Look at the translation process from the perspective of the translator's thinking; Look at the 800-word argumentative essay from another angle.

Abstract: In the traditional translation theory, the translation process is generally described as a linear text conversion process. Combining the knowledge of human thinking in psychology with translation studies, the author of this paper analyzes and studies the essence and characteristics of the translation process from a brand-new perspective, and draws the conclusion that translation is a creative thinking activity with the translator as the main body and language as the medium of transformation, thus further putting forward the importance of attaching importance to the translator's subjectivity in translation studies.

Keywords: translator's subjective thinking

I. Introduction

Looking at the history of translation, we can see that most translators and translation theorists define translation from the linguistic level. If we interpret translation from another angle, the translation process can be regarded as a process of transferring information from one language or culture to another at the same time in several aspects of the thinking process, rather than through word-for-word linear changes. Translation is a kind of thinking activity, because it can be said that translation is the process of human brain processing language information. In fact, it is the translator's thinking activity that plays a decisive role from the original text to the translation, so the process of translation is actually a process of thinking activity and logical analysis.

Dong Shiliang (1988) once asserted: "Translation is, after all, the thinking activity of the human brain. Without human thinking, there would be no translation. Therefore, studying translation from the perspective of thinking science should be an extremely important and basic method. " It is possible to study the translation process from the perspective of the translator's thinking, because any psychological activity (including thinking activity) is always caused by this external activity and eventually externalized into some kind of behavior or performance. The language conversion between the source language and the target language is the external manifestation of the translator's thinking process, and translation is the final product of this thinking process.

This paper analyzes the essence and characteristics of the translation process from the perspective of thinking, and proves the important role of the translator's subjectivity in the translation process, thus showing that a comprehensive and in-depth study of the translator is indispensable for the development of translation practice and translation theory.

Second, look at the essence of the translation process from the perspective of the translator's thinking.

"Thinking is an indirect and generalized processing form of the human brain to real things, which is manifested as implicit or explicit actions or speech forms." (Meng:1994,311) Thinking has a very complicated brain mechanism, which is an advanced psychological activity of human beings and a complicated information processing process. Translation is a process of transforming source information into target information, which involves the transformation of words and sentences between two languages, and ultimately is essentially the transformation between two cultural information. This change is not an easy thing. In this process, the translator is faced with many choices, so some people say, "Translation is a process in which the translator makes choices." (Liao: 2000,54) The process of choice is the process of the translator's thinking activity, and the result of choice is the external expression and result of the translator's thinking activity. Therefore, the translation process is a process of the translator's thinking activities and a complicated information processing process.

According to different thinking activities, thinking can be divided into three forms (Meng: 1994, 3 15). In the process of translation, the translator's thinking is mainly about words. Words carry the process of thinking, and they identify and consolidate the * * * same features and essential features of things summarized in thinking. The translator's analysis, comparison, judgment and reasoning in his thinking activities are inseparable from the tool of language. The translation process begins with the understanding of the source language, and then enters the target language expression through transformation. Therefore, the translation process is a bilingual thinking process: understanding is a thinking process in the source language, and expression is basically a thinking process in the target language.

The basic process of thinking includes analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, comparison, systematization and concretization. (Meng:1994,314) Analysis is the process of breaking a whole thing into parts and separating all the parts and attributes contained in the whole. In the understanding stage, the translator mainly decomposes the original text into words, sentences, paragraphs and other parts, and then uses the relevant knowledge stored in his brain to explain each part.

Synthesis is a process of combining all parts and attributes of things in a concept to form a whole. After explaining each part, the translator combines them to form a new whole, which is the translation expressed in the target language.

Analysis is based on the relationship between all parts and attributes of the whole, and synthesis is the combination of all parts and attributes, which is realized through analysis. Analysis and synthesis are two inseparable aspects of thinking activities. (Meng:1994,314) In essence, understanding and expression cannot be completely separated. Sometimes, when the translator is blocked in expression, he will repeatedly read, repeat or develop the thinking activities of the open source language in order to understand accurately and comprehensively. Therefore, the translation process is actually a process of cross-thinking of translators, "a process in which understanding and expression are intertwined, and two languages are in contact and transformed." (Hongyin Wang: 2002, 125) In addition, the creative features of translation activities are also recognized by most translators and translation theorists.

Therefore, from the formal point of view, translation is a process of transforming the source language into the target language, but in essence it is a creative thinking process with the translator as the main body and the text as the object, through analysis and synthesis. In this process, the translator constantly asks himself questions, then solves them and states his own opinions.

Thirdly, look at the characteristics of translation process from the perspective of translator's thinking.

"According to the manifestations of thinking, it can be divided into two forms: communicative thinking and silent thinking." (Meng: 1994, 3 16) The understanding stage is dominated by silent thinking, and the expression stage is dominated by communicative thinking.

Silent thinking is the thinking process of thinking silently with internal language. Implicit speech is fragmented, incoherent and incomplete; The facts used in the process of thinking and their relations are assumed to be "self-evident", "conclusive" and "known"; So as to be less restricted by grammar. Indeed, in silent thinking, the role of language norms is compressed, the role of clear grammar and exact words in determining thinking is not as obvious as in communicative thinking, many steps can be omitted in reasoning, and the requirements for logic are not so strict. (Meng:1994,317)

Generally speaking, at the beginning of the understanding stage, the translator first understands the surface text of the original text, then deeply understands the ideological content of the original text through the surface text, and finally grasps the original author's writing intention.

