Abstracts of Papers in This Issue
2021-03-08
ThediachronicevolutioncontinuumofMacro-events(p. 1)
DUJing(School of Foreign Languages, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)
LIFuyin(School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)
This study verifies the Macro-event Hypothesis with a corpus-based diachronic empirical approach. With “shú, jìng, suì, yún” as keywords, it reveals that the diachronic variation of Macro-events is not simply a change from bi-clause to mono-clause. Macro-events undergo three evolving stages (namely, beginning, developing and forming) and demonstrate multiple syntactic patterns like causative forms, compound forms, serial constructions, separable resultative forms, and resultative constructions. The diachronic evolution continuum of macro-events can be divided into a syntactic pattern continuum (“causative form Across-linguisticanalysisofEAT-expressions:Semanticnetworkandcognitivemechanism(p. 10) LIUJun(Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu 215500, China) How to express the most important routines, e.g. eating, of daily life in human experiences manifests the most general cognitive mechanism of human-beings. The paper analyzes, by cross-linguistic colexification, 9 semantic extension-chains with 11 key nodes in one paradigm, i.e. the semantic network ofEAT-expressions. The semantic extensions as such are driven by dynamically cognizing the evolving of 3 prototypical eating events. In the process of dynamic cognition, universal schematic construal systems and conceptualizing tools are at work in a streamline. EmpiricalstudyonChineseserialverbconstructionsintheperspectiveofcognitivetypology(p. 20) YANGJie(School of Foreign Studies, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China) This paper introduces the criteria proposed by Bisang to define serial verb construction (SVC). The criteria are evaluated and refined so as to explain Chinese SVCs. And these criteria are used to test against the four types of “SVCs” identified by Li and Thompson in Chinese. In this way, a set of examples which are clearly real SVCs in terms of cognitive typology are identified and the grammatical properties of Chinese SVCs are also summarized. These findings provide a key to data collection of SVCs in the future research on Mandarin’s cognitive typology. Cross-linguisticstudyonlexicalizationpatternchangeofmotionevents(p. 28) SHIWenlei(School of Humanities, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China) This article aims at introducing recent achievements on the study of lexicalization pattern change of motion events, with a focus on the comparison between Romance languages and English. It is shown that Romance languages changed from a satellite-framed language to a verb-framed language, manifested in the following aspects: unselected object construction, complex directed motion constructions, locative alternation, aspectual satellites. The English language, on the contrary, has been a satellite-framed language, with the strengthening of its sate-llite-frame feature. Romance languages and English are representative of verb-frame and satellite-frame in the motion event typology (Talmy 2000), and thus the investigation of the two groups of languages deepens our understanding of this typology. Encyclopedicknowledgeandconstrual:Acognitivegrammaraccountof“tianguangpaqichitianguang”(p. 35) XILiusheng&FUHongjie(School of Foreign Studies, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, China) In Wenzhou dialect, “chitianguang” means to eat breakfast. This paper adopts theories in the framework of Cognitive Grammar to explain the formation of this idiosyncratic expression as well as its rationality. Firstly, the expression of “chitianguang” is sanctioned because there are corresponding parts in the encyclopedic knowledge of “chi” and “tianguang”, which are combined through categorization relationship. Secondly, the reason why we can say “tianguangpaqichitianguang” but not “zaishitangchishitang” is that there is no central domain in the matrix of “tianguang” and each domain has a relatively equal status. A certain context can cause a particular domain to be highlighted to become figure through competition. However, the “building” domain is intrinsic to the “shitang” concept. Once it gained pre-emption, it is difficult for other domains to compete with it. Thirdly, figure vs. ground perceptionvis-à-viscognitive domains can be dynamically shifted when needed. DiscursiveconstructionofcommunityincombatingCOVID-19fromtheperspectiveofProximizationTheory(p. 42) YAOZhenmei(School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; School of Western Languages, Mudanjiang Normal College, Mudanjiang 157011, China) Proximization Theory is a theoretical model that explains at lexico-grammatical level the construction of crisis and the generation of fear in public discourse. Based on Proximization Theory, this paper analyzes discursive strategies deployed in the news reports of Hong Kong’s combating against COVID-19 (fromPeople’sDailyOverseasEditionin August, 2020) in the dimensions of spatial, temporal and axiological proximization. The deployment of the discursive strategies constructs Hong Kong people a sense of community with central government and inspires them to act together, which contributes to winning in the combat against COVID-19. Re-examinationofLinguisticRelativitybasedonBourdieu’sSocialPracticeTheory(p. 49) YANGHan(Publicity Department of Party Committee, Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology, Shenzhen 518172, China) LUZhijun(School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China) After linguistic relativity was transferred from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to the neo-Whorfian hypothesis, the discussion regarding the relation between language and thought has been vivified. The three key notions (field,capital, andhabitus) of Bourdieu’s Social Practice Theory help testify the rationality of the neo-Whorfian hypothesis. Introducing thefieldnotion means introducing the place where language exerts influence on thought and putting language into a specific space for understanding; introducing thecapitalnotion means regarding language as a seizable resource so that speakers with main-stream language capital can exhibit greater showing power and competing power; introducing thehabitusnotion means regarding habitus as the time basis of language use method so as to exert the culture function and acknowledge that speakers’ accumulated experience can affect their thought. LanguagepoweroftheprivateshopsignsinurbanWuhanfromtheperspectiveoflinguisticlandscape(p. 55) YULiaojie,ZHANGYu&PANBuhan(College of Foreign Languages, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China) With the increasing diversity of the social language environment, the topic concerning language power has attracted more and more attention. Taking the private