new cognitive features.