Understanding the original text refers to mastering a specific meaning of the original text. However, there is usually not a one-to-one correspondence between pronunciation (or word form) and meaning, and the same word has different meanings in different contexts. Besides expressing certain meanings, words often convey certain emotions. Therefore, the understanding of words should also include the understanding of the emotions it conveys. Therefore, the understanding of words is also a complex thinking process. Because of the understanding of a single word, this thinking process can be incoherent. If the understanding of a word is hindered, the integrity of the thinking process will also be destroyed. In the stage of understanding, translators seldom consider grammar. He may just store the meaning of the words he understands in his brain as some scattered and disorderly information, waiting for the arrival of the expression stage. Once thoroughly understood, the translator needs to think about what he understands in the source language and think and understand in the target language, which enters the stage of expression.

The process of expression is also a process of choice, and the choice is how to reproduce the same ideological content expressed in another language in one language. Communicative thinking is a process of thinking and expressing thinking in an external language, that is, by telling or writing. (Meng: 1994, 3 16) In order to make others understand their own ideas and achieve the purpose of communication, translators must transform the compressed and simple ideas in the understanding stage into fully developed forms, which have a standardized grammatical structure and can be understood by others. Therefore, the exact meaning and strict grammatical structure of external language are helpful to spread the thoughts you think and express. Communicative thinking is strictly restricted by linguistic logic. In the expression stage, the structure of language plays a role in controlling, editing and organizing the translator's thinking, while the writing process is a process of refining and modifying thinking.

At the beginning of translation, language symbols cause association and imagination in the translator's mind through the specific objects described, and indirectly affect people's senses. Translators must have corresponding images and artistic conception in their minds in order to carry out conversion translation, accurately express the rich connotation of the works and produce similar effects to the original works for readers.

Association in translation generally begins with words in the original text. Word meaning association in translation is usually carried out between the source language and the target language. Due to the differences in vocabulary systems between English and Chinese, translators usually associate a source word with several possible target language equivalents according to part of speech, collocation, context, context and professional knowledge, and make the best choice among them. Association in translation is not limited to the lexical level, but can be thought of from one sentence to another and from one author to another. Although some associations do not necessarily provide words directly, they can arouse other associations, which indirectly help to understand and express and stimulate imagination and thinking.

Imagination is a process in which the human brain processes and transforms the existing image to form a new image, and it is a special form of thinking activity. Imagination in the process of translation is mainly to visualize the things represented by language symbols in the mind, which is a random imagination consciously carried out according to a certain purpose. Imagination and thinking can promote each other, and they are often based on association. Imagination in translation is the process of reproducing the original image in the translator's mind according to the linguistic symbols of the original text. "According to the degree of innovation and the formation process of random imagination, it can be divided into recreating imagination and creating imagination." (Meng: 1994325)

"Rebuilding imagination is the process of forming a new image in the mind according to the description of words or the schematic diagram of graphics." (Meng:1994,325) In the process of translation, the translator uses his imagination to form a new image in his mind according to the descriptions and symbols in the original text. Therefore, in the process of translation, the translator's imagination is a part of recreating imagination. But after all, the translator is transplanting one cultural information into another language, and the image in the original text needs to be expressed in the target language. The language is * * *, so translation is possible. However, different languages have their own characteristics, and the conversion between the two languages cannot be completely equivalent. When the conversion encounters obstacles, the translator needs to open his own creative imagination. "Creating imagination is a process of creating new images independently without relying on ready-made descriptions. Therefore, it is characterized by originality and novelty. " (Meng: 1994325) The process of creating imagination is the interaction between literal thinking and image thinking, and it is the process of image thinking under the guidance of literal thinking.

When people need to use their imagination to do creative work in the face of real tasks, their thinking enters a state of active preparation and activity. All thinking forms, such as analysis, comparison, abstraction, memory search and extraction, activation of image components and abstract components, can enter the processing system at any time under the supervision and guidance of consciousness as needed. (Meng: 1994326)

Inspiration sublimation is an epiphany of creative imagination activities approaching the breakthrough stage. Inspiration is the creator's long-term efforts, great ideological labor, and sometimes accompanied by hard practice, repeated brewing and conception. Inspiration is the result of all people's spiritual strength and high enthusiasm concentration, which appears when people's attention and interest are absorbed, thinking activities eliminate all interference, and emotional state provides the best background for thinking. (Meng: 1994327)

Inspiration is manifested in the sudden opening of semantics in the process of understanding or the sudden appearance of a word in the process of expression. Inspiration must be based on the translator's rich knowledge and active pursuit, and often appears in a sober and positive mental state. Therefore, translators should be good at adapting to the rhythm of personal thinking activities and grasp the clues provided by inspiration in time.

Four. conclusion

The whole translation process can be described from two levels: language and thinking. On the linguistic level, translation is to transform the source language into the target language through the translator's internal speech process; On the level of thinking, translation is a process from source language thinking to target language thinking, which includes complex bilingual cross-thinking. In essence, the translation process at the language level is only the external expression of the translation process at the thinking level. Without the translator's thinking, the translation process does not exist. Translation is a creative thinking activity with the translator as the main body and language as the medium of transformation. From this perspective, the translator's subjective initiative is an aspect that cannot be ignored in translation studies. Strengthening the study of translators' subjective initiative will help to promote the development of translation studies in China, thus further broadening the field of translation studies and advocating diversified and tolerant translation criticism.

References:

[1] Dong Shiliang. Thinking in translation [J]. Chinese translation, 1988, (3).

[2] Liao. Exploration of contemporary western translation theory [M]. Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2000.

[3] Meng. General psychology [M]. Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 1994.

[4] Hongyin Wang. A comprehensive course of English-Chinese translation [M]. Dalian: Liaoning Normal University Press, 2002.