Abstracts of Papers in This Issue

Thecorefeaturesofsubjectivemeaningandthesystemofsemanticsubjectivity(p. 1)

LUJunyu&WANGGuoping(School of International Studies, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, China)

The core features of subjective meaning are one of major issues awaiting solutions in the scope of linguistic subjectivity. Relying on the semantic analysis of deontic modality and epistemic modality, we elaborate on the core features of subjective meaning and the system of semantic subjectivity. The subjective meaning is fundamentally scalar and based on the speaker’s commitment to the scale, and the system of semantic subjectivity is structured with three essential subjective categories, namely, inferential evidentiality, epistemic modality, and deontic modality, which are based on the observations that the three sematic categories are revolved on existence, the basic angle of conceptualizer’s cognitive commitment to the state of affair and that the three essential subjective categories are regularly represented by many semantic paradigms. Deontic modality, epistemic modality, and inferential evidentiality are graded in terms of subjectivity as they represent an increasingly broad perspective towards the state of affairs. Other subjective categories, say, counter-expectation, may be realized via pragmatic inference of the three essential subjective categories.

ASEMstudyforthecognitivefactorsofChineseirony(p. 9)

LIRan(College of Basic Science, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China)

The method of structural equation modeling investigates how the four cognitive factors, namely need for cognition (NFC), empathy ability (EA), sarcasm preference (SSS) and working memory capacity (WMC), influence the cognitive mechanism of irony processing (IR) through three offline questionnaires (NFC scale, EA scale and SSS scale) and two online tests (WMC test and IR test) by 400 respondents. The results of multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling show that the four cognitive factors exert positive effects on irony processing, and the need for cognition has an indirect effect on irony processing through the mediation of working memory capacity and empathy ability.

Spatialaspect:AnexplanationforthemirativeuseofleinMandarinChinese(p. 17)

GUYiming(College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)

The paper studies the mirative use oflein Mandarin Chinese. After comparing its perfect or perfective usage with the mirative use, basing on the concept of “localism”, the author proposes the notion of “spatial aspect”, which is parallel to temporal aspect and can effectively explain mirativity in general. This paper points out thatle’s interjective usage, like its temporal and mirative usage, can be explained with the help of spatial aspect as well.

Astudyoftheconstructionofinteractivemeaninginmultimodaldiscourses:AcasestudyofLiZiqi’svideos(p. 26)

SANGXiuyue(Business School, Xi’an International Studies University， Xi’an 710128, China)

With the development of modern science and technology, people’s communication mode has changed from a single language mode to a combination of music, picture, action, sound, color and other symbolic modes. Images are gradually replacing language to construct meaning, and human beings are using various modal resources to complete meaning representation and achieve communicative purposes. Based on the theory of visual grammar, this paper aims to explore the construction of the interactive meaning of multiple symbolic modes in Li Ziqi’s videos from four dimensions of contact, social distance, attitude and modality. Through the interpretation of the interactive meaning construction of Li Ziqi’s series of multimodal videos, this paper hopes to provide new enlightenment for traditional discourse teaching.

Dynamicanalysisofvisualrhetoricstudiesabroad:AvisualizedanalysisbasedonCiteSpace(p. 33)

ZHUXinlin(School of Translation Studies, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

“Visual rhetoric” study is a newly developed subject in recent years, and gradually falls into researcher’s scope. However, few works focus on its bibliometric analysis. This paper makes a visualized analysis of the data of “visual rhetoric” studies by CiteSpace, including yearly published data, co-occurrence of keywords, authors and institutions, and strategic coordinates. The findings show that the development process and embryonic stage of visual rhetoric are short, but they maintain good momentum. Besides, this field is still not paid sufficient attention to by scholars, but the contents of this concept are updated fast. In addition, the number of core production is low, which indicates the study is discontinuous, and a stable cooperation is still not set up. Moreover, the identification of marginal group and the conversation on public events will fall into the scope of “visual rhetoric”, and relative theories will be improved and applied to the fields of education, technology and etc. Lastly, “visual rhetoric” study tends to be researched from a cross-disciplinary perspective, and its practical value has become more prominent．

