3.4　Image-G construal mode

Given the viewpoint of embodied cognition that we discussed before,a key area of investigation within cognitive linguistics and Embodied Philosophy concerns the embodied basis of cognition.It takes full account of such function of embodiment and believe that embodied experiences serves as a basis for cognition and then cognition gives birth to linguistic phenomena.A common theme in cognitive science is that language understanding is a perceptual activity with complex interaction with conceptual and experiential knowledge.So does the mode of image-G construal.Translators'embodiment of image-G really does precede their cognition of it.Yet the linguistic representation of image-G in discourse is the ultimate manifestation of translators'cognition of it.Due to the fact that translators'construal of image-G is based on the translator's profound comprehension of image-G in source text,their comprehension is bound to originate from their embodiment and cognition of image-G.Only by analyzing it from this experiential proposition can we make a derived theoretical explanation of translators'construal mode of image-G.

A widely accepted opinion in formal semantics is that the role of language is to describe states of affairs in the world.This view counts on the postulation that language is a reflector of an objective world to full extent(Beaugrande & Dressler,1981).By contrast,cognitive linguists hold that it could be argued that the objectivist approach misses the point that there cannot be the aesthetic representation and semantic meaning that image-G reflects directly,because image-G is not objectively given.Instead,image-G is in large part reconstructed by the nature of translators'unique human embodiment and cognition.Cognitive semantics views semantics of image-G in literary discourse as a manifestation of authors'conceptual structure.To be specific,the nature and organization of mental representation in all its richness and diversity makes it underlying psychological resources to semantics of image-G.An important consequence of construal and cognition of image-G as embodied is that this affects translators'view of what image-G,its aesthetic representation and its semantic meaning is.Translators'construal mode of image-G(embodiment→cognition→linguistic representation)mainly embodies several experiential characteristics as following.

It is desirable first to consider the bodily experientiality to be assigned to the features of image-G construal mode.Human being's thinking,cognition,and understanding are all based on the real world,which forms the basic pattern of human being's conceptualization.Since translators and authors normally live in a same real world,they share generally interlinked experiential cognition pattern.It is the experiential cognition pattern that formulates the cognitive basis for translators'image-G construal between different languages.If translators can achieve the experiential understanding of image-G in literary discourse.Besides,only when they adopt nonobjectivism approach to the comprehension of aesthetic representation and semantics of image-G can authorial intention of image-G be obtained.Thus,image-G construal process can be regarded as an experiential activity and is based on translators'embodied experience of aesthetic representation and semantics of image-G.A significant part of embodiment of image-G subserves experiential processes that operate during translators'construal of image-G.In fact,language understanding within communicative contexts of literary world may be best described as experiential processes rather than the activation of pre-existing,disembodied,symbolic knowledge.(https://www.daowen.com)

The second characteristic is interactivity.Since the construal of image-G is an advanced activity of translators'cognition,it is incontrovertibly being branded as subjective to some extent.Therefore,it is inevitably by nature interactive.Human language and thought emerge from recurring patterns of embodied activity that constrain ongoing intelligent behavior.As Ungerer & Schmid(2011:289)cited,“Cognitive environment is made up of assumptions that are either stored in memory,currently perceived or currently inferred.The stored knowledge acquired by a person is obviously equivalent to the sum of all the cognitive models he or she has internalized”.Translators'aesthetic embodiment of image-G is also the representation of interaction between translators as cognitive body and aesthetic connotation of image-G as cognitive object.Thus,in order to be successful in acquiring aesthetic connotation and semantics of image-G,translators must attain aesthetic proficiency and be familiar with cultures associated with source language in literary translation.The subject matter of aesthetic and semantic analysis of image-G is a translator's conceptualization,and the conceptual structures of concern are those that a translator imposes on his/her mental experience through active cognitive processing of image-G construal.And as a result,the nature of aesthetic and semantic analysis of image-G is cultural reciprocal activity.In addition,translators'subjective experiences of their bodies in the construal process provide part of the fundamental grounding for this cultural reciprocal activity.

The third characteristic is textuality.Text linguistics provides a brand new perspective for image-G construal mode.It regards translators'construal of image-G as a communicative occurrence,and emphasizes on aesthetic equivalence at textual level and communicative level.As a result,it is acceptable to adopt super sentence as the construal unit of image-G construal,namely,at textual level.In other words,the adaptability of discourse as basic level of image-G construal is mainly about its“Gestalt integrity”.In addition,the comprehension and interpretation of image-G in the source discourse can hardly do without the functional analysis and cognitive analysis of the discourse(Dijk,1998).In addition to the communicative function and pragmatic meaning of discourse,more emphasis should be placed on the mapping of various semantics and aesthetic connotation of image-G at textual level.The correct analysis and accurate reproduction of textuality of image-G exerts influence on the realization of semantic continuity and aesthetic coherence in translators'construal of image-G.There appear to be limits,however,on the extent to which translators'embodied experience constrains textual construal of image-G.Some psycholinguistic studies provide additional evidence that translators'construal of image-G is constrained by their recognition of embodied possibilities alluded to by specific literary texts(Givon,1995).As for literary works,translators'identification and comprehension of semantic continuity and aesthetic coherence have a bearing on their textual construal of image-G.Thus,the semantic forms and aesthetic features of image-G in literary texts could be fully construed at the cognitive level.