方位词“前”“后”的英汉对比研究——以《红楼梦》为例
A Contrastive Study of Location Words “Qian/Hou” in English and Chinese—A Case Study of A Dream of Red Mansions

关于方位词的研究一直是语言学研究的热点问题。人类在方位上的客观体验是一致的，但语言在方位表达形式和内涵的差异能体现不同民族空间概念的认知差异。本研究以“前/后”为关键词，对《红楼梦》英汉平行语料库进行检索，例句总数为2319条，空间义总数为842条，隐喻义为1477条。通过数据提取和英汉对比分析我们发现了汉英在方位表达上的异同和特点，即汉英方位表达是一对多的关系，汉语方位词更具有概括性，隐喻义更加丰富，英语方位词数量更多，分类更为细致。本文旨在从方位词的视角出发，进一步探索和分析《红楼梦》中“前/后”的方位义及隐喻义，及其中方位词文化意蕴的隐现及英译策略，有利于推动跨文化交流、翻译的研究以及中华文化的传播。
The study of location words has always been a hot topic in linguistic research. Human beings have the same objective experience in orientation, but the differences in expression forms and connotations of orientation reflect the cognitive differences of different national spatial concepts. A search of the English-Chinese parallel corpus of “A Dream of Red Mansions” with the keyword “Qian/Hou” shows that the total number of example sentences is 2319, the total number of spatial meanings is 842, and the total number of metaphorical meanings is 1477, which can reflect the differences and characteristics of the two languages in terms of orientation expression. Through semantic description and comparative analysis of English and Chinese, we find that the Chinese-English orientation expression is one-to-many relationship, Chinese location words are more general, more rich metaphorical meaning, English location words are more numerous, more detailed classification. From the perspective of location words, this paper aims to further explore and analyze the orientation and metaphorical meaning of “Qian/Hou” in A Dream of Red Mansions, as well as the emerging cultural implication of the Chinese location words and the English translation strategy, which is conducive to promoting cross-cultural communication, translation research and the spread of Chinese culture.