Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Researches on the Frame Theory
This part will show the overview of the frame theory abroad and at home in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the application of this theory.
1.1.1 Research Abroad
With the researches on the human memory in 1930s, Fredrike Bartlett, a famous psychologist, puts forward the concept “schema” and considers that the experience people underwent in the past have an effect on understanding and memory of human beings. Later, Barsalou, a cognitive psychologist, and Minsky, a researcher engaging in the field of artificial intelligence, apply the term “frame” to substituting the concept “schema”. Based on their explanations, the notion “frame” is a complicated conceptual structure and may expound such categories as objects, physical events, psychological events etc.. For example, Barsalou has divided the components of frame into attribute-values, structural invariants and constraints (29), which provide a fresh point of view to explicate the translator’s cognitive operation in the process of translation researches.
In addition, Minsky thinks the notion “frame” refers to conceptual structure that will appear in the mind when a new situation occurs to human beings (355). That is to say, “frame” is the knowledge structure in human’s brains to explain some situations people encounter in the daily life. And the examples of “entering a room” and “going to a child’s birthday party” he indicates will be explicated at length in chapter two.
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1.2 Researches on the C-E Translation of Chang Hen Ge
There are a lot of English versions of Cheng Hen Ge after writing the poem Chang Hen Ge by Bai Juyi, including Yang Hsien-yi, Xu Yuanzhong, Weng Xianliang, Zeng Bingheng, etc. at home and Herbert A. Giles, W. J. B. Fletcher, Arthur Wally, Witter Bynner, Innes Herdan, Soam Jennings etc. abroad. And the paper pays more attention to the four English versions translated by Xu, Yang, Giles and Fletcher.
1.2.1 Research at Home
Xu Yuanzhong (1921-~) is a great Chinese translator engaging in literary translation for over 60 years. In 1984, he translates the poem Chang Hen Ge and the English version is collected in an article called “Bai Juyi’s Chang Hen Ge and its English Translation”. According to the different English versions, his translation is considered as the most wonderful one from the perspectives of language style and poetic form. In the course of the poem translation, Xu analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of four English versions translated by A. Giles, W. J. B. Fletcher, Witter Bynner and Innes Herden respectively from such aspects as language, translation methods and stylistic features. In Accordance with the four translated versions, for instance, Xu specially indicates two points: first of all, is the language expression faithful to the contents of the original text or the forms of the source language? Second, do the translators adopt literal translation or free translation to convey the original meanings? Eventually, through comparing the four English versions, Xu completes his own English version of Chang Hen Ge based on the Three Beauties Principles. He thinks that “the poetry translation not only conveys the original beauty in sense, but also the original beauty in sound. If possible, it is to express the original beauty in form.” (58). Therefore, it is seen that the English version created by Xu is quite different from other versions because of the original beauty in sense, sound and form to the fullest extent.
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Chapter Two Theoretical Basis
2.1 Introduction to the Frame Theory
This part will demonstrate such key knowledge as origins, definitions and features about the concept frame in detail so as to understand the frame theory clearly.
2.1.1 The Origin of Frame Concept
The frame theory has a wide applicability and may be adopted to study such fields as psychology, cognitive linguistics and artificial intelligence. First of all, the notion frame is derived from the study on knowledge and concept in the field of psychology. In the 1930s, Frederic Barlett puts forward the conceptual schema for research on memory. He considers that schema is the structuring of past reactions or experiences and operates under appropriate conditions (201). Later, the concept frame is used by Marvin Minsky in the research on artificial intelligence and it is defined as “a data-structure representing a stereotype situation” (212). That is to say, frame refers to background information or knowledge structure which stores in human’s brains to comprehend some new situations. Last but not least, with the continuous development of linguistic and psychological study, Charles Fillmore first introduces the notion frame into the knowledge structures of linguistics in the middle of 1970s.
2.1.2 The Definition of Frame Concept
Inspired by the achievements of Barlett and Minsky, Charles Fillmore proposes different explanations about the concept frame at different stages. For example, Fillmore puts forward scenes-and-frames paradigm researched on language sense in 1975, and he initially thinks of the notion frame as “any system chosen by language-the easiest cases being collections of words, but also including choices of grammatical rules or linguistic categories”, which may “get associated with prototypical instances of scenes” (124). To put it simply, frame is employed to study the meanings of vocabulary and grammatical rules.