EthicalparadoxofmemoryethicsinTheManwithoutaShadow(p. 41)

LIUXiaoyan(School of Foreign Languages, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China)

Joyce Carol Oates, in her novelTheManwithoutaShadowpublished in 2016, presents the unexplained essence of the memory, the inefficiency of the productivity of memory interpretation and the absurdity of the ethical position of memory interpretation in the progressive meta-cognitive writing by the three intentional level of memory interpretation: the dilemma of memory ethics of patient suffering from amnesia, the interpretation of memory by cognitive psychologists, and the ethical thinking of memory interpreting itself by cognitive psychologists. The intricate crossovers among these intentional levels disintegrate the productivity of the reader’s memory interpretation, and finally form four intentional levels. Therefore, Oates demonstrates the mystery of memory itself, the subjective assumptions of memory interpretation, and the disintegration of memory interpretation by the interpreter’s ethical paradox through the meta-cognitive writing of the four intentional levels, thus pushing the thinking of memory interpretation to the ethical thinking about memory itself: the characteristics of the construction, flow and generation of memory are just the reflections of the nature of the world today.

SpatialtransformationandanimalethicsinTheFriend(p. 47)

ZHANGShanming(Center for English Studies， Zhengzhou University， Zhengzhou 450001， China)

In her new workTheFriend, the American writer Sigrid Nunez tells a moving story about a Great Dane named Apollo. The transformation of the spaces where the Great Dane lived reflects different animal ethics. In the park and the male professor’s mansion, Apollo was materialized by human beings. He was regarded as man’s private property; in the female writer’s apartment, the Great Dane and the female writer became “companion species”, formed an animal-woman community, and regained its subjectivity. By the sea, the Great Dane Apollo not only reached a state of harmony and unity with people, but also formed a biological community with all life in nature. The transformation not only reflects the process where the animal cast off its identity as “the other” and regained its subjectivity, but conveys the writer’s opposition to the anthropocentrism and her call for postmodern animal ethics, bringing profound vigilance and reflection to modern society.

DramaticnarrativeandethicalperspectivenessinOeKenzaburo’sDeathbyWater(p. 54)

LANLiliang(College of Foreign Languages, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China)

Oe Kenzaburo’sDeathbyWatertells a story of the modern individuals reflecting on the spirit of the pre-war era and fighting against national violence by Nagae Kogito, a writer who is trapped in the bottleneck of creation in his late work. This fiction breaks the narrative boundary between the novel and the drama. It depicts the characters of the novel by the similarity between actors’ roles and psychic agents’ voices, and promotes the development of the novel’s plot by dramatic techniques such as suspense, conflict and abrupt turn. It presents a unique performative of dramatic narration and exposes the alienation and damage of nationalism to the spirit of modern individuals. In this sense, the narrative ofDeathbyWaterwell reflects Oe’s unremitting pursuit of the late style and his persistent adherence to the democratic thought.

Astudyonthedevelopmentrouteofstudentinterpreters’aptitudeforinterpreting(p. 62)

LIUJianzhu(School of Foreign Languages and Business, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen 518055, China)

WANWenjuan(College of Applied Science, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China)

The aptitude for interpreting refers to the competence qualities that student interpreters have before taking a certain interpreting training program. According to the stages of potential development and translation education, the study sketches the development route of student interpreters’ aptitude for interpreting. With the upgrading of professional interpreting training, student interpreters’ aptitude for interpreting experiences a capacity-propensity-capability development process before and after the students take translation education.

