The 29thForum for PhD Students was held in A421 of Building 6 on 18th,March. The Forum consists of three stages. In the beginning, the speakerpresents the rationale for the present research and defines the position forsuch a topic in translation studies. Followed by the significance of laterWittgenstein’s thoughts, the presentation moves towards the insights gained interms of ontology, epistemology and methodology. In the second stage, studentsand visiting scholars present communicated their ideas with the speaker. Andfinally come Professor Zeng Lisa’s comments and summary on the topic.
The speaker firstasserted the significance of translation studies from a philosophicalperspective by means of relevant literature review and positions the currentresearch via the relationship between translation studies and philosophy, i.e.,to gain insights on translation from reading and interpreting a certainphilosopher’s thoughts. Abundant evidence has been offered to illustrate theimportance of choosing later Wittgenstein as the philosophical perspective. Andthe main content involved would be the influence of such thoughts on theontology, epistemology and methodology of translation studies. The conclusionmight be open in the sense that interpretations vary with the development ofpeople’s perception and understanding. However, such thoughts help translatorsand researches be aware of philosophical assumptions of translation studies andthe expanding scope of translation. Also such thoughts can get translators andresearchers out of the trap of dualism prevailing in translation studies. Inthe discussion part, everyone present actively participated in either by posingquestions or by giving their own interpretations on the topic.
In the final stage,Professor Zeng expounded his own ideas with cases to the point. In particular,he reminded students that although meaning is fluid and not fixed, how toconstruct meaning is more important in the process of translating. And he gavea glance over his own research relevant to the topic such as the nature oftemporarily construction of meaning and the experiencing translation teaching method.His comments and summary greatly benefited all the students and scholars.