shop signs in major commercial streets in Wuhan as the research object, this study focuses on the language power behind the linguistic signs from the perspective of linguistic landscape. Through data collection and demonstration of the code features on the signs, the research finds that the language power depends on the group status of the language users, industry attributes, language policies and the spread of English, providing reference for language service and management. TheaffixationtendencyofRussianinternetterminologycomponents(p. 63) ZHANGTingxuan(School of Foreign Languages,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin 150001,China) The development of the Internet has greatly expanded the Internet terminology vocabulary, and the Internet terminology vocabulary has enriched the standard language vocabulary by determinization. Russian Internet term components like сеть, веб, интернет, онлайн, кибер(-), are endowed with new additional meanings while entering the field of daily communication and being associated with new concepts. Meanwhile, these term components are combined with other etymas, producing huge quantities of compound words with Internet semantic features. The formalization and semantic abstraction make these Internet term components show an obvious trend from etyma toward affix. AclassinterpretationonreshapingspaceandtimeofAmericanSouthbypoor-whiteliterature(p. 70) YUCheng(College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China) Around the 1980s, poor-white literature rose in American South, enabling the long neglected and silenced poor whites to tell their own story from the insiders’ perspective, and to reexamine and reinterpret the South, which proclaims the invalidity of upper-middle class discourse hegemony, and reveals the historical truth about the oppression poor whites suffered from the unfair social mechanism. This new literary genre presents a unique chronotope structure. On one hand, it unprecedentedly reproduces the poor and dark side of rural life, thus deconstructing the romantic idyllic utopia fabricated by the upper-middle class; on the other hand, as poor whites choose to strive for a living in cities and look forward to the future, different from the upper-middle class’s rejection to modernization, an urban heterotopia for poor whites to subvert the existing hierarchical order is set up. Poor whites thus construct a working-class discourse, triggering the shift in southern literature from an aristocratic view to the poor folk perspective. Language,ethicandidentity:AtextualresearchontheparrotimageinJu-lianBarnes’sFlaubert’sParrot(p. 76) GONGYun(College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China) Flaubert’sParrotis the representative work of contemporary British writer Julian Barnes. The parrot image has its representation in many classical texts from antiquity to today, from the east to the west. It is concernel with issues of “human language”, “sexual insecurity” and “the identity of the self”. Barnes brings the three parrot issues into this novel, exploring the interaction between writer and language, and between the authenticity of novels and the fictionality of history. Barnes examines the female-male ethic and self identity in contemporary context and represents the ambiguity and subversiveness of postmodern narrative. By inheriting the parrot image from pre-existing literature and culture, Barnes aims at bringing this novel into literary tradition in the long run. EnglishtranslationoffemaleimageinTheSongofEverlastingSorrow:Fromtheperspectiveofappraisaltheory(p. 83) ZHANGLejin(CW Chu College/School of Foreign Studies, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China) Within the theoretical framework of appraisal theory, this study explores the linguistic signs and shifts in evaluative meanings and female image in the English translation ofTheSongofEverlastingSorrowand interprets how the contexts for text production and acceptance determine the choice of translation strategies. It is found that the translator adds, omits or modifies evaluative epithets; changes attitudinal lexis within the sub-systems of Attitude to beautify the females; alters the scale of attitudinal forces by means of semantic infusion and other gradation resources. These re-evaluative strategies have greatly changed evaluation of the females in the novel and thus beautified the female image, adjusted interpersonal social distance and power relations and weakened their dependence on their surroundings and males, and reframed the feminine characters by intensifying their independent characters. These adaptations and shifts are jointly determined by feminism traditions, positioning of the publisher and translators, and readers’ acceptance. This study will shed new light on the study of characters’ images in translation works. StatusquoandreflectionsofexperttranslatortrainingincontemporaryChina(p. 93) WANGHong&LUOHuifang(Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, Beijing 100037, China) Translation is an important way of international communication. The overall translation capacity building of a country is of great significance for constructing international discourse system, enhancing national soft power, strengthening international cultural exchanges, and deepening international cooperation. In view of the shortage of expert translators in China, this paper summarizes the basic situation of translation service providers in China, analyzes the prominent problems in the cultivation of translation talents, and proposes relevant thoughts and suggestions underpinned by the evaluation of the new requirements for reinforcing national translation strength in the new era. It is intended to facilitate the improvement of the national translation ta-lent training mechanism and the burgeoning of competent translators. TheoverseaspromotionofthetranslationofcontemporaryChineseliterature:FromaPerspectiveofCommunication(p. 98) SHAOMi&XIEKe(School of Foreign Languages, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing 402160, China) Being a part of cross-culture communication, the translation of contemporary Chinese literature works exchanges the information between languages and cultures, serves as the path by which Chinese culture can go overseas and make an influence. In the hope of dealing with the problems in translation and international acceptance of Chinese literature works, a combination of agenda setting, opinion leaders, interpersonal communication and Internet communication should be considered. Successful cases have shown that, with the help of big data and novel Internet technology, these communication theories can be utilized to improve international influence and facilitate overseas promotion of Chinese culture by identifying target audience, enhancing translator-readers interactivity and adapting accurate communication, thus promoting overseas influence of Chinese culture.