This article contrastively explores the encodings of topological relations in English and Chinese narratives, and their cognitive motivations. With the collected data, we have sorted out three types of topological relation - proximity, contact, and inclusion - and carried out a detailed data analysis. It is found that there are similarities and differences in English and Chinese topological descriptions. The similarities appear in two aspects. Above all, in both Chinese and English, closed-class adpositions are used to express the topological relations and localize the Figure, and then, both sets of data contain “Figure preceding Ground” and “Ground preceding Figure” constructions. As argued, such similarities are generally extracted on an abstract level, and can be attributed to universal human cognition in space. The differences and their motivators emerge in three aspects. First, English prepositions are used, but Chinese postpositions are required, to localize the Figure. This is largely because English prepositions per se can signal locative meaning but the Chinese preposition “zai (在)” cannot, such that the postpositions are required to couch locative meaning. Second, on the sentence level, the Figure mostly precedes the Ground in English, whereas in Chinese the Ground nearly always precedes the Figure. This difference results from their respective speakers’ different doing reference-point analysis for profiling the entities. Third, on phrase level, the Figure always precedes the Ground in English, but the Ground always precedes the Figure in Chinese. It is shown that such a contrast is due to their speakers’ differently doing reference point analysis at the phrasal level.

Working memory is an important factor in second language acquisition. Based on statistical analysis of the published papers in 13 core journals in the foreign language field in recent twenty years from 1996 to 2015 in China, the present paper reviews the studies of the relationship between working memory and second language acquisition. In terms of research methodology, these studies can be divided into two periods. From 1996 to 2007, researchers in the foreign language field in China mainly introduced the Western theories related to working memory and second language acquisition into China or published papers of relevant literature reviews; and from 2008 to 2015, quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to investigate the relationship between working memory and language acquisition by combining the Western theories with the actual situation of Chinese EFL learners. In terms of research topics, seven topics such as the relationship between working memory and lexical acquisition, between working memory and grammatical or syntactic acquisition, between working memory and reading comprehension, and between working memory and listening comprehension, etc. are investigated from perspectives of second language comprehension, second language production and the combination of both modes. Based on the previous studies, several shortcomings in the present status are discussed, and the research trends are also provided to shed light on future studies in the field.

The rapid development of China's tourism industry has led to the focus on standardization of signs in scenic spots, and the level of service and humanistic care in scenic spots are closely related to the rationality of the spot signs designing in scenic spots. As to the caution signs designing, there exist problems of irrational image-text relation, stiff wording and so on. This paper makes a comparative analysis on the four categories of caution signs in scenic spots primarily based on the meta-functions of language and visual grammar of image. The results show that communicative nature of signs in scenic spots is basically the interpersonal communication between sign designers and tourists, which needs to follow the principle of politeness and persuasion. The first category of scenic spots can reflect the meta-functions of language more exactly and follow the visual grammar of image. On the basis of the theory of cognitive psychology, the paper, from two perspectives of the realization of discourse’s communicative intention and the psychological cognitive mechanism of multimodal discourse, makes a further analysis on coordination and related mechanism between the models in the first category of Caution Signs. And it is certified that the first category of multi-modality discourse construction conforms to the psychological cognitive mechanism, and can better realize the communicative intention. Based on the contrastive analysis of four categories and the psychological cognitive analysis of the first sign, the study also proposes strategies for caution signs construction in scenic spots.

Taking two groups of non-English major freshmen as the subjects, and over (and its derivatives -- compounds and phrases) as the target words, the quantitative and qualitative empirical study investigates the effectiveness of CL-inspired instructional methods which exploit the notion of semantic motivation and the possibility of translating the insights and principles of CL pedagogy into a strategy for autonomous learning and independently inferring the meanings of novel polysemous words. The findings demonstrate that the CL-inspired pedagogical approach significantly improves the in-depth understanding and meaning retention of the target polysemous words and help the experimented subjects acquire the cognitive strategies which can be transferred to figure out the semantic motivation of polysemous words much better than the controlled group which receives the translation-based instruction. Meanwhile, drawing on such CL theories as construal, image-schema and its transformation, conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending, the CL pedagogy strongly advocates the feasibility of both meaning acquisition and by-product strategies, and the significance of first of all pinning down the core sense of the polysemous words which serves as the starting point to reproduce the other meaning items as the learners’ mental representation of the newly-acquired meaning items is implicitly followed by the core sense representation which aids in appreciation and identification of semantic motivation and application of strategy transfer.