Rethinkingtranslationandinterpretingfromtheperspectiveofcross-borderintegration(p. 68)

ZOUDeyan&LIUZhicen(School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian 116044, China)

The development of translation technology has had a profound impact on translation practice. Cross-media, multi-modality, and multi-semiotic translation formats have emerged and are showing increasing trends. Interface and cross-border analysis of cognitive activities such as translation, sight translation, simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, shadowing, and audiovisual translation is conducive to summarizing the enlightenment brought by trans-boundary integration in translation practice to translation teaching and translation studies, which helps to promote positive interaction and development of the discipline of translation in industry, teaching and research.

AreviewoftheresearchesonthetranslationofChinesepoliticaldocumentsintoforeignlanguages:Problemsandfuturedevelopment(p. 75)

CHENShuangshuang(College of Foreign Languages, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China)

The CiteSpace scientific measurement method is employed to analyze the literature on the study of the translation of Chinese political documents collected from CNKI, spanning from 2000 to 2019. Influential authors and research institutions as well as keyword co-occurrence analysis are presented. Research objects, contents, perspectives and research methods are also examined in this paper. The findings are as follows: political documents issued by different levels of the government need to be studied by scholars and various factors related to the translation process of Chinese political documents shall be taken into consideration, including the translators, translation purposes, target readers and translation effects. The research perspectives and methods need to be diversified. This paper argues that constructing a research system for the translation of Chinese political documents is vital to the future development of this field.

StephenOwen’stranslationof“wenti”inWenxinDiaolong(p. 84)

YANGLiu(Faculty of Arts, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China)

“Wen ti” is an important term that runs through the whole book ofWenxinDiaolong. There are different interpretations of “Wen ti” in the academic circle. Based on Stephen Owen’s translation and exposition of “Wen ti” inReadingsinChineseLiteraryThought, this paper explores the connotation of “Wen ti” by the mutual reflection and explanation of Chinese and western literary theory, concluding that “wen ti” is a collective concept consisting of different normative forms. “Wen ti” is characterized by the unity of normalization, typology and particularity.

AreviewofPhilosophyofLanguage,ChineseLanguage,ChinesePhilosophy:ConstructiveEngagement(p. 90)

WANGXiaowei(Miami College, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China)

The philosophy of language is always the base of language research, bringing about the differences in the theories and methodologies between Chinese and western linguistics.PhilosophyofLanguage,ChineseLanguage,ChinesePhilosophyConstructiveEngagementcollects 14 essays covering the evolution process of Chinese and the arguments of Chinese philosophy. Focusing on the features of Chinese, it explains key concepts in the philosophy of language and the significance for Chinese research. Through the multi-angle observation and multi-layer analysis, it makes the constructive engagement between studies of Chinese and Sino-West philosophy come true.

Aninnovativeintegrationoftheoreticallinguisticsandneurolinguistics:AreviewofCognitiveNeuralMechanismofSemanticRhetoric(p. 95)

QIUJin(School of Foreign Languages, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China)

Taking philosophy of mind and generative holism as the theoretical guideline,CognitiveNeuralMechanismofSemanticRhetoricconstructs a theoretical framework—ADRIM for the construal of semantic rhetoric in the background of the postmodernism philosophy and testifies the reasonability and feasibility of ADRIM through qualitative analyses of rhetorical examples and empirical studies of ERPs techniques. Integrating linguistic theory and neurolinguistic experiment, the book reflects the new tendency of multidisciplinary integration, implements the scientific method of combining theory with practice, and fulfills the new demands for linguistic research, which is of great reference value to subsequent studies.

AReviewofTowardsaBetterUnderstandingofMetonymy(p. 99)

TIANYuhan(School of Translation Studies, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

This paper reviews the bookTowardsaBetterUnderstandingofMetonymy. The author Wojciech Wachowski tries to explore the nature, scope, and function of metonymy under the framework of cognitive linguistics. Although a lot of researches have been carried out on this respect by far, some issues are still controversial. Thus, the author critically analyzes the past studies and focuses on these problematic issues, leading to a better understanding of metonymy.