From Sociosemiotic Perspective to Study the Reproduction of Referential Meaning

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Abstract Sociosemiotic provides a comprehensive system to analyze language signs. Using sociosemiotic concept can help us to deeply understand the social function of translation and effectively find ways to overcome cultural barriers. This thesis based on sociosemiotic theory， discussing the referential meaning in “Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk”.

Key words sociosemiotic referential meaning Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk

1. Theoretical framework

Translation studies are not a new field though it has existed only since 1983. But translation studies now have become an activity which related to various disciplines. Semiotics and translation studies seem as two drastically different disciplines. But actually， they have many aspects of communication， and both of them deal with interpretation， manipulation and uses of meanings of signs.

Sciosemiotic is an approach to research the signs in the human society， and it regards human language as sign system. Eugene Nida is the representative of sociosemiotic approach， which is a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication， he firstly introduced the seciosemiotic approach to translation in the book Translating Meaning， and considered that the approach to be scientific and effective in the transfer of meaning. The professor Chen Hongwei （2004） has a deep and careful analysis about sciosemiotic which based on Nida， and proposed comprehensive sociosemiotic approach to translation.

2. The reproduction of referential meaning in the translation of “Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk”

2.1 Referential meaning with full correspondence

Owing to different cultures have different language， referential meaning with full correspondence can not be realized easily， but this correspondence usually can be found when in both linguistic sign systems， the words have a single meaning. On this condition， the words can be translated directly and the correspondence can be achieved.

“正如我们在万生园里，看见猴子翻筋斗，母象请安，虽然往往破颜一笑，但同时也觉得不舒服，甚至于感到悲哀……”

Just as in the zoo the sight of monkeys turning somersaults or female elephants curtseying， although it often raise a laugh， may at the same time make us uncomfortable or even sad…”

“新的是写情书，少则一束，多则一捆；旧的是什么“问名”“纳采”，磕头作揖……”

“The mew way is to write love-letters， at least one packet if not a whole sheaf； the old way was to ‘inquire names，’ ‘send betrothal gifts，’ kowtow and bow.”

from the examples above， the referents of the signs “翻筋斗”， “请安”， and “磕头作揖” in Chinese have the full correspondence in English “turning somersaults”， “curtseying”， “kowtow and bow”. In two cultures， there are signs to refer to the same objects. From the referential meaning， we can know if the linguistic signs in the source language and those in the target language are equivalent， it would easy to translate from one language to another. We can only use the Chinese name to replace the English name. But this full correspondence is very rare because of the different cultures.

2.2 Referential meaning with partial correspondence

The referential meanings between two languages often overlap only in some parts because of the different surrounding environment. For researching the partial equivalence， the componential analysis should be used. Componential analysis is an approach to the study of meaning which analyses a word into a set of meaning components or semantic features.

“油蛉在这里低唱，蟋蟀们在这里弹琴。”

“Here field crickets droned away while house crickets chirped merrily.”

“油蛉” is insect， it looks like the watermelon seed， and the appearance of this insect is also like the cricket. It is hard for “油蛉” in the source language to find full equivalence in the target language. The Yangs used “filed crickets” to refer to this insect. Which can give an image to the target language people， and it realizes the informative and aesthetic functions.

“‘你这孩子有点不对了，拿这篇文章去看去，抄下来去看去。’一位本家的老辈严肃地对我说，而且递过来一张报纸来。”

“‘Something is wrong with you， child. Take this article and read it， then copy it out，’ one of my family elders ordered me sternly， passing me a newspaper.”

In this example， “order” is used to refer to “说”. In Chinese， when people express something， they often use the word “说”， if you want to emphasis use different emotion to express it， you should add the adjective， such as “严肃的说”. But in English， there are many word to translate “说”， such as “say”， “talk”， “express”， “order”. In the above example， “order” is used to express saying with an imperative mood.

2.3 Referential meaning with non-correspondence

There are also many non-correspondence referential meanings in this book. The non-equivalence is called semantic zero in referential meaning， which is because the unique phenomena of the culture behind the linguistic signs. The source languages do not have an equivalence referent in the target language. In this case， the linguistic signs in the source language are named as culture-loaded words or culture-specific words.

“我就极愿意有这样一个墨猴，可是的不到；问那里有，那里买的呢，谁也不知道。”

“I longed， in vain， to possess one of these ink-monkeys. When I asked where they lived or where they could be bought， nobody could tell me.”

“墨猴” in Chinese refers to a kind of monkey， it can help people to prepare the ink. But it can not find the correspondent sign in English. Using the version of “ink-monkey” can not only reserve the original denotative meaning， but the local Chinese flavor can be reserved.

3、Conclusion

Chinese and English exist in two different cultures， and the full equivalence signs in these two languages may not exist. As Nida（1993）said that no two words in any languages are completely identical in meaning. This means that to some extent there is always some loss or skewing of meaning in interlingual communication. One purpose of translation is to keep such disparities at a minimum. So the partial correspondence and non-correspondence give a great challenge to the translators and also create many chances for the translators’ creativity. The version of the Yangs’ translation express the spirit of original work， and make the referential meaning reproduced in the translation version successfully and faithfully.

参考文献：

Halliday， M.A.K. （1978）. Language as Social Semiotic， the Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London： Edward Arnold.

Huge R. & Kress G. （1988）. Social Semiotics. New York： Cornerll University Press，

Nida， Eugene Albert. （2004）. Toward a Science of Translation. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Nida， Eugene Albert. （1993）. Language， Culture and Translating. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Nida， Eugene Albert & Taber， R. Charles. （2004）. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Cheng Hongwei （2004） A New CourseBook on Chinese-English Translation. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

（作者单位：Zhongnan University of Economics and Law）