As a typical epic from Chinese minority traditions, King Gesar is a lengthy heroic epic which demonstrates a process of multi-channel folk creation encompassing text transcription and oral transmission, as well as that of multicultural co-molding at large. Alai, a famous Tibetan writer in Chinese, reshaped King Gesar into a novel in Chinese according to the project of Remodeling Myth launched a couple of years ago in China and across the world. Alai’s King Gesar (in Chinese) was later translated into English by Howard Goldblatt, a famous American translator of contemporary Chinese literature. Taking the double writing of the Tibetan epic as a case study, which is the rewriting from native-Tibetan into non-native Chinese by Alai and then translation into English by Howard Goldblatt, a process full of recreations and retranslations, the present article explores the multiple text interpretations and cultural transmissions of the original Tibetan epic in the course of double writing and retranslation from the perspectives of translation studies, as well as the great potentials for the interpretations and transmissions of ethnic epics against the background of discourses on Remodeling Myth and state Going Global strategy for Chinese Literature. Thereupon the theoretical value and practical significance of such strategies as double writing and creative translation will be highlighted as well, especially with relevance to Going Global strategy for Chinese literature.

The Old Man and the Sea, a perfect work by Earnest Hemingway in his old age, has gained a new life and everlasting charm through retranslations ever since it was first translated and introduced into China in the 1950s. Regarding translation as a social act constrained by norms, the present paper studies the translation of The Old Man and the Sea against its social, political and historical settings, and describes the translation and introduction process of more than six decades through an in-depth probe into various extra-textual motivating factors. The scope of the research is narrowed from the total 302 Chinese versions of The Old Man and the Sea down to 178 complete translations. And the major findings of the research are as follows. From the perspective of the form of translation and introduction, it can be said that The Old Man and the Sea has been read in China both as a classic and a piece of children’s literature, with the latter being more prominent. From the perspective of the period of translation and introduction, it is found that the process from the initial slow development in translation and introduction to two climaxes of retranslation reveals the rivalry between ideology and literary consciousness, while the journey from a “silent period” to a “summit” in the retranslation of The Old Man and the Sea unveils the competition between literary consciousness and economic motivation. In a word, the retranslation of The Old Man and the Sea has always been manipulated in the multi-causality system consisting of ideology, literary consciousness and economic motivation of both the patron and the translator.

With an interdisciplinary approach both in translation studies and psychology, the relationship between individual personality and translation competence has attracted increasing attention in light of its theoretical and pedagogical significance. This paper attempts to make a correlative analysis between English majors’ personality traits and their achievements in C-E translation. It is principally based on the Five Factor Model (FFM) proposed by Paul T. Costa, Jr. and Robert R. McCrae, and a related scale called Big Five Inventory (BFI). Taking 30 senior English majors from East China University of Science and Technology as a random sample, this paper analyzes their scores for FFM in five dimensions, C-E Translation course, College Chinese course and TEM-4 with the STATA statistical software. According to the results, it is concluded that: (1) the categories of Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness have a positive correlation with students’ achievements in C-E Translation; (2) the category of Extraversion tends to demonstrate a negative correlation with translation achievements; (3) the correlation between students’ achievements in C-E translation and the category of Neuroticism or Agreeableness is weak or even indistinct. Furthermore, the impacts of several factors such as time and language competence are examined so as to enhance the reliability and validity of the study. According to the examination, the correlation between students’ performance in C-E translation and their language competence of Chinese or English is proven positive. Therefore, based on those findings above, this paper puts forward suggestions, discusses the limitations and provides reference for further pedagogical studies.

At present, the interpretation of Flaubert’s Parrot is, on many occasions, conducted from the perspective of postmodern theories, and rarely involves other literary critical methods, which falls short of capturing the genuine theme of the novel. Thus, in the present paper, the theories of modernist literature and those of Nietzsche’s are cited to bridge the gap between Flaubert’s Parrot and the modernist novels. After close scrutiny, we can find that it is far from thorough to classify Flaubert’s Parrot into the postmodern literature. In fact, the postmodern narrative strategies are employed to indicate one of the major themes in modernist novels, namely the weakening of the relationship between action and motivation, which can be traced in the double narrative structure of the novel, that is to say, the surface narrative structure and the deep narrative structure. On the formal level, the weakening endows the novel with the genre of both fiction and non-fiction and such a genre is one of the core concepts in Virginia Woolf’s literary notions. At the same time, the emotional status of the hero is flung into something like limbo. The weakening is not unexpected when we take into account the mixed memories that tangle up in a quite complex semiotic system. To be more specific, neither in the surface narrative structure nor in the deep narrative structure can the narrator distinguish such complex and bewildering memories and thus adopt the reasonable action based on corresponding motivation. In summary, Flaubert’s Parrot exposes the intrusion of memory into the relationship between action and motivation. The intrusion randomizes the development of action, and action is occasionally (and also more often than not) inconsistent with motivation. It may not be a risk to conclude that Flaubert’s Parrot belongs to the modernist works, with the disguise of postmodernism. In this way, the present paper reveals that the tradition of modernist literature is inherited in Flaubert’s Parrot under the postmodern circumstances.