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2.2 Frame Systems and Sub-Frames
When people run into a scene, there is a knowledge base stored in their brains and they call this situation as frame. From the descriptions of frame mentioned above, it is known that a frame has many elements. And there are such examples as “entering a room” frame and “going to a child’s birthday party” frame shown by Minsky to explain the relationship between frame systems and sub-frames.
In the light of the “entering a room” frame, when people enter a room they have never been in before, there is a foundational existence in the real world. That is to say, when a man enters a room, he may imagine the arrangement of furniture, which is affected by the memory of a prototypical room. It arrives at a conclusion explicitly that if a man enters an unfamiliar room, he may recall subconsciously a prototype frame from memory of a room in his brain. And the room in his memory may have such equipment as sofa, bed, chair, TV and so on.
In terms of the “going to a child’s birthday party” frame, there are two different levels of situation, the upper and the lower. For instance, such processes as invitation to birthday party, one’s there, and some entertainments like playing games, performing magic tricks, eating birthday cakes and singing songs may be presented in the upper level, while such scenarios as no one’s there and no presents may happen to the lower. Accordingly, based on the descriptions of “going to a child’s birthday party”, the slots in both upper level and lower level are made of the frame systems and are also flexible to their sub-frames.
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Chapter Three Analysis of Cultural Images Translation Based on the Frame Theory...............21
3.1 Introduction to Chang Hen Ge ............................. 21
3.2 Introduction to Cultural Images of Chang Hen Ge ................ 23
3.3 The Explanations of Cultural Images Translation with the Frame Theory ..... 25
Chapter Three Analysis of Cultural Images Translation Based on the Frame Theory
3.1 Introduction to Chang Hen Ge
In the long historical culture of China, the Tang dynasty (618-907) is generally considered as the most prosperous dynasty in economic and poetic culture aspects. For poems, there are enormous masterpieces written by such famous poets as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and so on, which are called as the golden age to the development of Chinese classical poetry in that dynasty. For example, Change Hen Ge, a long narrative poem created by Bai Juyi in 806 is endowed with a high reputation. And the Tang emperor, Li Chen (810-859) has made a mourning to Bai Juyi that “童子解吟《长恨》曲，胡儿能唱《琵琶行》” (a child has an ability to understand the poem Chang Hen Ge; even people of Hu minority may read the poem Pi Pa Xing), which portrays the popularity of this poem.
Additionally, Chang Hen Ge, a classic of Chinese narrative poem, depicts the romantic but tragic love story between Emperor Xuanzong and his concubine Lady Yang, which has fascinated a large number of scholars from all over the world. Besides, the poem has euphemistically demonstrated the major turning point from prosperity to decline in feudal society of Tang dynasty. Hence, the poem has not only disclosed the theme of tragic love but also revealed the background of politics under Xuanzong’s dominion.
In terms of the overall structure of Chang Hen Ge, the poem consists of 840 words and 120 lines altogether, which lays stress on two points: one is to show the love life between Emperor Xuanzong and the Lady Yang; the other is to describe their faith and persistence in love. Furthermore, the whole poem may be divided into four parts to comprehend its plot outlines.
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Conclusion
Up to now, the translation of cultural images in Chang Hen Ge has been discussed and there are such translation methods summarized from the perspective of the frame theory. And this paper mainly expounds the translation of cultural images in the light of literature review, theoretical basis and practical operation.
Above all, the first part of the paper describes the background of research, illustrates the objective of the study, states the significance of the essay and formulates the structure of the paper. Moreover, chapter one presents the researches on the frame theory, reviews the researches on the C-E translation of Chang Hen Ge, and enumerates the major approaches to cultural images translation, which provides a literature basis for this study. Then, chapter two introduces the origin, definition and characteristics of the concept frame, shows the structure between frame systems and sub-frames, depicts the relationship between frame and culture and explicates the frame theory on cultural images translation, which furnishes the theoretical basis to this research. Afterwards, chapter three is the key content of the paper and makes full use of the frame theory to analyze the research text, which sums up some translation methods in dealing with cultural images on the basis of the four English versions. Eventually, the last part of the paper is to summarize some main findings, particularize defects and illustrate advice.
The paper chiefly states a study on cultural images translation of Chinese classical poetry in respect of the frame theory and takes the well-known poem Chang Hen Ge written by Bai Juyi in the dynasty of Tang as a research example. Although a number of scholars at home and abroad have analyzed the English versions of Chang Hen Ge, it is full of challenges that few studies have been done on the combination of the frame theory and cultural images translation of Chang Hen Ge. And the paper attempts to make this kind of research and summarizes some findings.
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