Cognitive Study of "Deviation" in Martin Palmer's The Book of Chuang Tzu Based on the Theory of Construal

LIN Lin ZHANG Chao JIANG Yijie

Shenyang University of Chemical Technology,Shenyang,110142,China

[Abstract] Chuang Tzu is honored as an ancient Chinese classic about Taoism.The Book of Chuang Tzu by Martin Palmer is one of the most important translations.The study based on the theory of construal is a great practice of cognitive semantics and provides a new platform for foreign scholars to study traditional Chinese culture.Influenced by his cultural background and translation purpose,this version has many "deviations" from the original text.Based on the theory of construal,this paper analyzes Martin Palme's English version of Chuang Tzu from the perspective of focus,perspective,prominence,and specificity,and tries to explore the deep reasons for its "deviations".

[Keywords] the theory of Construal;Martin Palmer;Chuang Tzu;Deviation

I.Introduction

Chuang Tzu is a masterpiece of Chuang Tzu and a famous Taoist classic of China.Its wisdom and writing style are highly favored by foreign readers,and many scholars have conducted translation studies.In 1996,Penguin House published the full English translation,TheBookofChuangTzuby Martin Palmer.He absorbed fine elements of other masterpieces such as Watson’s,and Legge’s,and provided different perspectives for the Western to understand traditional Chinese culture.He attracted more ordinary readers such as by deleting some confusing puns(Wang,2020:91)but also causes “deviation” in semantics or sentence structure.

Previous studies mostly focused on Wang Rongpei’s or Legge’s translations;Some scholars studied the equivalence between translations and original text,explored the image translation or translation difficulties inChuangTzu.However,there is few researches on Martin Palmer’s version and its “deviation”.Therefore,based on the theory of construal,this paper analyzed the “deviation” in Martin Palmer’s translation and explored the hidden reasons for that to providing enlightenment for the English translation of Chinese classics.

II.The Theory of Construal

House(2015:49-60)put forward the theory of “language-cognition in translation”,and studied how translators understand text and choose translation strategies in bilingual mental activities.According to him,only by linking language with psychological cognition can we truly grasp the core of translation studies(House,2015:60-62).In the process of translation,the translator first conceptualizes the original text based on his own cognition,and then chooses an appropriate way to express that(Joseph,1997:71).It can be seen that for the same cognitive object or conception,if the construal methods are different,language expressions are also different(Lu,2022:84).

At present,the academics generally accept Langacker’s division of construal dimensions:focus,perspective,prominence and specificity.These four dimensions play an important role in the organization of language structure,and explains differences between expressions(Langacker,2008:55).This paper analyzed the “deviation” of Martin Palmer’s The Book of Chuang Tzu from these four aspects.

III.An Explanation for Martin Palmer’s Deviation of Chuang Tzu from the Perspective of the Theory of Construal

1.Deviation of Focus

Focus refers to noticed area,involving the selection and allocation ways of conceptual content.In the selection,the highly activated cognitive domain is “foreground” and the rest is “background”.With emphasized information,the beginning of a sentence is the foreground(Huang &Tang,2022:150).The deviation of focus is typical in passive sentences in Martin Palmer’s translation.For example:

(1)Source Language:平者,水停之盛也(Sun,2017:148)。

Target Language:Perfect balanceis found in still waters(Palmer,1996:106).

In the original sentence,the foreground is “平者”,that is “balance”.While the translation emphasizes “perfect” and,“perfect balance” is regarded as the foreground.It changes the content distribution way and deviates from the focus of the original,but was in line with English habits of the use of passive voice and prepositive key information.

Additionally,the focus also involves scope.Langacker divides it into maximum scope and direct scope.The former refers to the contents that could be activated by expressions to the largest extent;while the latter refers to these directly related to a sentence(Langacker,2008:63).There are many expressions in Chuang Tzu that need to be related to the context and the background of the work to understand the real meaning.For example:

(2)Source Language:指穷于为薪，火传也，不知其尽也(Sun,2017:89)。

Target Language:We can point to thewoodthat has been burned,but when the fire has passed on,we cannot know what it has gone(Palmer,1996:81).