The concept of place or regional domain in Seamus Heaney’s poetry implies more than geographical locations that merely arouse people’s sentimentality.It serves as a vital stimulant for the poet’s novel imagination and philosophical emigration to the realm of the mind concerning the issues of Irish cultural inheritance,through which Heaney is able to understand the then political and social reality. As a poet, Heaney has strengthened the expressiveness by supplying diverse tangible places at which he uncovers traces of the Irish heritage and origin to his poetry creation, satisfying the need to reconsider the artist’s identity within his familiar territory. Heaney supplies different actual territorial places or regions to his poetry in order to unravel Irishness and arouse people’s memory of Irish nationality, meanwhile, he is capable of reconsidering the relationship between poetry and territorial places of the homeland country, the place of poetry, the place of the poet and even the artist in society. Based on a close textual analysis, this paper mainly deals with the examination of Heaney’s sense of place from his three main poems, namely, “Digging”, “The Tollund Man”and “Station Island XII”, with an aim to reinforce the notion that the poet should keep a neutral attitude and take a middle stance when social obligations and artistic pursuit are in conflict, and bear the poetic responsibility of devoting to the maintenance of introspective traits of literary conscience in a much broader sense.

The renowned French philosopher Jacque Derrida has remained in the spotlight of academic discussions for dozens of years even after his death. In fact, his death had initiated lengthy debates over his philosophy and what Derrida had left for the West and the entire human race became a question deserving scrutiny. Jacque Derrida’s deconstructionism endeavors to explore the soil upon which logos grow so as to break the ground of Western thinking. An interesting tale drawn from the classic ancient mythology, the story of Echo and Narcissus in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphosis breaks the binary relationship of asking-answering, pointing to endless possibilities instead of terminating at one destination, which greatly resonates with Derrida’s theory. The two conversing parties are like blind people who speak but have no idea to whom they are speaking. Thus the meaning of discourses is much more flexible and open-ended. The haunting remains of Echo resonate with the Derrida’s attitude towards death and specters as well, which highlights uncertainty. As a philosopher who is fond of mystery, Derrida hates to be buried and forgotten, and above all, identified. Despite all the discussions and disputes upon his funeral, he is not to be talked about and easily understood. He prefers haunting and hopes that his philosophical remains will stay, like a powerful specter, for a haunting history will make futile all the ontological efforts since nothing can be pinned down and tagged. Therefore, the binary systems that Derrida tries so hard in his life to break will finally collapse.

The College English reform in China has been carried out for almosta decade. In recent years, many Chinese universities have begun to conduct the English teaching reform for non-English-major postgraduates; however, most universities have not yet found an effective teaching model or curriculum design to elevate their postgraduate English teaching. This paper describes the ongoing reform undertaken at one of these universities in China since 2012. At the outset, our research team conducted a survey among approximately 1,260 postgraduate students from three universities in order to analyze the status of the current English curriculum design for non-English-major postgraduates and to identify the underlying factors that result in the incoherent curriculum. The survey has revealed that the current curriculum does not effectively address employment and academic requirements, students’ individual needs, their diverse backgrounds, and various social responsibilities. With this baseline, we have sought to develop a coherent curriculum, including redefining teaching objectives, reconstructing teaching modules and adjusting the assessment system. The reconstruction, which is ongoing, has experienced a variety of challenges. The most significant challenge has been to ensure that the coherent curriculum is executed in a dynamic fashion in order to satisfy more postgraduate students in the long run. In the past three years, our research team has used practical feedback received from many university English teachers and students to create a systematic and dynamic English curriculum for non-English-major postgraduates. In this coherent curriculum, the teaching objectives have been organized into three levels, teaching modules have been categorized and graded into a range of courses and the assessment system has been modified to “multiple tracks” to benefit the larger number of postgraduate students in China. This paper then presents the result of this three-year curriculum reform.