A Cognitive-Semiotic Approach to the Translations of Tao Te Ching

Abstract

This article pursues a cognitive-semiotic approach to Arthur Waley's English translation and Richard Wilhelm's German translation of the Tao Te Ching. Semiotics of translation is on the way to becoming an independent discipline (Torop, 2008). The semiotic shift in translation studies provides us with a dynamic and holistic view beyond mere lexical and syntactic interests. Based on Peirce's semiotic triangle, a translation model of Chinese classics is proposed, which features the growth and interaction of signs. Two rounds of semiosis between the semiotic system of source language, the pre-semiotic schema of translator and the semiotic system of target language are examined sequentially. In the first semiosis, Waley and Wilhelm adopted different ways of decoding both in the semantic and philosophical dimensions; in the second semiosis, their different ways of recoding give rise to different styles of renditions. Moreover, it is important for translators to bear both the verbal and nonverbal signs in mind, in that translation is an endless semiosis of multimodal communication.