On the Role of Cognitive Environment of Translation for English- Chinese Translation

This paper put forward the concept of cognitive environment of translation based on the concept of cognitive context and proposed world knowledge,language knowledge and translation knowledge as its three constituents.World knowledge can also be referred to as encyclopedic knowledge,including all the knowledge acquired about diverse aspects of internal and external life through direct and indirect experience.Language knowledge refers to all the knowledge about the phonetics,phonology,lexicology,syntax,pragmatics,stylistics,etc.of the two languages involved and the comparative and contrastive features between the two languages.Translation knowledge concerns all the knowledge about the strategies and techniques for translation in general and specific solutions applicable for the translation between the two languages in question.The three types of knowledge get involved at different stages of translation:world knowledge and language knowledge about the source text facilitate accurate understanding of the source text,knowledge about the target language and knowledge about the comparative and contrastive features between the source and the target language,in combination with translation knowledge help with the translation process.All the knowledge can be activated more than once in case any uncertainty occurred at understanding or translation stages.As regards English-Chinese translation,translators are expected to use Chinese words,syntactic and textual structures most acceptable to the Chinese readers to replace the original English text,rendering them as close as possible in content,style and receptor effect.Efforts must be made to cater to the Chinese conventions of language use.Three major suggestions,among others,can be summarized in the paper.The first one is to use suitable words or expressions to match the Chinese ways of expression in various cases.The second one is to break the chains off the long and sophisticated English sentences,using shorter Chinese ones with a subject or theme,converting the nouns in English back to the verb or adjective they are derived from,etc.The third is to re-organize the textual structure of the target text according to the temporal,spatial and logical ways of expression in Chinese.

An analysis of Chinese-English soft news translation from a relevance theory perspective

The author gives a thorough interpretation of the translation process and methods under the framework of relevance theory based on the actual pairs of Chinese soft news and the counterpart English versions well selected from authoritative bilingual magazines. The author attests the explanatory force of relevance theory to soft news translation and shows that the aim of all the translation methods is to provide adequate contextual effects and achieve optimal relevance to the target audience, namely, to guarantee the successful communication--the intentions of the communicator and the expectations of the audience meet.

On the Role of Mutuality in Ironic Communication and Cognition

When ironic communication occurs,there must be a basic cognitive environment that may include inexhaustible elements,among which is a suggestion of complicity between the ironist and the hearer,which makes the process simple,convenient and fast.Complicity refers to the mutuality tacitly established or implied between the participants.This stduy explores its components,necessity and possibility in processing ironic communication and cognition.

Measurements of the Cognitive Level of Ecotourists for the Tourism Environment in the Mountain Resorts

Tourists are the main body of tourism activities,and studying the environmental cognition of tourists is beneficial for the environmental management of scenic spots.In this article,data obtained by questionnaire were used to compose a data matrix of 169×10 dimensions,and the cognitive level of ecotourists for the tourism environment was measured by two-way indicator species analysis(TWINSPAN)and detrended correspondence analysis(DCA)in Luya Mountain Nature Reserve.This analysis revealed three main points.(1)TWINSPAN divided all the samples into the strict environment protection type,the ordinary environment protection type,the occasional environment protection type,and the natural enjoyment type.Both the strict and ordinary environment protection types agreed with biocentrism and had a consciousness regarding the protection of nature,but the former advocated that tourism activities should be restricted in nature reserves,while the latter did not agree with restrictions on tourism activities.The occasional environment protection types denied biocentrism;on the one hand,they thought that nature should serve human beings,but on the other hand,they showed a tendency toward environmental protection.The natural enjoyment type argued that natural resources should be maximized to meet human needs.(2)There were significant correlations between the first axis of the DCA and gender,age,education,number of trips,and cognition of nature reserve function,and the second axis of DCA was significantly correlated with gender,age,and education level.Under the impact of all the factors in the DCA figure,ecotourist types transitioned gradually from the first type to the second,the third,and the fourth types along the diagonal line,and accordingly,their cognitive level for the tourism environment was reduced slowly.(3)For nature reserves,the strict environment protection type had 74 people,who was the most popular.The ordinary and occasional environment protection types had 43 people and 31 people,respectively,who should be strived to raise environmental awareness.The natural enjoyment type had 21 people,who must be systematically educated.