“指” is a synonym of the previous text,which refers to the fat in animals or seeds of oil-seed plants.“薪” and “火” in this sentence may make the translator link “指” with a kind of wood.Therefore,“wood” can be regarded as the direct scope of “指”.The translator ignores its extended meaning and deviates from the maximum scope.However,the translation does not distort the original idea,and it also reduces the reading burden of readers,so the original can be understood without the whole text.

2.Deviation of Perspective

Perspective refers to the angle from which people describe things(Wang,2006:28).The perspective includes the spatiotemporal position,attitudes(Huang &Tang,2022:153),which will lead to different expressions.For example:

(3)Source Language:蝉与学鸠笑之曰：“決起而飞……奚以之九万里而南为”(Sun,2017:23)?

Target Language:A cicada taught a young dive,saying with alaugh,“I try to fly……So what chance does this creature have of rising to ninety thousand miles and heading south?(Palmer,1996:43)”

Martin Palmer deviates from the attitude of “笑” and translated it into “laugh”.According to the definition of Collins Dictionary(2022),one laughs to show happiness or amusement,or nervousness or being unfriendly.Thus,“laugh” is neutral.Cicada and turtledove say they only fly near,and they don’t understand why Peng flies ninety thousand miles away.Given the sharp contrast and the questioning tone,it can be inferred that the real meaning of “笑” should be sneer to show Chuang Tzu’s disapproval of these smaller birds.In this case,the translator deviates from the attitude,and readers could not fully appreciate Chuang Tzu’s praise of infinite freedom.

3.Deviation of Prominence

Prominence means attentions of different components in the same sentence.Gadamer(2004:498-499)pointed out that if translators want to highlight some parts of the original in translation,they must suppress other properties of the original.Because the translator’s motivation and creativity are different,the highlights are also different.For example:

(4)Source Language:是故骈于明者，乱五色，淫文章，青黄黼黻之煌煌非乎(Sun,2017:213)?

Target Language:Onewill beoverwhelmed by interesting designs and dazzled by the bright and luminous shades of blue and yellow(Palmer,1996:144).

“非乎” refers to rhetorical question.The author holds negative attitude towards the superfluous things beyond the “本体”.Based on an accurate understanding,Martin Palmer adopts a positive tone and highlights the hidden meaning of “非乎”,transferring it to “will be”.Although the emotion is suppressed,ordinary readers can easily understand its meaning.

4.Deviation of Specificity

Specificity refers to the extent of fineness of entity description(Wu,2011:58).There is no complete symmetry between Chinese and English,resulting in “cultural vacancy”.So,translators need to take the transformation between detail and simplification.In the translation of Chuang Tzu,Martin Palmer simplifies some philosophical words and cultural-loaded words.For example:

(5)Source Language:枝于仁者(Sun,2017:213)。

Target Language:The result is thatsomeone(Palmer,1996:144-145).

Martin Palmer simplifies the meaning of “仁者”.In the original text,it refers to people with virtues such as benevolence,righteousness,while “someone” means important people,omitting the specific good qualities.“仁者” is a Chinese ethical concept,which is a “vacancy” in western culture.In order to cater to more ordinary readers and avoid reading obstacles,Martin Palmer chose to convey information in a simplest way.

Cooperating with poet Jay Ramsey not knowing Chinese and publisher Penguin House aiming at occupying the market of ordinary readers,his writing style entirely caters to western readers.Deviations to improve readability is more in line with English habits and western culture,which meet the reading expectations of the general public and opens up a new path for the spread of Chuang Tzu and traditional Chinese culture.This also inspires translators to follow needs of targeted readers and market demand when translating classics into foreign languages.

IV.Conclusion

In the process of translation,translators reconstruct the author’s interpretation and inevitably bring about “deviation”.Guided by the theory of construal,this study found that translators have different conceptual understandings of the same object due to the influence of cognition.The “deviation” in the translation shows Martin Palmer’s cognitive psychological process,which can be reasonably explained in terms of focus,perspective,prominence and specificity.Because of different purpose and background of creation,Martin Palmer pays more attention to the characteristics of English writing and the specific meaning of the article.The translation is highly suitable for the target readers and is conducive to overseas readers’ understanding and translation dissemination.